Melbourne: Pacer Scott Boland took six wickets in the second innings as Australia defeated England by an innings and 14 runs in the third Ashes Test here at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Tuesday.
With this win, Australia regained the Ashes as the hosts have gained an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series.
Resuming Day 3 of the MCG Test at 31/4, England kept on losing wickets at regular intervals and the side was unable to match Australia's lead and in the end, they suffered an innings defeat.
Ben Stokes (11) was the first one to depart on Day 3 as he was clean bowled by Mitchell Starc. After this, Scott Boland got in the act and he cleaned up the England lower-order. In his debut, Boland went on to take six wickets in the second innings to hand Australia a memorable victory. England was bowled out for just 68 in the second innings.
Skipper Joe Root (28) was the final nail in the coffin and England went down without showing any fight in the second innings of the third Test. Brief Scores: England 185 and 68 all out (Joe Root 28, Ben Stokes 11; Scott Boland 6-7); Australia 267.
England captain Joe Root expressed disappointment after his side were blown away by Australia on day three of the third Test here at the MCG on Tuesday.
Scott Boland returned with figures of 6/7 in his four overs as Australia defeated England by an innings and 14 runs in the third Ashes Test. With this win, Australia regained the Ashes as the hosts took an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series.
England, on the other hand, were left to ponder where exactly things went wrong as their horrendous tour continued.
Joe Root in the post-match presentation said: "We've been playing in these times for a while now, all you can do is try and front up. Credit to Australia they blew us away. A lot of hard work to do."
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"[Covid] It's not ideal, I thought the way we went about our cricket on the field was excellent. We put them under pressure and were very much in the Test match. We've got to do things for longer, been small pockets but nowhere near long enough. We know the areas we need to improve on. We have to stay strong and look at the next two games to take something from the tour," he added.
The fourth Test will be played in Sydney on January 5.
ANI
