Ashes 4th Test Review
England finally won a Test in Australia again, and of all the ways it could happen, it happened in Melbourne in a match so chaotic the sport almost looked embarrassed by it.
Fourth Test. MCG. Boxing Day energy. Ninety-thousand in the stands. And the whole thing was done inside two days.
England won by four wickets, chasing 175 in less than 33 overs, breaking a 15-year drought on Australian soil. The Ashes were already gone at 3–0 down, so this wasn’t a comeback. It was pride, survival, and proof of life. And it came in conditions so hostile that nobody got a half-century in the entire match. Not one.
This was not a classic in the romantic sense. It was a knife fight.
The pitch was extreme. It did everything. Seam, bounce, sideways movement, enough chaos to make top-order technique feel optional. The ICC later rated it “unsatisfactory”, which tells you how far it leaned into bowler-friendly madness. Sixteen wickets fell on day two, twenty on day one, and batters spent the match looking like they were trying to survive a weather event.
Australia never found stability. They made 152 in the first innings and were then bowled out for 132 in the second. England did not so much outplay them as outlast them. Brydon Carse was huge, and Ben Stokes did what Stokes always does when the tour is bleeding. He grabbed the game by the throat, threw himself into spells, and forced Australia into the kind of messy fight England have been begging for all series.
Then came the chase. And this is where Bazball finally found the perfect environment. Not because it was smart. Because it was suited to chaos. If the ball is unplayable, the only way through is sometimes to swing first and ask questions later.
Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett came out like they had a flight to catch, putting on 51 in 6.5 overs. Carse was promoted to number three as a pinch-hitter, which tells you how committed England were to making it a sprint, not a marathon. Jacob Bethell played the one genuinely composed innings of the chase with 40, the sort of knock that doesn’t look glamorous until you realise everyone else is one ball away from walking back.
Australia still made it ugly. They took six wickets. They created enough moments for the crowd to believe in a late twist. But England kept moving forward. The winning runs came in suitably ridiculous fashion too, off Harry Brook’s thigh pad, because this match refused to end normally.
It was England’s first Test win in Australia since 2011. It was also the most bizarre advertisement for why batters drink heavily.
What it means is simple. Australia still lead 3–1 and had already retained the Ashes. But the clean sweep is gone, and England finally have something tangible to point to beyond speeches about intent. They can win here. Not consistently. Not comfortably. But they can.
The bigger concern is what Melbourne says about the series as a whole. When you have a Boxing Day Test wrapped in two days, no fifties, and the pitch officially judged too bowler-friendly, you don’t just get a weird result. You get an argument about what Test cricket is supposed to look like.
England will take the win and run. Australia will take the urn and move on. Melbourne will be left answering questions.
