- Third Test, day 3: England 185 and 68; Australia 267
- Boland takes a six-for on debut as England collapse again
There are dream Test debuts and then there is the match that Scott Boland just experienced. The 32-year-old Victorian was handed his Baggy Green cap on Boxing Day and just three days later ripped through England with a quite remarkable six-wicket haul that saw Australia retain the Ashes at the earliest opportunity.
The coup de grâce came at 11.49am on the third morning, less than half way through the scheduled series, when Cameron Green pegged back Jimmy Anderson’s off-stump to secure an unassailable 3-0 lead. England were all out for a meagre 68 in just 27.4 overs, having somehow conspired to lose by an innings and 14 runs in a match where their opponents had stuck just 267 on the board.
As Australia’s players managed to catch up with Green’s haring sprint of celebration (Boland among the throng that engulfed the giant all-rounder, and Pat Cummins savouring his first series win as captain) English cricket was in a state of humiliation. Joe Root had top-scored with 28, falling 80 runs short of Mohammad Yusuf’s record 1,788 in a calendar year, but once again his team-mates had melted around him.
Instead the only records set by way of calendar year were England registering their ninth defeat in 2021, surpassing a previous worst of eight, achieved four times, and registering 54 ducks to match a mark set by their forebears in 1998. They had also found themselves on the receiving end of the fastest Ashes five-wicket haul by an Australian, Boland requiring just 17 deliveries either side of stumps on day two to cap a stunning debut.
This was also England’s lowest total in Australia since 1904 and yet despite the previous evening’s collapse against a rampant attack, stumbling to 31 for four in response to a first innings deficit of 82, the tourists started the day with Root and his vice-captain, Ben Stokes, at the crease with a chance of setting their hosts a tricky target on what was clearly a spicy pitch for the seamers.