Australia v England, Fifth Ashes Test day five: Aussies romp to 4-0 victory, Joe Root sidelined by illness
Australia cruised to a 4-0 Ashes victory in Sydney with England captain Joe Root sidelined by illness on the final day.
Fifth Ashes Test: Day five scores
Australia win by an innings and 123 runs, and win the series 4-0
England 2nd inns: 180 (88.1 overs. Root 58ret, Bairstow 38, Curran 23*, Vince 18, Ali 13, Cook 10; Cummins 4-39, Lyon 3-54, Hazlewood 1-36, Starc 1-38)
Australia 1st inns: 649-7d (193 overs. Khawaja 171, S Marsh 156, M Marsh 101, Smith 83, Warner 56, Paine 38*, Cummins 24*, Starc 11; Ali 2-170, Anderson 1-56, Curran 1-82, Broad 1-121, Crane 1-193)
England 1st inns: 346 (112.3 overs. Root 83, Malan 62, Curran 39, Cook 39, Broad 31, Ali 30, Vince 25, Stoneman 24; Cummins 4-80, Hazlewood 2-65, Starc 2-80, Lyon 1-86)
Day five report
Joe Root's bravery was in vain as England slid to an innings-and-123-run defeat in the final Test to complete their miserable Ashes campaign as 4-0 losers.
Root spent much of the morning in hospital suffering the effects of severe dehydration and was unable to rejoin his team's improbable rearguard at the SCG as they resumed on 93 for four - still 210 runs short of making Australia bat again.
The England captain did continue his innings an hour later, after his replacement Moeen Ali was dismissed, but could not do so again following the lunch break as the tourists subsided in his absence to Pat Cummins (four for 39) and finished 180 all out.
While Root (58 retired ill) remained off the pitch as symptoms of diarrhoea and vomiting returned, England predictably could not hold off the inevitable for long, as the mis-match was concluded by mid-afternoon.
The circumstances of their failed last stand were regrettable yet uncomfortably appropriate for a tour beset by an inability to compete with Australia in the middle and any number of unhelpful off-the-pitch distractions over the past two-and-a-half months.
Moeen survived for almost an hour in Root's initial absence until he fell - as he has almost without exception throughout the series - to his opposite number Nathan Lyon (three for 54).
This time, the seventh in ninth innings, he pushed forward defensively but missed and was lbw.
Root strode out, or rather in his compromised circumstances shuffled a little, to a standing ovation from supporters of all persuasions as they showed their admiration for the Yorkshireman's tenacity.
He had scampered every one of his hard-earned 42 runs in near city-record 47 degree heat the previous day, although England were at pains to stress the captain's subsequent viral illness was in no way connected to that doubtless exhausting experience.
Either way, Root was soon rewarded on his return with his first boundary - a full ball from Mitchell Starc squeezed wide of gully to bring up a 130-ball half-century.
At lunch, with Root and Jonny Bairstow established again together, there was just a sliver of realistic belief that England could perhaps pull off a remarkable stalemate.
The illusion was broken, though, before any Englishman took guard for the second session - because neither of the combatants was Root, so washed out back in the dressing-room that he was barely able to stay awake to watch the final acts out in the middle.
Bairstow had kept out 142 balls for his determined 38 only to be pinnned lbw by Cummins, who then wasted little time bouncing out Stuart Broad and Mason Crane on his way to an eight-wicket match haul on his home ground.
Josh Hazlewood administered what became the final blow of an often hugely one-sided series when James Anderson was caught-behind fencing at a short ball, and Root wisely decided discretion was a better option than any further futile valour.
Day four report
Joe Root's last stand was all that feasibly stood between England and 4-0 Ashes embarrassment as they diced with a landslide innings defeat at the SCG.
Shaun and Mitch Marsh completed their centuries, finishing respectively with 156 and 101 out of Australia's monumental first-innings 649 for seven on day four of the final Test.
Then Steve Smith's mid-afternoon declaration put the onus on England to reveal a resilience which has been lacking throughout the winter - and they formed no new habits on the way to 93 for four, still 210 adrift, despite their captain's unbeaten 42 from 124 balls.
In extreme conditions, city record 47 degree heat under near cloudless skies, the tourists were softened up by the Marshes - who took their fifth-wicket stand to 169.
By each passing an Ashes century in the same innings, the two sons of former Test opener Geoff were emulating deeds of two previous sets of Australian brothers - the Chappells in 1972 and the Waughs in 2001, both at The Oval.
England's batsmen were then unsurprisingly vulnerable.
Alastair Cook became only the sixth in history to pass 12,000 Test runs but then succumbed to a perfectly-pitched Nathan Lyon off-break which pinned him on the back foot and turned past the outside edge to hit off-stump.
Mark Stoneman was already gone by then, lbw on the defence to Mitchell Starc, and James Vince fell in all too typical fashion when he edged Pat Cummins to second slip off the back foot.
Root dug in manfully, battling on after a nasty bang on the finger from Starc.
He lost Dawid Malan lbw to a Lyon arm ball in the last hour, but Jonny Bairstow was skillful enough to help his fellow Yorkshireman at least close out the day.
