16th January 2022 – The final delivery of the Ashes series, fittingly was bowled by the Australian captain Pat Cummins.
Cummins collected his third wicket of the innings and the seventh of the match as Australia went on to crush England by a margin of 146 runs to win the 5th and final test match of cricket’s own El clasico- The Ashes.
Given a target of 271 to chase in the final innings, the England openers stood up to the task, with a solid opening stand of 68 runs reaching there in 16 overs.
Cameron Green bowling only his second over of the day, broke Rory Burns’ heart as the ball hit his bat as he was trying to leave it and inside edged it onto the stumps. This was the break that the Aussie bowlers needed to get back into the game.
Green continued his green arm, with the wickets of Malan and Crawley in his first spell.
The rest of the England batters fell like nine pins, losing their last seven wickets for just 41 runs. The Aussie bowlers Cummins, Boland and Green shared three wickets a piece, and Starc claiming the remaining one wicket.
Only five English batters managed a double digit score, with opener Crawley being the highest run getter with 36 runs, followed by fellow opener Burns with 26 runs. Root managed just 11 runs in his stay, while Malan and Wood got to just 10 runs.
Earlier in the day, Mark Wood produced an inspired bowling spell, as he fished out 6 Aussie wickets giving away just 37 runs in 16.3 overs.
Travis Head, the centurion of the first innings who batted with a strike rate of 89.38 getting 101 runs of just 113 balls was awarded the Player of the Match. He was also adjudged the Player of the Series for getting a hundred and fifty in the first game and a fifty in the third game apart from the century in this game.
The Aussies would have won the series five nil, had it not been the 12 ball partnership of Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad, which helped them draw the 4th test while nine down.
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