Australia has retained the Ashes after Manchester’s weather thwarted England on an anticlimactic final day of the fourth Test at Old Trafford.
The penultimate Test ended as a draw after the fifth day was abandoned, with Australia securing an unassailable 2-1 series lead ahead of next week’s finale at The Oval.
There was no play possible on Sunday’s final day and the result meant, Australia retained the Ashes with one match left in the series. Chris Woakes stole the show with the ball taking a five-wicket haul in the first innings and then Zak Crawley hammered a brilliant 189 along with Jonny Bairstow’s brilliant unbeaten 99. Joe, Root, Harry Brook and Ben Stokes made vital half-centuries. Mark Wood was terrific with a three-wicket haul but it was Marnus Labuschagne’s century that gave Australia hope with rain around.
Both team’s Captain in post match press Conference:-
Pat Cummins (Australian Captain):- Our preference is to come over here and win the Ashes. Not the greatest of circumstances but happy to retain it now. What happened today doesn’t really change how we look at the next game. It’s been an amazing group, we all turned up here very motivated. Will be a special week at The Oval. England batted really well, we tried a couple of plans but it didn’t work. We weren’t at our best so we’ll look into that. (On being asked about his fitness) Feel pretty good, having a break leading into this game was good. Probably haven’t bowled a lot of overs, feeling good. Marnus was fantastic with Marsh yesterday. He got to show his class out there. We all turned up here to win the series, retaining the Ashes is nice but we’re fully focussed on winning it.
Ben Stokes (England Captain):- It’s a tough one to take, you know. The kind of cricket we played on the first three days and to be on the wrong side of the weather, it’s a tough one. But it’s a part of the journey. I think coming into this game, it was a do or die game for us. Bowling them out for 320 and scoring 590, we couldn’t do much. We’ll have a lot of pride to play the next game. The injury to Pope made us think about the structure of the team. Very pleased with everyone’s effort. I have been vocal about Crawley, what Zak does is he changes the game, the way he plays and the way he takes the bowlers on. That was an incredible innings, we knew an innings like that was not far away. It’s amazing (their record). Broad and Jimmy have been unbelievable examples. Broad loves the battle and he loves playing against Australia, he has a good record against them. (When asked on having any regrets about Edgbaston) No. We know what the last game means to us as a team and we want to finish off on a high. Want the crowd to come out and support us.
Zak Crawley Was Selected as Man Of The Match In Ashes Fourth Test:-
Zak Crawley:- We were in a really good position to win but weather ruined it. We’ll go on to the next one and hope to win. We played a lot of good cricket on Day 3 and even yesterday but the rain cost us. We played really really well as a team. I’d say this is my best innings, it’s my favorite one. I felt in good touch, I knew a score was coming if I stuck with the process. I haven’t been stuck at one end against quality bowling, they haven’t had a chance to set me up. I’ve tried to take a few more singles and get boundaries when I get going. I take a lot of confidence, every bowler I’ve faced from their side has been high quality. Duckett is a phenomenal player, seen him score a lot of runs. We’re very different so it works quite well. Every game is massively important for us, we keep building.
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