3 h. ago McCullum must be held to account even if England end Ashes with another win | Barney Ronay

A 3-2 series scoreline may make it hard to change coach but you don’t reward a failure of planning because the players clawed a bit back when it was too lateThere’s a good origins-story-style video in the Sky Sports masterclass archive. Filmed at Edgbaston in 2016, it shows the blue-sky brothers, Brendon McCullum and Rob Key, back when the world was still young, looking sharp and chiselled, laughing and joshing on the outfield, and nominally discussing how to bat in T20 cricket.And yes, the chemistry, well, the chemistry is overpowering. It almost feels like a romantic intrusion, the viewer cast as gooseberry. This is Coldplay kiss-cam energy. This is like watching Bacall and Bogart fall in love on screen. You know how to whistle don’t you, Keysey? You just put your lips together and enter into a transcendent game state. Continue reading...

Politics

51 h. ago England attack’s holiday fling might be the start of something more serious | Barney Ronay

If Josh Tongue and Brydon Carse can repeat their MCG displays, this may be more than a marriage of convenienceWhat does it mean? How should we feel? What are the roots that clutch? What branches grow out of this stony rubbish? For most of its combined 142 overs, watching England’s fourth Test victory in Melbourne felt like drifting in and out of a drunken sleep while trying and failing to follow the plot of a particularly gruelling action movie.Why is this car chase happening? Why is The Rock defusing a torpedo inside a collapsing Maya temple? Why are they running to the top of the nearest generic tall building for this final, final, final showdown? Wait. Will Jacks is playing? Continue reading...

Events

3 d. ago England's win to cost Australia MILLIONS as repercussions of rapid Ashes victory emerge

England ended their long wait win for a Test victory on Australian soil as Ben Stokes' side wrapped up victory inside two days with thousands of fans in line for refunds

Economics

3 d. ago England’s MCG triumph is a genuine coup – and a picture of what might have been | Barney Ronay

A properly prepped, balanced and weaponised team finally had the chops to expose Australia’s weaknessesNa-na na-na na-na na na na, Duckett’s on the piss. On the piss. Duckett’s on the piss.Don’t take me home, please don’t take me home. And while we’re here, stand up, stand up, please do stand up if you love a two-day Test on a pitch as green and ridged as an under-ripe roasting potato. For an hour in mid-afternoon on day two at the MCG England’s top order finally did the thing. The clocks stopped. Dogs miaowed. Birds flew backwards across the sky. And Test cricket turned into darts. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago Ben Stokes admits England’s chaotic Ashes win ‘not the best advertisement’ for Test cricket

England recorded a first Ashes Test win in Australia for 15 years by winning inside two days at the MCG, where chaos and mayhem reigned supreme

Politics

3 d. ago England emerge from the chaos to salvage some Ashes pride with wild two

England won an Ashes Test in Australia for the first time in 15 years, to end a run of 16 defeats and two draws across four tours

Events

3 d. ago England seal first win in Australia for 15 years to avoid Ashes whitewash

England chase down 175 to win by four wickets inside two days in Melbourne

Events

3 d. ago England survive MCG mayhem to break Ashes drought in Australia with win in fourth Test

4th Test, D2: England, 110 & 178-6, bt Australia, 152 & 132, by 4 wktsCrawley, Duckett and Bethell help set up win inside two daysStop press. Hold the back page. Drag out the dusty bunting and book three more nights in Noosa. England’s men have won a Test in Australia for the first time in nearly 15 years, chasing down 175 to win by four wickets and prevent an Ashes defeat from becoming a whitewash.Granted it was not a live victory, England merely dragging the scoreline back to 3-1 and doing so courtesy of a two-day heist on a pitch that made batting a lottery. But given the ordeal of this tour, and that grim run of 18 Tests without a win on Australian soil, it was not insignificant either. Though robbed of three days’ play, their supporters could finally crack a smile. Continue reading...

Events

3 d. ago Ashes LIVE: Shocking Aussie collapse gifts England chance to win first Ashes Test on Australian soil since 2010 as Boxing Day match goes down to the wire

DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA LIVE BLOG: Australia will be looking to pile up a big total after a chaotic opening day of the Boxing Day Ashes Test that saw 20 wickets fall

Events

4 d. ago Duckett and Bethell were dangled out to dry by failings of a slack setup | Barney Ronay

No rational judge could have expected England’s fall guys to succeed at the MCG where they were thrown on to a festive bonfireGuess who just got back today? Those wild-eyed boys that had been away. This was a day of brittle, over-caffeinated cricket, on an MCG pitch streaked with faint green ridges. But it was also a day when the boys were, however briefly, back in town.Ben Duckett and Jacob Bethell have been the two protagonists in the grainy, Zapruder-style footage from England’s six-day, mid-series jig-about by the sea. True to apparent recent form, both were here for a good time not a long time as England were bowled out for 110 in 29.5 overs. Both batted like men groping for the light switch in the dark against a new ball that seamed the width of the bat at times. Continue reading...

