The Ashes 2021-22: Australia retained The Ashes 2021-22, crushing England by 3-0

The Ashes 2021-22: The hosts, Australia have retained the famous Ashes 2021-22 series on their home soil following England’s defeat in the third match itself in Melbourne Cricket Ground. The visitors succumbed to their poor gameplay against the mighty Aussies as Australia brutally harassed England by an innings and 14 runs in the third test match to retain the iconic rivalry.

England resumed their second innings in Melbourne on 31 runs in the loss of four wickets on day three after a disastrous final hour on day two. Joe Root and Ben Stokes, the two pillars for England, were at the centre, but both couldn’t provide resistance to the outstanding bowling by the home team.

Skipper Joe Root, who ran the team almost as the one-man side, fell for 28 on day three which tattered the English hopes of a fightback. Root was dismissed for 28 runs and other of his teammates followed him back to the pavilion in a rush.

Australian debutant pacer, Scott Boland, picked up his maiden fifer in front of his home crowd. In fact, the pacer picked six in the second innings while one in the first innings. He was adjudged as the Player of the Match (Mullagh medal).

The crisis of English batting has come to the fore as none of them could score more than 15 runs except Joe Root who is trying his best to amass all the healthy runs on behalf of his teammates. 

Ben Stokes, who was drafted straight back to the Ashes team after his mental break, continued his poor form. He fell for mere 11 runs in the second innings of the third test. His first innings did no good either, as he could only manage 25 runs for the team.

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England bowlers did a fair job by bowling tidy lines on day two to drag the game to their favour, which they did immensely. The pacers, especially James Anderson, bowled beautifully to not let the hosts go far away with their lead. The Englishmen restricted Australia on 267 runs with a fine lead of 82 runs.

Things looked pretty good for the tourists before they came to bat in the second innings and see their humiliating collapse. The opening crisis for them continued with Zak Crawley getting back to the dressing room early.

The Australians picked up early four wickets in the final hour of day two to push England on the backfoot. The English top was already back to the pavilion by the end of the day along with a night watchman who could only do is to leave the ball and get bowled.

The brief scores of third test matches are as follows:

Australia won the toss and opted to field.

England (1st Innings): 185/10 

Joe Root – 50(82) / Pat Cummins – 3 wickets

Australia (1st innings): 267/10 – Lead: 82 runs

Marcus Harris – 76(189) / James Anderson – 4 wickets

England (2nd innings): 68/10

Joe Root – 28(59) / Scott Boland – 6 wickets

England has lost the series with two more games to be played in the Ashes 2021-22. The first two matches ended in the same fashion where England were hammered by the Australians to strengthen their lead.

Australia and England will return back to the cricket field on January 5 at the Sydney Cricket Ground for the fourth test match. Though the series is done and dusted for the Englishmen, they still have two games to bounce back and retrieve their lost reputation.

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