England celebrate first Test win on Australian soil in 15 years, hosts’ batting exposed

Their aggressive approach prevented Australia’s attack from grouping deliveries in the most dangerous area of ​​the pitch and worrying England about the mistake.

Scott Boland was the most threatening of Australia’s pacers but was not introduced into the attack until the 11th over, when England already had 70 on the board.

“I was delighted with how brave we were and our commitment to a style of play that we knew gave us the best chance of overcoming this problem,” Stokes said.

“Chasing 170 on a wicket like this is never going to be easy. I liked the preparations for this Test match, the conditions we faced, chasing 170 is chasing 340. It was tough but I liked the way we went about it.

“We didn’t let a very good bowling attack make us feel like they could settle into the areas they wanted to bowl to give them the best chance of taking our wicket.”

The Christmas week began with a blowtorch on England’s off-field antics and will end with a microscope on Australia’s willow chasers and the seamer’s paradise of the MCG, producing only the 27th two-day Test in the format’s 148-year and 2615-game history.

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According to a source with knowledge of the matter, more than 90,000 people are expected to come for the third day, and finishing early will result in a loss of 10 million Canadian dollars in revenue.

This was Australia’s first defeat at home against England since the Sydney Test in January 2011; The humiliation in the third inning led to a sweeping review of the national team.

Smith, then stand-in captain for that game, was brought into the Australian XI at the age of 21 to add fun and laughter to a demoralized team that had yet to score a Test hundred, the injured Ricky Ponting was the nominal Test captain and Julia Gillard was prime minister of a minority government.

“We would love to win every game and continue our streak,” Smith said. “England played very well today. We probably controlled the first half of the game. They came back today and took the game away from us, especially the way Duckett and Crawley started, they broke the back of the chase and softened the ball.”

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The blame for Australia’s defeat must lie with the batsmen. Presented with the opportunity to dismiss England, Australia lost for the second time in as many days, losing 8-71 in 107 balls.

Although Australia have the vase securely in their hands, batting remains a major problem, as it has been for most of the last two years.

Only three of the team’s seven starters (Travis Head, Steve Smith and Alex Carey) are averaging over 40 points or playing in a manner that warrants automatic selection in this series.

Recalled for this series after a hot run at domestic level, Marnus Labuschagne’s double failure in Melbourne resulted in him finishing 2025 with an average of 20.84; this was the lowest score in a calendar year among players ranked in the top four in Australia since 1981.

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Veteran Usman Khawaja took the shine off his revival in Adelaide by falling for a second-ball duck with a lumbering shot to match Josh Tongue’s pace.

Cameron Green, the only other Australian to reach double figures, did little to lock down his place for the Sydney Test, losing his wicket to some uncomfortable defending outside off stump.

Head combined enterprising but not reckless batting play with solid defense for 46 and Smith relied on his technique to make 24 unbeaten, but the others could neither score nor survive long enough to make the point count.

Unlike earlier in this series, there was no bailout from Carey or the tail.

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