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Australia have wrapped up the Ashes series with a three nail victory inside eleven days, Lou.

They won by eighty two runs here today at the adelaide O.

Will.

Took them until the middle session of the fifth day, but they got there in the end, which Stark took a couple towards the end to finally break the back of their resistance and then Scott Bolland and Manas Laborshane combined for the final wicket before jubilant celebrations from this Aussie side.

Lou.

It's another great performance from this Australian team and maybe their toughest winner of the series so far.

Maybe not.

There's a whole lot to beat quite possibly, and everyone's you know, claiming the death of bads ball.

Well I'm actually saying this is a great day for England.

This was their best ever performance in Australia or best ever, the best performance in Australia in their last eighteen goes by margins of victory, and that just sounds what a miserable time it's been for England in the Ashes.

You know, we heard so much chess beating about what this basball brand was going to bring out to Australia.

England coming into this series through thirteen, fourteen, seventeen, eighteen, twenty one, twenty two had never gotten within one hundred runs in terms of the margin of victory, so their margins were victory like two hundred runs, three hundred runs innings victories and by wickets they'd never got within lower than eight So Australia had never done worse than losing two wickets in the chase.

And today the margin was eighty two runs.

That's the first double digit loss margin they've had on these shorts at sixteen losses out of eighteen their last eighteen tests in Australia, and this was their best performance.

Can you believe that?

I can't.

That is hard to believe, but also does probably back up the fact that they have been so bad over those last few tours.

I thought you were going to say it's a good day for English cricket because the death of basball means that they something else can be reborn and they could start a new passage.

From the ashes.

That's right, Yeah, I mean there's so much, so much metaphors you're can work with with ashes and stuff like that.

I mean, it was a really positive day.

This is probably their best test of the tour.

I suppose they showed the fight that Stokes wanted from them.

You know, you just go back to the first innings.

They only put up what was a two hundred and eighty six.

They got the bat during forty degree heat.

That's just not good enough.

And we're going to start.

Can we start the pylon yet?

Because I'm ready, I'm equipped.

I mean, Brendon McCallum's gone on, you know, done some media after this and said, oh, look, in hindsight, we probably weren't prepared that well.

Well, yeah, that may well be true.

But they've now played, you know, coming into this game, they've now played two tests.

They're get used to the conditions, they maybe understand the bound a bit more.

They're now playing in conditions as extreme as Perth and Brisbane in terms of the bounce and they put up two hundred and eighty six, you know, batting the best conditions of the series, and they'd lost you know six there was six for one hundred and seventy hundred and eighty.

Like they're in a shocking position.

So they'd had four they batters, they had four innings to get used to things.

Their bowlers are the same, and they still kind of put up, especially the batting group, still put up really poor performances.

You do wonder what would have happened if the series started here in Adelaide, don't you if England came out all guns blazing first test of the series here.

But they've gone into their shallow after those two losses.

They've asked for more fight and even Pat Cummen said that he was happy that they batted slowly on that second day and supreme heat, because if they were making it was his run around in the field and chased leather, well, it would have been even tougher for them in extreme conditions.

I think it's gotten to the point where they've second guessed their methods so much that they're now triple guessing.

Yeah well there, yeah, quadruple guessing queintuple I mean, they are not reacting the moment where they should be attacking.

They're going into their shells.

And that's been the most surprising bit is because they've had these stepbacks went especially in Perth when they played some some awful shots to kind of to lose that series and then Bold Paul did it to Travis Head on that last day, that second day.

They now don't know when to attack, and there have been moments that that fourth morning in Brisbane or fourth afternoon in Brisbane when they were way behind in the game, Ben Stokes and Will Jacks block the crap out of it.

Let's be honest, that was a moment where they need to attack.

To get back in it.

And then you know the latter part of probably you know, the middle part of day two that was that was a time where they really could have got back into it with by putting some pressure back on Australia against an attack that had you know, Mitchell Stark and Scott Bowland who were coming off pretty big workloads in the first two tests, and Pat Cummins and Nathan Mind who bow.

Two hovers between them for the series.

Easy said and done.

I know they were magnificent, you know, but England really didn't fire a shot when the game counted, you know, albeit a good a really fourth in exefit we've got to.

Say definitely Now the England pile on is fund but we can circle back to it at the end.

I want to talk about Nathan Lyon.

Obviously it was confirmed that he's injured his hamstring today diving for a ball down at fine leg.

He got up and he sort of threw the ball back in and then immediately clutched at his right hand string, left the field on his own accord, went down, got some scans pretty quickly, and then the news came through, Yeah, also quite quickly that it was a confirmed hamstring injury.