The morning session was as unequal as any in this conspicuously one-sided series.
It began with Marsh the elder bagging his second century of the winter, cover-driving the fifth ball of the day off Moeen Ali for his 11th four to move from 98 to 102 off 212 deliveries.
England had to look sheepishly elsewhere during the Marsh celebrations, twice over when Mitch repeated the dose - his hundred, also a second in the series, much quicker from just 140 balls and containing 15 fours and two sixes.
Tom Curran briefly interrupted the carnival, though.
The Marshes had almost stranded themselves with a mid-pitch embrace before each hastily making their ground for the two runs which took Mitch to his century; then one ball later, he lost his off-stump to one that nipped back.
Australia's uncompromising means to an end nonetheless continued into the afternoon, as Stuart Broad was left stuck on 399 career wickets and Mason Crane's experience perhaps encapsulated the tourists' strife best of all as he recorded the most expensive figures by any English debutant - 48-3-193-1.
There was a symmetry too in that his unwanted record exceeded Devon Malcolm's at Trent Bridge in 1989 - when Geoff Marsh dished out plenty of the punishment.
Here, his eldest son eventually followed the younger back, run out by a direct-hit from Stoneman at cover as he responded to a call for a single, before Starc was last out to a miscued slog at Moeen.
The declaration left England with an hour to bat till tea, and almost instantly they found a different kind of trouble.
Day three report
Outclassed England finished Sydney's pink Test day red in the face from thankless toil and surely a touch of embarrassment too over a looming 4-0 Ashes endgame.
Their efforts brought a maiden Test wicket for Mason Crane but little else to celebrate as Usman Khawaja's painstaking, five-and-a-half-hour 171 and Shaun Marsh's unbeaten 98 helped Australia cruise into a lead of 133 on 479 for four.
Day three at the SCG Test is marked by wall-to-wall pink attire, a stipulation which has reached its 10th anniversary and is almost universally observed as funds are raised for the McGrath Foundation cancer charity.
Against that colourful backdrop, Khawaja eventually succumbed to Crane - who thought he had his man more than two hours and 39 runs earlier only for a no-ball overstep to rule out lbw on DRS for the debutant leg-spinner.
He struck instead in his 31st over, and the innings' 131st, when he had Khawaja stumped – but before the close, an all Marsh alliance between Shaun and Mitch merely extended England's suffering.
The tourists managed only two wickets in the day as Khawaja shared stands of 188 with Steve Smith (83) and then 101 with the elder Marsh – whose little brother then weighed in with his half-century from only 64 balls, including six fours and two sixes, en route to 63 not out at stumps.
By tea, England were already in a deeply unenviable position.
They had mustered a solitary success in 60 overs and two full sessions – albeit that of their nemesis Smith.
There was slow turn available but mostly just solid, unrewarded graft for all England's bowlers.
It was to their credit that they did not wilt to the point of offering easy runs, despite stifling heat under cloudless skies.
Neither, though, did they very often pose a credible threat – and on the one occasion they ought to have had Khawaja, in the over which followed Smith's departure and the last before lunch, Crane shot himself in the foot with his marginal overstep.
It was a close call but controversial in only very few eyes as Crane had nothing behind the line when his front foot landed.
In an uncanny repeat of circumstances which ruled out maiden wickets for Ben Stokes in Adelaide 2013, Tom Curran last week in Melbourne and Mark Wood in between, it was nonetheless cruel on Crane.
His leg-break from round the wicket would have hit the top of middle-stump as Khawaja played no shot and therefore won the overturn lbw on DRS.
A rare mistake from Smith had provided England's first breakthrough in more than 60 overs, when the prolific Australia captain chipped a low caught-and-bowled back to Moeen Ali off a closed face.
Khawaja and Marsh then, however, batted through the middle session with no hint of bother.
Marsh completed his careful, 121-ball 50 with his sixth four just before the break.
But almost immediately afterwards, Australia at last lost their mainstay Khawaja as Crane deservedly struck.
The 20-year-old saw the studious left-hander on the charge, so drifted a leg-break wider before it turned back through the gate to have him stumped.
If England thought they had just the breakthrough they needed, however, they were sadly mistaken – because Marsh and Marsh were in the mood for increasingly swift consolidation in yet another century partnership.
Day two report
England endured a frustrating second day of the final Ashes Test as Usman Khawaja eased Australia into an advantageous position at the SCG.
Stuart Broad was left one wicket short of a famous milestone – on 399 in Tests – while Steve Smith bagged yet another in his prolific series as he joined Garfield Sobers as the second-quickest batsman to 6,000 runs.
Half-centuries from Khawaja (91no) and David Warner (56) were the most telling contributions, however, as the hosts reached 193 for two at stumps in reply to 346 all out.
England's tailenders responded well to the early loss of Dawid Malan (62) to add 113 for their last five wickets, despite Pat Cummins' four for 80 on his home ground.
Then, however, the fine margins did not favour Joe Root's men as several edges went to ground or just wide of the fielders after Broad had given them an early boost when he bowled opener Cameron Bancroft for a duck to move to 399 wickets.
