Australia crush England fightback to retain Ashes in Adelaide

England have lost the third Test against Australia in a humbling Ashes defeat.

Australia lead 3-0 with two test matches left to play as part of the five-match series in Adelaide, meaning the hosts are retaining the Ashes.

England were chasing a daunting 435 in the final innings to try and keep the series alive, but they fell well short, being bowled out for 352.

They were 82 short of the target, which was 17 higher than the world record and 57 more than any England team has managed.

This was the 18th Test without a victory for England, losing 16 of them and drawing two.

High expectations were resting on the shoulders of coach Ben Stokes's men ahead of the series, but a string of underwhelming performances means the wait to regain the Ashes continues for two more years when the series returns to England.

The dominant nature of Australia's victory will inevitably raise questions over the futures of Stokes as captain and Brendon McCullum as head coach.

"We obviously came here with a goal in mind and we haven't been able to achieve it. It hurts and it sucks," Stokes said.

"They've been able to outdo us on ‌a much higher level... I thought we did incredibly well to take us where we did in this fourth innings.

"We couldn't do what we came here to do but there was some good stuff to come out of ‌this game."

England lost the first Test in two days, the second in four days, and the third after the full five days, leaving Australia with an unassailable 3-0 lead after just 11 days.

This is a historical defeat and matches the unwanted record of Nasser Hussain's squad of 2002-03 by surrendering the urn in the shortest number of days for a five-day, five-match series.

England will now hope to avoid a 5-0 whitewash in the fourth and fifth Tests over the next few weeks.

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(c) Sky News 2025: Australia crush England fightback to retain Ashes in Adelaide