It means that Boxing Day and the Sydney Tests are definitely in doubt for him, and it does beg the question who comes in as the spinner?

Now I've got some stats on the shield, but what's your first thought of sort of thought straight off the bat.

Yeah, first thought is it really sucks for Nathan Lione, a guy who felt like had shown in this test that he hadn't lost any of the that beautiful stock delivery.

You know, when he gets in the right conditions, when he gets on a strap, bouncy Australian wickeds, he can be a real threat.

He was fantastic, cracked the game open for them.

Late last night manus Lavishane said that they don't win this Test potentially without him, so huge endorsement.

You know, he kind of shown if there were any doubts, he kind of proved them wrong.

He's mid spell bowling to get Australia to the second new ball, and he bowled more than fifty overs I think in the Test by that point.

That's when his his hamstring went kind of an unusual one like often not a big soft tissue expert, but I reckon it's often the ones we're chasing balls to the boundary that you really extend the hamstrings, especially with some fatigue, that's when they go.

This was a he had to kind of set off quickly quite late, like it was he didn't have that far to go.

The ball went really fast to him down at fine leg and he's made the stop and it's just kind of gone in the dive potentially or as he's he's trying.

To dive.

Bigger picture, you wonder has he got the you know, the if it is a really serious injury.

Has he got the appetite for a big rehab?

Again, we know he had the huge you know, i'd suspect it probably wouldn't be as bad as the calf injury that he did at Lord's two and a half years ago.

But you know, when you're thirty.

Eight going on thirty nine, it gets harder and harder to come back from top tissues.

So yeah, that's my first question is, you know, does he have the appetite to do that?

We know he wants to get to twenty twenty seven, and then yeah, the three spinners, I'm interested to hear the numbers on who you've got in line to replace him.

Well, if we just look at the injury in terms of football terms, I mean, it's not like for lack of course, but.

That's always how I think of injuries just as a rule.

Yeah, yeah, well, I mean, hamstring injuries are generally between three to four weeks, so it's not as if they're on the longer end of things.

So hopefully it's not too bad and he can be back bowling by the end of the summer.

But we'll just have to wait and see whon't we on that front?

In terms of the Sheffield Chield numbers a bit skewed because some players have played more matches than others, but Corey Rocacola he's played six matches and taken twenty wickets at twenty eight, so that's probably the best record of the group.

Todd Murphy's also bowled well from what I've seen this season so far, he's got ten wickets at twenty three from four matches.

And then Matthew Cuoneman, who's been the go to in subcontinental conditions.

He's only played the two matches for Tazzi so far their season, taken four wickets at thirty six.

And then in terms of pure numbers, Mitch Swepson has the most out of all spinners in the tournament at the minute twenty one at thirty six.

He's played all six matches to day.

Yeah, well ten of those came here at the Adelaide Oval, so he might be thinking that the injury came one Test too late for him.

He would be a long shot.

You know.

They like the control that finger spinners offers, so it probably narrows it down to the other three Rocket Rollie Murphy, Koneman.

I mean, they all in their own.

Respects have having a strong case to kind of make and you wouldn't really surprise you to see any three of them from a pure Test numbers point of view.

Coneman's the guy right like he took sixteen wickets bowling with a broken thumb in Sri Lannka this year in turning conditions.

If you were if you're playing at the Whacker or you know, potentially per stadium, I think Rocket Cholie would would probably be your guy.

Phenomenal record bowling on bouncy wickets over in the West, and I think he's held his own kind of around the country as well.

Would have to kind of dig into the numbers with him.

And then then Murphy looks like he the stuff I've seen from him as a you know, I'm a Melbourne guy.

I go down to the junction over to watch him bowl, probably a bit more, see him a bit more than the other guys, and he looks to have gotten something back that I reckon he lost a little bit probably in the in the years I'm just trying to get my timelines, but in the years after the twenty twenty three ashes, when he played two Tests when line was out, I think he did a phenomenal job in that series standing up for line and he's had some shoulder problems over the last season or two in the in the Sheffield Shield, but he's looked like he's right back to his best for Victoria.

And you know, only ten wickets but a really good average.

I reckon, he's economy rate would be really good and he's done really well on what are mostly fast bowling friendly wickets.

So I could I could see them going any of any of three ways.

I reckon, is there a chance that they bring a couple into the squad just to cover all bases, depending because they might not know what they're going to get at the MCG And.

Yeah, that's yeah potentially right, Like would you and would you even look at what England have done and look to getting a guy who none of those guys are batters, right, All those guys are frontline spinners England.

