Melbourne, Dec. 28 (BUS): Australia kept the Ashes by landslide and 14 runs over England in the third Test in Melbourne on Tuesday, as peaceman Scott Boland took a six-wicket in his fantasy debut.
Boland, the second Indigenous Australian to play a men’s test match, walked out of Melbourne Cricket Ground with astonishing numbers 6-7 as the English batsmen surrendered 68 before lunch on the third day, Reuters reports.
“I thought we had a good chance to win but I had no idea we would do that before lunch,” Victorian Poland, who won the Johnny Malla medal as a player of the match, told his fans.
“These are my best numbers ever… Nothing happened so fast.
“Obviously I thought (debuting) was going to be really tough, a big step up from anything else I’ve played before. I was hoping to make some impact.
“I would like to thank the fans so much for the support they have given over the past three days, and I really appreciate it,” added the 32-year-old.
England had resumed play on 31-for-four, their hopes low on captains Joe Root and Ben Stokes building a partnership after another disastrous collapse late in the second day.
But it all went with smoke as soul man Mitchell Stark played the Stokes for 11 before Boland started a fantastic period of fast bowling in front of a sunny crowd of 40,945.
He had Jonny Bairstow lbw for five, Root out for 28 and Tailors Mark Wood and Ollie Robinson each for ducks.
Player of everything Cameron Green capped England’s humiliation by throwing James Anderson twice before his midday stroke.
Australia concluded the set 3-0 before the two remaining Tests in Sydney and Hobart.
“Just a fantastic few weeks, very proud of the group here and everything clicked,” said Australia captain Pat Cummins, who confidently led his team as a late substitute for Tim Payne ahead of the series.
“So happy for Scotty in front of his home crowd today, it feels great.”
England have only the pride to play for but it seems that they have so little left in reserve, with their top ranking being a huge problem.
The batsmen were flipped over 185 in the first innings and had yet to reach a total of 300 in the series.
“Thanks to Australia, they stunned us last night and outperformed us in this test match and in this series so far,” said Root.
“We have a lot of hard work to ensure that we come back strong in the last two games.”