MELBOURNE: England beat Australia by four wickets in Melbourne on Saturday as the Boxing Day Test, which finished in two days, ended the visitor’s 15-year wait for a win on Australian soil.
Ben Stokes-led team successfully chased the target of 175, also bringing to a close an England’s 18-match winless streak Down Under which began in December 2013. England’s last win on Australian soil had come in Sydney in January 2011, when Andrew Strauss’ team triumphed by an innings and 83 runs. Since then, the visitor has lost 16 Tests and drawn two in Australia.
Australia led by 46 runs after 20 wickets fell on a carnage-filled opening day. England could only manage 110 in response to Australia’s first-innings total of 152.
Scott Boland, the nightwatchman who came to open the innings with Travis Head and face one over at the end of day one, survived five more overs on day two before Gus Atkinson had him caught-behind. While Atkinson did not bowl after his first spell of five overs due to an issue with his left hamstring, England’s pace attack had enough in it to dismiss Australia cheaply again.
Only Head (46), captain Steve Smith (24 not out) and Cameron Green (19) could post double-digit scores with Australia folding for just 132. Brydon Carse did the most damage with four wickets while Josh Tongue, who took a five-for in the first innings, and Stokes contributing with two and three wickets, respectively.
Carse captured the key wicket of Head, bowling the opener for 46, before having wicketkeeper Alex Carey caught in the slips for four. Tongue had number three Marnus Labuschagne caught in the slips for eight and number five Usman Khawaja caught for a duck with a miscued pull-shot to fine leg.
Australia lost its last four wickets for 34 runs after resuming on 98 for six after lunch, setting England a target of 175.
Openers Zak Crawley (37) and Ben Duckett (34) gave England the ideal start with a 51-run stand before Mitchell Starc dismissed the latter with a searing yorker. The visitor then sent Carse (six) as a pinch-hitter but the experiment didn’t last long as he departed after being caught at deep third by Green to give Jhye Richardson his first wicket on his return to Test cricket after four years.
Young left-handed batter Jacob Bethell (40), playing only his fifth Test, joined Crawley in the middle and took England to 77 for 2 at Tea.
Boland ended the 47-run fourth-wicket stand as he struck Crawley on the pads and got the LBW decision in his favour with England still 63 runs away from victory.
Joe Root (15) and Bethell brought it down to 38 runs before the latter hit a Boland delivery straight into Usman Khawaja’s hands at covers.
When Richardson removed Root with England at 158 and Starc had Stokes caught-behind seven runs later for his 26th wicket of the series, the 92,045 crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground still had hopes of a miraculous Australian comeback.
However, Harry Brook (18 not out) and Jamie Smith (three not out) took England over the line.
Australia has already retained the urn. It won the first Test in Perth by eight wickets and second Test in Brisbane by the same margin before defeating England by 82 runs on the last day in Adelaide in a total of 11 days.
The fifth and final Test in Sydney will begin from January 4.
With inputs from Reuters