You know, if England had kind of gotten over the line today with you know, the way will Jack spattered, they might have been telling everyone that you know, look we told you so, like playing a batter at yea an all rounder at number eight was the way to go.

Who would be in the conversation if they wanted, you know, a number eight and he's the one who can.

Of course he is for you.

I mean Cooper Connelly played a Test match earlier this year, He's had a phenomenal start to the Big Bash season.

He'd be a guy they'd probably look at for that role out.

I think it'd be unlikely.

I think it probably raised the prospect.

They've already done it once in this yeraries are potentially playing four quicks again in Melbourne as potential.

I mean that Wicked has been a real seema in recent times.

It's not the not the flat thing that we our English friends that have seen on previous to us.

Although the first I reckon the almost the start of this seeming pictures era was that scott Bowland Test where it was England lost within two and a half days.

So yeah, you'd think they I think the style of this Australian team is to pick the guy they think will play or think will be you know, we'll play if they do pick a spinner, and they probably don't want the drama of you know, if it was a rocket Trollie and Murphy and those two bowling in tandem and the drama around who's going to get picked.

I think they'd like to avoid that kind of thing, and.

The for use last year's boxing their test when right until the end of day five didn't that, so it looked like it might happen here as well as will Jackson Jamie Smith.

In a bit today, Smith got on a run as he passed fifty, hit four fours in a row and then was out trying to hit a fifth basically straight up in the air off Stark caught by Cummings and that was the one that sort of broke the Kemel's back.

It all happened pretty quickly after that.

It was a long partnership between those two.

After we had a bit of rain here this morning, pat Comes admitted that he did his mind did wander too previous times when the England batters have got away, so I'm sure he would have been as relieved as anyone to hold onto that catch.

At mid on.

He said his mind went back to Lord's, didn't he, and that he had to remind himself that when Lyne went down at Lord's and they were without their front line spinner, that they actually did win that best despite Stokes playing one of the best easily the best innings in a losing cause I've ever seen it.

Yeah, I mean it was some guys for England have been under the pump, right.

Jamie Smith hasn't had a great tour.

I think he was averaging fifteen coming into this innings.

He easily had his best knock of the series will Jack.

So I think he's been really solid with the bad and I reckon, you know, going forward for them, can you get him up the order because he's performing a lot better than some of the some of the other guys in that lineup.

And then Broaden Cass, who you know might have been thinking I might actually go even below Josh Archer after the way archerbat it in the first innings and his bowling has been under the microscope as well well.

He was fantastic.

Yeah.

Smith and Jack's put on ninety one together and you know, just played it beautifully like they saw off that that early little bit where Australia were just kind of plugging time essentially to get to the second U ball, and then they played it sensibly and then Smith kind of sensed his opportunity when Stark can come and come back on and you realize they're going to be They might be a little bit wayward, or you might be able to bash him off their length given how many overs they'd bowled in the Test, and yeah, played it pretty well until he just went for one too many off off Mitchell Stark.

But really, yeah, it's very hard to be critical of those guys.

Those they if they you know, if Jamie Smith and Will actually kind of come together when they needed one hundred left around two hundred and fifty or whatever it was the other night, then England would have been right in with the shop.

That's a good point, Will jacks He's now faced the sixth most deliveries in the series, even though he missed the first test, so amazing time at the crease from him.

Does beg the question, and we have touched on it a bit, how do England reshape that top seven if they dare tinker with it, because they've only got really Jacob Bethel in reserve here in the squad to come in, and maybe Will Jackson's putting his hand up to say, well, I can bat in the top seven and then you can bring in potentially Bisheer or another Seema or someone else.

But they have to change something eventually, because they haven't moved to that top seven at all.

Three out down.

You have to change something now.

You would think so, Yeah, you would think so.

I mean it's hard to see how they keep going back to the well with some of these guys.

I mean, the one who's going just as bout as bad as anyone's, Ben Duckett.

I think his averages down to fifteen or sixteen huge surprise to me.

I thought he could really threaten in these conditions.

And a couple of drop catches in Brusberg rather.

Yeah, but you know, he seemed like the much more solid opening option out of those that will.

Crawley has shown great growth, as we spoke on yesterday's podcast, and Ducket's kind of the winder everyone gets into Olipope from the English side.

I don't think he's going any worse than say Harry brook.

Yes, he's got a few more runs on the overall tally, but you know his dismissal is any more frustrating the Brooks, you know, I don't think so.

I think, yeah, you've got to be looking at Jack's in potentially you know, a five or a six six spot.

The way Stokes is battered.

