Australia on brink of 3-0 Ashes as England fight to stave off whitewash

Australia moved within sight of a third consecutive Ashes victory, with England stumps-bound on 207 for six as they chase a daunting 435 to win the third Test in Adelaide. Pat Cummins’s side have the urn in their sights, and with two to play, an 11‑day finish would match England’s quickest Ashes surrender since 1921. England’s innings ended amid late pressure from Nathan Lyon, who struck twice more before tea and then added a third when a misjudged reverse from Harry Brook sealed his fate.

Earlier in the day, England had faced a testing morning after a promising start. From 177 for three, Lyon ripped through the heart of the order, removing Brook for 30 (bowled leg stump after an attempted reverse sweep), Ben Stokes for five (bowled off stump by a ball that turned beyond his prod) and Zak Crawley for 85, brilliantly stumped by Alex Carey as he played forward and overreached. The sequence left England 194 for six and a potential final-hour scramble under the umpires’ discretion for an extra 30 minutes and a possible four-day finish. Jamie Smith and Will Jacks steadied to see out the day, but the damage had been done.

At the crease, England had crawled into a position of relative resilience, yet it was a fragile one. Earlier, Australia’s second innings had progressed briskly, Head and Carey extending their fifth-wicket partnership to 162 and lifting the lead toward 400. Head went on to a commanding 170 before being dismissed by Josh Tongue at the end of a long spell from the bowlers; Carey contributed 72 as Australia built a lead that would eventually push England to a near-impossible chase. Cummins, who had not bowled in the third day’s early sessions as he nursed a sore back, found form with the ball again, removing Duckett for four with a sharp edge to Marnus Labuschagne at second slip, while Ollie Pope fell for 17 to a sensational one-handed take by Labuschagne. Root reached 39 before being dismissed by Cummins, a carbon copy of his first-innings dismissal. The morning’s breakthroughs kept Australia ahead, and England’s order continued to buckle under Lyon’s deft mix of pace and spin.

For a time, Crawley and Brook had steadied England’s reply with a sprightly use of sweep and reverse sweep to blunt Lyon, but Brook’s misjudged reverse off a turning delivery ended his vigil and left England reeling at 194 for six. Stokes and Crawley then added a meaningful stand, but their early long-balls could not sustain the resistance, and Cummins struck again with Crawley’s dismissal shortly after Stokes fell to a ball that knocked into his off-stump. The dismissal of Crawley marked a high-water mark for England in the day’s late spell, but the target remained intimidating.

The Australians’ response to England’s stubborn defending had already yielded a potent lead. Head’s 170, combined with Carey’s 72, pushed Australia into a position where an England win would require a miraculous run-chase of historic proportions. Tongue, who replaced an exhausted Stokes at the top of the order in an unusual move, bowled with discipline and end-for-end variations to claim four for 70, while Carse took three for 80 as Australia’s late-order collapse was held in check only briefly by the tail-enders. The day’s most telling moment, though, was Carse’s early pressure that briefly threatened a late-innings revival after Nathan Lyon’s leg-before on the first ball of an over. The momentum shifted quickly, and by stumps, Australia’s advantage looked insurmountable.

England’s hopes of a rescue innings hung by a thread, with the last-ditch pressure tests to come on Boxing Day at Melbourne. The team management may consider changes ahead of the MCG Test, including a potential return for Jacob Bethell should Ollie Pope miss out, but any selection decisions will depend on the team’s assessment of the pitch and medical updates. The broader context remains bleak for England: the Ashes are effectively out of reach, and the focus now shifts to avoiding a comprehensive whitewash and preserving pride in the remaining fixtures.

As the fourth day looms, Australia captain Pat Cummins and his bowlers hold the edge, with the tourists’ disciplined lines and the swing-friendly Adelaide surface working in their favor. England’s batters will need to summon not just technique but patience to grind out a chase of this magnitude, a test of nerve and endurance that has historically defined Ashes fixtures. The outcome of the series in Adelaide will reverberate into Melbourne, shaping the mood for the Boxing Day Test and contributing to the enduring narrative of a contest that remains one of the sport’s most storied rivalries.