The fourth Test match played between Australia and England under the Ashes Series 2025-26 proved to be shocking for the cricket lovers. This match held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground was dominated by the bowlers, where England created history by winning by 4 wickets in just two days.
England opened account
With this victory, England not only opened their account in the series, but also ended the 14-year long winning drought on Australian soil. Although Australia had already won this series, this defeat definitely disappointed the team.
This Boxing Day Test could not last even for two days. There was about 10 mm of grass on the Melbourne pitch, which provided a lot of help to the fast bowlers. England won the toss and chose to bowl first and their decision proved to be absolutely right. Australia’s first innings was reduced to 152 runs. Michael Neser made the maximum contribution with 35 runs, while the rest of the batsmen were seen struggling. For England, Josh Tongue bowled brilliantly and took 5 wickets, while Gus Atkinson achieved 2 important successes.
In response, England’s first innings also did not last very long. Australian bowlers restricted the visiting team to 110 runs, giving the Kangaroos a lead of 42 runs. For England, Harry Brook single-handedly took the lead by scoring 41 runs and was the only batsman who could cross the 30-run mark. For Australia, Michael Neser took 4 wickets, while Scott Boland took 3 and Mitchell Starc took 2 wickets.
Australia could not maintain the rhythm in the second innings
Despite the lead in the first innings, Australia could not maintain the rhythm in the second innings. The entire team was all out after scoring 132 runs in 34.3 overs. Travis Head played the biggest innings of 46 runs, but he did not get support from other batsmen. England bowler Brayden Carse performed brilliantly and took 4 wickets, while captain Ben Stokes maintained the pressure by taking 3 wickets.
England got a strong start while chasing the target of 175 runs. Jack Crawley and Ben Duckett added 51 runs for the first wicket, which was England’s first half-century opening partnership in this series. Crawley scored 37 runs and Duckett scored 34 runs. After this, Jacob Bethel played a composed and reliable innings and led the team to victory. With this victory, England ended its 14-year-old wait to win a Test match in Australia, before which it had last won there in 2011.
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