The WACA seemed to be unwilling to end the 3rd Test of the Ashes series. The nature cried as WACA came closure to its farewell. The match could have ended earlier if rain had not interrupted it at the end of yesterday and in the morning today.

England lost the Test by an innings and 41 runs and are going through a 3-0 deficit. Their job was to bat for most, if not all, of the final day. As they lost 6 wickets scoring 86 runs on day-5, Australia wrapped up the series in today’s overly successful single-session.

Although this decade has seen five such occurrences, including the aforesaid, when a team faced an innings defeat in a Test despite registering 400+ runs in their 1st innings, the last such incidence before this decade, took place in 1930, when England and Australia faced each other at the Oval. The last time England experienced an innings defeat in Perth was in 2002.

England’s total of 403 went past India’s 402(1977), scored in the 1st innings in a losing cause at WACA. Today’s loss was also the 8th successive one for England at this venue, most by any team at a single venue alongside Zimbabwe’s 8 defeats at Bulawayo.

England, regardless of the two centuries from Dawid Malan and Jonny Bairstow in the 1st innings, failed to capitalize on the situations. As a result, they had to face a 259 runs’ lead which finally went on to deciding their fate.

In their 2nd period of batting, England scored 132/4 at the end of the 4th day. On day-5, they got their only half-century from Malan as he made 54 runs before getting dismissed by Hazlewood. Before him, Jonny Bairstow, scoring 14, gave his wicket away to the same bowler and Moeen Ali was trapped lbw by Nathan Lyon.

Pat Cummins got the wickets of Chris Woakes and Stuart Broad, who scored 22 and a duck respectively. Hazlewood completed his five-wicket haul by getting Craig Overton dismissed at 12 runs.

Australia, with a massive total of 662/9 in the 1st innings, were well on board on their way to clinching a victory. England after their first innings of batting fielded for almost two days as a mammoth 301 runs’ partnership was built by the Aussie skipper—Steven Smith and his team’s comeback figure—Mitchell Marsh.

After the match, the captain of the losing side—Joe Root—said, “It’s very frustrating that we’ve not managed to be ruthless. Sometimes things can slip away from you without you realising; maybe we needed to be a bit smarter at times. A lot of credit has to go to Australia; they’ve won the key moments.

 On the other hand, the Baggy Green’s skipper said, “I’ve been pleased with the way the inexperienced lads have batted. You want people like myself with more experience to chip in and I haven’t been able to do that. I feel like I’ve tried absolutely everything as a captain on the field.”

“So much preparation has gone into this and to wrap it up in three matches is exceptional. The fast bowlers are absolute superstars. They each bring something different to the group. A lot of work has been done to ensure they were fit for this series. And Nathan Lyon is bowling as well as I’ve ever seen.

“I’m incredibly excited about celebrating with all the boys and the support staff tonight. We deserve to have a really good celebration.”

There was no surprise as Steve Smith got the Man of the Match award for playing his career-best innings of 239 runs in the 1st innings. Winning it, he said, “I couldn’t care less who gets Man of the Match to be honest with you. I’m just so proud of the boys; to get that urn back, it’s quite amazing. Nathan Lyon and the fast bowlers have been magnificent.

“We haven’t won a toss and we’ve probably had the toughest of the conditions. The boys have done a terrific job to get 20 wickets in every game. It was horrible last night, I’ve never seen weather like that here in Perth. The boys started really well this morning, and we worked really hard to get those last wickets.