Last Updated on 4 months ago by Charbel Coorey
England have finally broken their drought down under, winning their first Test in Australia since 2011 courtesy of a four-wicket win inside two days at the MCG. 36 wickets fell on two days in one of the craziest Tests on Australian soil, and this result will hit Cricket Australia’s pockets hard with up to US$10m in lost revenue expected.
Truth be told, it was a combination of very poor batting and a surprisingly spicy pitch that had fans frustrated. Australia’s batting on day two, with the opportunity to build a strong lead, left so much to be desired, with a host of poor dismissals. On a surface offering plenty of seam movement, Australia’s batters, like England yesterday, seemed to panic with a lack of trust in their defence.
At times, the action resembled a park cricket match as most players sought to hit out rather than fight through the difficult periods. This was particularly disappointing for Australia as England were a bowler down with Gus Atkinson going off with a hamstring injury. Brydon Carse (4/34), Ben Stokes (3/24) and man of the match Josh Tongue (2/44) all stepped up in his absense.
“They’ve only got themselves to blame with their batting today. Yes, it was difficult, but some of the dismissals we saw weren’t good enough for Test match cricket,” Ricky Ponting said on Channel 7, as quoted by Fox Sports.
Chasing 175, England chose to throw defence out the window and chance their hand. Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley combined for a crucial 51-run stand against some ill-disciplined Australian bowling, with Duckett in particular playing a host of audacious shots. Then, in another moment that would have sent shivers down the spine of all cricket purists, Brydon Carse was sent in at three to strike a few lusty blows.
Crawley then combined with Jacob Bethell (40) for a crucial 47-run stand. Joe Root (15) and Harry Brook (18*) ensured there was no back-to-back wickets as England reached the target with four wickets and more than three days to spare.
“Not Test cricket” – Fans fume at the state of play as MCG Boxing Day Test ends in two days
This is the second Test to end inside two days in this Ashes after Perth. However, the Perth Stadium track received the best possible rating as seam movement wasn’t as pronounced.
It will be a surprise if the MCG pitch doesn’t come under scrutiny from the ICC. The curators decided to leave 10mm of grass on the surface, and it resulted in one of the toughest batting pitches on Australian soil in the last 20 years. Given the 2023 and 2024 Tests against Pakistan and India were cracking matches played on balanced surfaces, it will be fascinating to hear the reasons as to why this MCG track needed to be different.
“Grass was left on this pitch because of the weather forecast for days three, four and five,” Kerry O’Keeffe said on Fox Cricket commentary. “And we haven’t even got there.”
CricViz’s overall PitchViz rating for this Test is 8.9 out of 10. This high score indicates tougher batting conditions. This is the highest for any Test in Australia since 2006, as reported by CODE Sports.
Fans and pundits expressed their disappointment on social media. Former England batsman Kevin Pietersen labelled the Test as an “utter shambles and complete disrespect to the greatest form of the game.”
Brydon Coverdale, former ESPNcricinfo writer and current chaser on The Chase Australia, said Test cricket is the loser in this situation.
Captains Ben Stokes and Steve Smith critical of MCG pitch
England captain Ben Stokes was critical of the pitch despite his team’s drought-breaking win.
“When you go out there and you’re faced with those conditions, you’ve got to crack on and deal with it. But being brutally honest, that’s not really what you want,” Stokes said.
“You know, Boxing Day Test match, you don’t want a game finishing in less than two days. It’s not ideal, but you can’t change it once you start the game and you’ve just got to play what’s in front of you.”
Australia captain Steve Smith echoed Stokes’ thoughts. “It was tricky. No one could really get in. I think when you see 36 wickets across two days, that’s probably too much,” he said.
“It probably did a little bit more than they wanted it to. Maybe if we dropped it down to eight millimetres [of grass], it would be about right.”
The fifth and final Test of the Ashes will be played at the Sydney Cricket Ground, starting January 4, 2026.
