England are on the verge of yet another defeat in the Ashes and this time it will be a crucial blow in their aspirations of claiming a series victory in Australia. Ben Stokes and his team already trail 2-0 in the series and needed to get a victory in Adelaide to have a chance of winning the series.
At the close of play on Day Four, England are 209-6 and trail Australia by 227 runs, chasing a total of 435 to win. The hosts had made 349 all out in their second innings, with Travis Head getting 170 to help put Pat Cummins’ team in full control.
England have been on the back foot for pretty much the majority of the series so far, with maybe the exception of Day One in Brisbane, where Joe Root scored a century. Apart from that, the tourists have struggled to gain any momentum on the tour and a crushing defeat looks increasingly likely.
Harry Brook is one player England would have put a lot of their hopes on to score big runs in the series, but that has yet to happen. Brook scored 30 in the second innings in Adelaide before being clean bowled by Nathan Lyon.
The 26-year-old attempted a reverse sweep with the score at 177-3 at the time, before getting the shot all wrong and was sent back to the dressing room as Lyon got the first of his three wickets of the day.
Shot selection has been a key talking point of the ‘Bazball’ experience in this particular series and here was an example of wrong place, wrong time yet again. England have been all over the place at the crease this series and do not appear to have learned their lesson.
Zak Crawley made a commendable 85 before being stumped by Lyon, while Root (39), Ollie Pope (17) and Will Jacks (11*) were the only other England players to get into double figures at the close of play on Day Four.
Earlier in the innings, Ben Duckett was dismissed for four runs while Stokes added just five to the total before he, too, was bowled by Lyon. Cummins and Lyon took three wickets apiece for Australia to leave England on the brink of another defeat.
Australia need four wickets to win the Ashes, while England need another 227 runs to keep the series alive. That’s the game in a nutshell going into Day Five, and the hosts will certainly be the overwhelming favourites to get the victory they need to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series.
Jacks and Jamie Smith remain at the crease heading into Day Five, and both will know they face an uphill task to get England over the line. But while there is still a chance, Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum will still have hope that a miracle can happen.