Events

4 d. ago Auf Wiedersehen, pets: Duckett and Bethell were (briefly) back in town but failings lie at the top | Barney Ronay

No rational judge could have expected England’s fall guys to succeed at the MCG where they were thrown on to a festive bonfire by a lack of red-ball cricket and a slack set-upGuess who just got back today? Those wild-eyed boys that had been away. This was a day of brittle, over-caffeinated cricket, on an MCG pitch streaked with faint green ridges at the start, like an under-ripe, peeled potato. But it was also a day when the boys were, however briefly, back in town.Ben Duckett and Jacob Bethell have been the two protagonists in the grainy, Zapruder-style footage from England’s six-day, mid-series jig-about by the sea. True to apparent recent form, both were here for a good time not a long time as England were bowled out for 110 in 29.5 overs. Both batted like men groping for the light switch in the dark against a new ball that seamed the width of the bat at times. Continue reading...

Events

7 d. ago English cricket meets Spinal Tap as Rob Key delivers latest Ashes autopsy | Barney Ronay

The England men’s cricket MD offered a postmortem that didn’t address the nuts and bolts of the system he manages“It’s such a fine line between stupid and clever.” David St Hubbins, lead vocalist Spinal Tap.“There’s a real difference between aggressive and dumb.” Rob Key, managing director, England cricket. Continue reading...

Politics

9 d. ago Arrogant England’s cricket machine collapses like a castle of dust in 11 days | Barney Ronay

So this is Christmas. And what have we done? The Ashes is over. With two Tests still to comeWhen the moment finally came the visuals were perfect: clean lines, neat angles, figures picked out in crisp afternoon sun against the almost satirical splendour of Adelaide Oval.Scott Boland took the final wicket to seal Australia’s unassailable 3-0 Ashes series lead, the 74th time this moment has been played out down the centuries, and immediately the white shapes converged to form a bobbing huddle. England’s batters stood in an attitude of formal deflation. The umpires began their priestly last-things walk, framed against that huge, empty, lime-green field. Continue reading...

Politics

9 d. ago England left crushed as Australia win the Ashes with Bazball project up in flames

England's Bazball philosophy was once again torn apart by Australia as they beat Ben Stokes & Co on the fifth day of the third Test by 82 runs to go 3-0 up in the series and retain the Ashes

Politics

9 d. ago Australia WIN the Ashes after just 11 days of cricket as England's fightback is too little, too late

England staged a brave fightback that gave them a glimpse of what would have been a record victory - but it was too little, too late to keep the fight for the urn alive.

Politics

9 d. ago Pat Cummins is in rare air as an Ashes captain. Can his Dad's Army go around again? | Geoff Lemon

He’s achieved an Ashes feat that few others have. But he’s still missing an outright win in EnglandStarc breaks England hearts again as Australia retain the AshesWhile it took longer than expected on the fifth day in Adelaide, eventually it was done. A series won, the Ashes retained for another year and a half until they next go up for grabs in England. For Pat Cummins, this makes three consecutive Ashes series captained without giving up the urn. The feat leaves him in sparse but fine company: the others to do it are Joe Darling, Don Bradman, Richie Benaud, Mike Brearley, Allan Border and Mark Taylor.It made things neater that Steve Smith missed this third Test, having captained the first two wins in Cummins’ absence, so that it didn’t feel like the full-time captain was swooping in to hoover up the stand-in’s lunch. Those situations can be odd, like Adam Gilchrist filling in to lead what was very much Ricky Ponting’s team, captaining two wins in India in 2004 before Ponting return...

Politics

1 week ago Harry Brook’s moment of madness a fitting epitaph for England’s flawed cult of Baz | Barney Ronay

The day was transformed in Australia’s favour by the batter’s failed swish, a perfect demonstration of talent being wasted and Test matches squanderedTough on Harry Brook, yes. But we must also be tough on the causes of Harry Brook. No child is born playing performative reverse-hoicks with a Test match to be saved, just as most acts of cult-like behaviour have their roots in a smooth-talking cult-like instructor.For England the beginning of the end of the age of Baz started when the disciples of Baz began to deny such a thing even existed; to insist that the buckle-up-and-enjoy-the-ride stuff didn’t actually exist at all, but was instead a creation of another, much worse cult, also known in this world as “the outside”. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago England on the brink of Ashes series loss as Australia duo hand hosts major advantage

Australia set England a target of 435 to win the Third Ashes Test at the Adelaide Oval

Politics

1 week ago Waste of Jacks’ talent speaks volumes for England’s bodged Ashes planning | Barney Ronay

The highly talented England player is simply being used for when either the batting or bowling goes wrongFor anyone still curious about the exact role of Will Jacks in this England Test team, the key is probably to see him as a kind of a tell, a set of entrails, a weather vane on the state of the game.The first rule of Jacks goes like this. If you can see Will Jacks on your TV screen, it’s bad. If Will Jacks is bowling when you wake up something has gone wrong. If Will Jacks is batting something has also probably gone wrong. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Travis Head piles more misery on England as Australia edge closer to Ashes win

Head struck a match-winning hundred in the first Test and another vital ton put his side in sight of an unassailable 3-0 lead.

Politics