Cloudy skies early, then off and on rain showers overnight. Low 58F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%. Locally heavy rainfall possible..
Cloudy skies early, then off and on rain showers overnight. Low 58F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%. Locally heavy rainfall possible.
Updated: December 20, 2025 @ 7:39 pm
ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) — The Ashes equation at lunch on the last day of the third test is down to this: Australia needs three wickets to clinch the old urn in Adelaide and England needs 126 runs to keep the five-match series alive.
Australia started Day 5 needing four wickets to retain the Ashes, with England resuming at 6-207 and still 228 runs away from the victory target of 435 that would have required a world record to achieve.
England was defiant and dogged, adding 102 for the loss of Jamie Smith for 60 in the session. There's two sessions remaining.
Will Jacks ushered England through a morning session Sunday that was punctuated by a break for rain and an injury to Australia's star spinner Nathan Lyon.
Jacks, who rolled his ankle in a rut on the pitch and had to hobble through for a single early on Day 5, was unbeaten on 38 from 120 deliveries and batting with No. 9 Brydon Carse, who was unbeaten on 13.
England was 309-7, and tension was building as the touring British fans in the Barmy Army chanted, clapped and sang in support of their team.
Players had to leave the field because of rain at 241-6, with England needing 194 runs, but the match resumed and the sessions was extended by a half-hour to make up for lost time.
The seventh-wicket pair extended their partnership to 91, reducing the runs required from 228 to 150 before Smith ran out of patience and lofted Mitchell Starc out to Pat Cummins at wide mid-on.
Smith plundered boundaries on four consecutive balls he faced against Cummins and Starc, posting his seventh test half-century, before he was out for 60 from 83 balls. The score was 285-7 when Carse went to the crease.
It was Starc’s first wicket of the innings but his 20th of the series following his player-of-the-match performances in the big victories in Perth and Brisbane.
A day after swinging the momentum back in Australia's favor with a three-wicket burst, veteran spinner Lyon hurt his right hamstring diving to cut off a boundary in the outfield and was ruled out of the remainder of the match. He got up and clutched the back of his right leg before walking off with a trainer when England was 249-6.
After losing the first two tests in Perth and Brisbane, England needed a win in Adelaide to have any hope of reclaiming the Ashes. Australia needed only a draw to retain the old urn.
The Australian Associated Press noted Sunday that it had been 5,462 days since England last won a test match in Australia — dating back to January 2011.
Since then, the Australians have won the series Down Under 5-0, 5-0, 4-0, 4-0 and now need three wickets for a 3-0.
The highest successful fourth-innings run chase in test history was West Indies’ 418 in a three-wicket win over Australia in 2003.
England has successfully chased 370-plus targets twice to win against India in the last three years.
AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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