The Ashes Returns to Australia, Leads 3-0 Against England
Australia won the Ashes series after defeating England in the Perth test, securing an unbeatable 3-0 in the series. Steve Smith declared the 'Man of the Match'
Ben Stokes became the first English batsman to score a century in the present Ashes series. This is the first time Stokes is playing the Ashes. He was included in the final eleven only after England suffered a convincing defeat in the first test in Brisbane. However, his century was not enough to save his country from another defeat in the on-going series. After he got out, Australia needed 2 more wickets to secure the win.
Matt Prior and Stokes were on a survival mission as England looked more confident to hold their fort against Australia which was desperate to regain the Ashes. Australia's Ashes star of the season, Mitchell Johnson, took the wicket of Prior earlier when Stokes was gradually approaching his century. Australia needed 4 wickets only to reclaim the Ashes as they are already 2-0 ahead in the series.
The 3rd test in the series was critical for the teams as both the teams needed to win this desperately. Australia needed this win to secure the 5-test series with an unbeatable lead of 3-0, which meant that the Ashes came back to Australia. England was the holders of the Ashes.
While commentators, most of them are former Australian cricketers, started assuming that Australia might reclaim the Ashes yesterday itself by talking 10 wickets within a few hours, that did not actually happen. However, Australia did manage to take 5 wickets before the day of play came to an end. England captain Alastair Cook got out on the very first ball of the second innings.
The possibility of England winning the test could not technically be struck off either. While Australia needed 4 more wickets to win the test and the series, England needed less than 200 to win the test and make their first impression. England needed to score 504 to win the test. They already went past 300 when Stokes scored his century.
England failed to create history by winning the test as that would have been the highest ever run chase to win.