It would be asking so much of him, but he would be the perfect number three.

I think the way he's kind of operating at the moment, he would, you know, just just a settled the fact that Duck one of duck at or Crawley is basically always going out in the first few overs, combined with having just a jack in the box Olipope who looks you know, just doesn't look he hasn't really looked like it, and even when he kind of has looked a bit like it, you know, if he gets it, gets an awesome ball from Pat Comings, I just think that that Stokes will be a better option there, But it's asking so much of a guy who bowls as many overs as he does.

You know, Jacob Bethel is kind of a guy they've they've shielded from County cricket over the year.

This year I'm talking about and you know he has his cricket gone forward since they kind of identified him.

You know, big question mark there never made a first class hundred.

Missed a chance to do that in the A game the other day.

So yeah, you're buttressing your top order with a guy who hasn't made a first class hundred.

That's seems remarkable to me that he's there one backup better?

Right?

Yeah, that's it.

So we'll wait and see.

Because's not long until that boxing day test begins, in fact only five days, so they will have to quickly shuffle the deck chairs and something that Australia did quite well.

So they shuffled their slips called in deck chairs and this test match, didn't they know?

Steve smith Manus Labershane took the spot at second slip and he took another worthy today?

Was this better or worse than yesterday?

I think the one yesterday just shades it.

Okay, what do you think?

Well?

This one, I don't know because he's so far forward.

It's rare that you see your first slip, take it in front of the keeper, isn't it?

And carry I think would have probably snaffled it up, but you never know once it flies past.

I think I'm giving it to yesterday, just a bit lower to the ground and maybe went a little bit quicker the moment.

Yeah, I mean this was a kind of catch like of a guy on a heater, like I reckon if he hadn't taken.

The one the previous day.

In his mind he would have gone, oh, Kerry's got that, like this is a brand new ball.

Yeah.

The difference was here he was standing.

At a wider first rather than second the second, where for the other one, which would have been diving in front of it, wouldn't have made it to Nudger.

So I think if he hadn't taken the previous one, he would have known, oh, that's going to carry, I'll leave it, and Kerry had it covered.

You see the replay and he's right there red to catch it.

But because you had taken that other one, it was just like, no, I've got this.

My left hand is absolutely on fire.

And yeah, incredible formance.

I mean, they stood up as well as they possibly could of in the absence of Smith in the court and with the bat, Cowadra has made a really strong case to play for the rest of the series.

I think, you know, the big question marks over how he was going to go in this series, given how he's gone against high pace coming into this into this tour, you know, massive tick and I think, yeah, it's gonna be hard for them to leave him out when when Smith comes back.

And they're bowling takes not getting any quicker at this stage of the series either is it.

So there's also that factor as well, especially with Mark Wood ruled out, so it wasn't a good chance to play, he would assume now, Lou, the series is all wrapped up in eleven days, which is the fastest and ashes series has been decided nineteen fifty one or nineteen fifty and fifty one, which you said you love that series, and then there was also the two thousand and two three series, both victories to Australia.

Where does this team rank and this performance rank in terms of actually series gone by, because it's rare that things get wrapped up this quickly, even though it's a familiar sort of script to do it at this rate, Well, it's sort of unchartted territory.

Yeah, you look back at that twenty thirteen to fourteen team is probably the obvious comparison at this point if you think that they might be on track for a whitewash.

I mean, the bowling attack was just so settled during that third and fourteen one like you have it.

You had a younger Nathan Lyon just really starting to hit his straps, Mitchell Johnson on the all time heater Harris and Peter Siddle.

As Harris was great in that series, but you know, just four bowl was no real all rounder from what.

Pay a little bit, but the whole team didn't change the whole series.

That was pretty remarkable.

Whereas you know, Australia have had fourteen to fifteen guys play already, They've had I think six guys who have taken five plus wickets in the series already.

Wow.

Yeah, compared to that thirteen to fourteen when just four guys basically played the whole series.

So you know, the batting, I just think like the batting is still.

Hasn't clicked for this Australian team and keep saying it, but I just don't think they're not a world class batting unit.

They are a world class bowling unit and the batters are just doing enough.

So look, let's give them the full series.

Let's see if the batters can really hit their straps in Melbourne and Sydney.

Until that happens, I'd say that they're not quite one of the great Australian teams because this is far from a great English team.

Like it's hard to overstate how disappointed we all are with what they dished up so far on this tour all right, Well, we better circle back at the end of the series just to see how the Ossies are doing.

It's a three no lead to Australia and the Asher series move on to Melbourne and we'll catch you soon on the Unplayable podcast.