Here’s a little summary for you.
- Sunday December 21st: After 11 days of playing cricket, you lose your ashes.
- Monday December 22nd: Coach Brandon McCollum admits the future is in his own hands.
- Tuesday December 23rd: A video has emerged showing Ben Duckett intoxicated.
- Wednesday December 24th: Leading fast bowler Jofra Archer dominated the rest of the series.
- Thursday December 25th: Light relief through pre-test training wearing Christmas hats
- Friday, December 26: Skittle Australia is 152, but if you roll it yourself it’s 110.
- Saturday, December 27: Skittle Australia make 132 and chase down 175 before finally winning.
England’s week has been more eventful than Craig David’s week in ‘7 Days’, but like the musician they were able to relax on Sunday after beating Australia in two days in an outrageous Boxing Day Test to claim their first win in the country in almost 15 years.
Ben Stokes’ side coped with pre-match chaos and overcame even more oddities on a fruity MCG pitch throughout the match to win by four wickets. The frustration is that the series has already slipped through your fingers.
The England captain said he ‘couldn’t be more proud’ after his team’s win in Melbourne after a difficult week.
England made numerous mistakes in Australia, including preparation, shot selection and actual selection, but skipper Stokes will have got the situation straight as he prepares for the quick Melbourne Test. What is most notable is the way he has been able to energize the team.
He pledged to support Duckett after an unwanted and unverified clip was circulated showing his team-mate drunk at Noosa. Stokes knew first-hand how Duckett was feeling after the incident in Bristol in 2017.
With England accused of having a drinking culture, Stokes asked his players for “empathy” amid a difficult schedule and was forced to question his future as a leader earlier in the week after his men were 3-0 down.
After backing his players, he did enough to put his career at a blistering pace and outlast Australia in the Boxing Day Test to dash the hosts’ hopes of a 5-0 whitewash. Glenn McGrath’s prediction will now not come true.
I was very happy for Stokes. It was a difficult build-up for him, not only with the team down 3-0 but also with the off-field talk, and I was very impressed with the way he handled it. He basically put his arm around the team and said, ‘I have full support no matter what.’ Even if they lose a series, he’s shown that there’s always something to play for and his team is committed to playing for him.
Carse promos and Brook cameo add to Melbourne ‘mayhem’
It would have been easy for England to fold after falling 46 runs behind in a 20-wicket opening day. But they came back the next morning and demolished Australia for the second time in the match, aided by a few ill-advised shots and a conducive surface.
Pursuing 175 on that pitch was never going to be easy, but England did so in typical fashion, on this occasion with smart aggression and relatively little anxiety. In fact, perhaps the most eye-catching moment came when Brydon Carse came out to bat at number three.
This experiment explicitly did not work. Carse made 6 off 8 balls. However, considering England won the game, it wasn’t a colossal failure and perhaps it worked in that it gave Jacob Bethell a little more time to prepare before heading to the ball for four to score 40 runs.
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Melbourne Cricket Ground pitch curator Matthew Page has admitted he is in a ‘state of shock’ after the Boxing Day Ashes Test between Australia and England lasted just two days.
As Stokes said, there was “a recipe for mayhem.” “The top order of both teams were struggling to score runs consistently and feel fluffy, so we went with someone who was talented with the bat and had a very good eye for hitting the ball.
“It wasn’t completely successful, but having (Carse) out there for 15 to 20 minutes made it a little bit easier for Bethell to build the inning.”
Brydon Carse was placed at number three in England’s second innings with captain Ben Stokes saying there was a ‘method to mayhem’.
It was perhaps fitting that Harry Brook scored the winning run, given that the vice-captain’s havoc-filled manner in the first innings was crucial in securing victory for the low-scorer in England.
Brook has played a number of dud shots throughout the series, and we can probably add his wild swipe after claiming Mitchell Starc’s first ball at the MCG. But his two outrageous sixes and as many fours in his 34-ball 41 (the highest innings of an England game) proved key. Without that cameo they would have been down 4-0.
Brook’s knock showed that there is a time and place for Bazball. It makes sense to aim for a quick run on the pitch where there is likely to be a ball with your name on it soon.
It’s a shame England couldn’t maintain that mentality in previous fixtures where calm rather than chaos was needed. They filled Perth and Brisbane with royal families.
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Nasser and Athers praised Harry Brook’s approach in England’s first innings at the MCG.
Duckett and Bethell key in England’s complete win
It was also fitting that Duckett and Bethell were England’s top scorers in the final innings. The former has struggled to score runs in the field and his overt behavior has put him in the conversation, while the latter has spent too much time off the field since bursting onto the Test scene in New Zealand last winter.
Duckett spooned mid-on in the first innings, looking out to sea and not in a Noosa holiday kind of way, but took the chase on in the second, creaming 36 off 24 balls, including an audacious six.
Bethell, meanwhile, bounced back from a knock on his Ashes debut a day earlier with a 46-ball innings of style and substance. Some of his cover drives were the best. There was also an anti-war scoop.
Jacob Bethell helped England to victory on the second day with his knock of 40 off 46 balls.
Just like when a Premier League striker scores a hat-trick against inferior opposition in the FA Cup, it can be difficult to read too much into a score of 40. But it also means nothing and Bethell bats with an air of authority that the man he replaced in the XI, Ollie Pope, often struggles to find.
England’s management over Bethell, which led to a distinct lack of first-class cricket for the player in 2025 before being called into action in front of 90,000 at the MCG, was branded a “stupid thing” by Atherton, but that certainly can’t mothball him now. He appears ready for a long-term run with the team, whether third or lower.
The win may not have been something to truly savor as the team’s Ashes dreams had turned to dust at that point, but it at least gave the fans something to smile about at last.
After a chaotic series and a particularly chaotic week, England delivered a timely Christmas present.
England fans celebrate their long-awaited Ashes win in Melbourne.
Ashes series 2025-26 in Australia
Australia leads the five-game series 3-1.