The morning session was full of flawed but often entertaining cricket, interspersed with occasional brilliance.
Very much in the last category was Smith's memorable catch at second slip, diving low to his left to hold on one-handed off Mitchell Starc and end Malan's four-hour, 180-ball vigil.
England's last specialist batsman added only seven to his overnight score, and those who had cited a fragile tail before this match began were predicting a hasty flake-out from 251 for six.
It did not turn out that way, thanks to spirited batting – and some awful out-cricket from Australia.
Cummins uncharacteristically put down a straightforward chance from a poor shot by Tom Curran off Nathan Lyon at mid-on.
Then immediately given the chance to put right his error when Smith introduced him into the attack at the other end, Cummins had to watch in disbelief as Josh Hazlewood failed to even touch an easier catch at midwicket after a hapless flap at a short one by Moeen Ali.
It was a passage of play which would not have been out of place a couple of miles up the road on Bondi Beach.
But credit nonetheless to England, who took advantage with stands of 43 and then 41 for the seventh and eighth wickets as Broad – emboldened perhaps by his 50 in Melbourne last week – rode his luck with some big-hitting on the hook.
Moeen had by then gloved a good short ball behind off Cummins, and Curran propped another to short-leg, before Broad contrived to mistime a slog at Nathan Lyon so badly that it skewed gently back over his own head for an unmissable slip catch.
There was still an appropriately comedic end of the innings to come, when Mason Crane was last out in a run-out mix-up with James Anderson over an attempted leg-bye single.
Broad then wasted no time beating Bancroft's loose defence with just his second delivery to bowl the opener through the gate.
Warner predictably proved a tougher nut to crack, but Anderson had the answer with an off-cutter which took the outside-edge for caught-behind to break a stand of 85 just before tea.
England were disciplined with the ball, but Khawaja brought up his 50 by using his feet for a straight six off Moeen, and Smith reached his 6,000 in his 111th innings – 43 more than Don Bradman but the same as Sobers – in an unbroken century partnership.
Day one report
Joe Root again failed to convert 50 into a century as he undid his good work late on day one of the final Ashes Test at the SCG.
On his return to the ground where he was dropped as a novice batsman at the end of England's 5-0 Ashes whitewash four years ago, Root (83) played admirably until he flicked a catch to square-leg in Mitchell Starc's first over with the second new ball eight minutes before stumps.
It ended a hard-working stand of 133 between the captain and Dawid Malan (55no), which was then undermined when Jonny Bairstow also fell caught-behind to Josh Hazlewood's last ball of the day in England's 233 for five after Root had chosen to bat first.
Root's trademark frailty extended his sequence of 50s without centuries to 16 out of the last 19 occasions in Tests – an aggravating statistic for one of the world's best batsmen.
England badly needed him to stay put as they seek a consolation victory to restrict the series defeat to 3-1 – having faltered to 95 for three, before Root and Malan focused their minds on a flat pitch.
After a rain-delayed start and early lunch, the extended first session was very much a mixed bag for the tourists.
Mark Stoneman and James Vince impressed briefly and then frustrated too, as they have for so much of a flawed campaign.
There was some crisp timing from the opener until he was caught-behind on the back foot off Pat Cummins.
Then Vince repeated the dose, one pull in front of square off Cummins an especially memorable shot only for another of his stylish cameos to be cut abruptly short when he went to cut the same bowler and also edged behind.
Alastair Cook was on the brink of another major milestone, five short of 12,000 career runs after counting successive back-foot fours off the previously miserly Nathan Lyon, when he fell foul of DRS precision to go lbw.
Umpire Joel Wilson did not give Cook out, on the basis the delivery from Josh Hazlewood might easily have pitched outside leg – but Steve Smith reviewed and was rewarded when technology marginally ruled the ball landed in line, rather than umpire's call.
Two wickets had fallen for seven runs, after a stand of 60, and the onus was on Root to vindicate his own decision at the toss.
He shouldered the responsibility very seriously, to the extent that he and Malan collected only eight runs in the eight overs after tea – including an off-driven four by the captain off an off-colour Starc.
Malan was more circumspect still, and had two scrapes either side of 30 – first in a mix-up over a single, reprieved by faulty fielding from Mitchell Marsh at point and wicketkeeper Tim Paine, then when Smith failed to lay a hand on a half-chance low to his right at slip from an edge off Lyon.
Smith tried to play on his opposite number's likely insecurities between 50 and 100, the home attack bowling with great discipline and two men back on the hook to pace.
It very nearly paid off when Root mis-cued Cummins on 67 – but unlike in Melbourne last week, the ball landed safely between the two outfielders.
Malan had another escape too, on 39, when Cameron Bancroft's throw missed the stumps after he advanced to Lyon and hit the ball straight to short-leg.
England needed some fortune then, no doubt, but had done so much right until Root's telling late mistake and then the wicket of Bairstow. Questions will undoubtedly be asked why a night-watchman was not deployed following the England captain's dismissal with only a few minutes left of the day's play.