Fifth Ashes Test - Embarrassing defeat as England cave in again

Asked to chase down 271 in the day/night encounter in Hobart they produced a horror show on the third evening, careering off the rails from 68 without loss to 124 all out.

They lost all 10 wickets for just 56 runs, queueing up to throw away their wickets in a blitz of hapless dismissals in the space of 22.4 overs. It was an embarrassment that will take some getting over and only increase the call for change in a set-up that has not only forgotten how to win but how to compete.

Last week’s nail-biting draw in Sydney means Joe Root’s side will not go down in the history books with their whitewashed predecessors from 2006/07 and 2013/14, but few would disagree that this has been a less competitive and less accomplished campaign.

The closing chapter was as grim as anything that came in the first three Tests, when the urn was surrendered in 12 demoralising days, as the outside chance of a face-saving win gave way to yet another weak-willed, soft-centred collapse.

Mark Wood had bowled up a storm with career-best figures of 6-37 to leave Australia 155 all out in Hobart.

Wood has bowled with pace and hostility throughout the tour for mostly unflattering figures, but finally had something fitting to show for his efforts as he lit a fire under England’s fading ambitions.

Australia’s first-innings lead of 115 meant they had a big enough buffer zone not to panic but at the interval a lead of 256 with two wickets remaining left both sides in the hunt.

Alex Carey was holding England up with an unbeaten 40, a source of major frustration having seen him drag his stumps down on 19.

He was more than halfway to the pavilion when he turned on his heels amid question marks over Chris Woakes’s front foot. The slow motion replays were not quite conclusive but third umpire Paul Reiffel saw enough to be sure he had overstepped and a no-ball signal gave Carey the green light to continue.

It was the third time in the series England have seen a wicket scrubbed from the book, with Ben Stokes and Ollie Robinson the other offenders.

Australia had started on 37-3 and soon found themselves trying, and failing. to weather a barrage from Wood. Given licence to bang the ball in short and fast, he took three wickets for 12 runs in a fine six-over spell.

Nightwatch Scott Boland, who survived bravely on the second evening, was first to go, backing away to leg and fencing a catch to wicketkeeper Sam Billings in Wood’s second over.

His next two scalps came with bigger targets on their backs, with the series’ leading run-scorer Travis Head brushing a ball off his ribs and into Billings’s gloves and Steve Smith hooking obligingly to fine leg.

At 63-6 the game was poised finely but England were unable to maintain the pressure when Wood’s stint came to an end. Australia saw Cameron Green and Alex Carey top up the total to the tune of 49, with Woakes’s sloppy footwork offering a costly reprieve that would have made it 91-7.

After several big appeals Stuart Broad finally got an lbw to stick, Green (23) clipped on the back pad and condemned on DRS. The door was ajar again and a rested Wood charged in again to have Mitchell Starc caught fending to short-leg.

That brought up the third five-for of his career but he briefly thought he had six for the first time when a first-ball yorker to Pat Cummins saw the umpire’s finger go up. Replays suggested the ball was missing and the captain added 20 with Carey as the advantage kept ticking upwards.

Australia added 10 more to the score after the break before Broad removed Carey for 49. Over-reaching for one that Broad hung well outside off stump, he inside edged to Billings.

Nathan Lyon was last man in as the change in innings came ever closer.

Wood smashed Cummins’s stumps to finish with career-best figures, leaving Australia all out for 155.