The Ashes: England cope with the chaos on and off the field to give fans some Christmas cheer in astonishing MCG Test | Cricket News

Here is a little rundown for you.

• Sunday December 21: Lose the Ashes after 11 days of cricket
• Monday December 22: Head coach Brendon McCullum admits future out of his hands
• Tuesday December 23: Video footage emerges appearing to show Ben Duckett drunk
• Wednesday December 24: Key fast bowler Jofra Archer ruled for rest of series
• Thursday December 25: Light relief with pre-Test training in Christmas hats
• Friday December 26: Skittle Australia for 152 but then be rolled for 110 yourself
• Saturday December 27: Skittle Australia for 132 and then chase 175 to win at last

England’s week has been more eventful than Craig David’s in ‘7 Days’ but, like that musician, they were then able to chill on Sunday after beating Australia inside two days of a ridiculous Boxing Day Test to claim a first victory in the country in nigh on 15 years.

Ben Stokes’ side coped with the pre-match chaos, and then plenty more wackiness throughout the match on a fruity MCG pitch, to win by four wickets. The frustration was that it came with the series already having slipped through their fingers.

England have made a litany of errors in Australia, including preparation, shot selection and actual selection, but skipper Stokes probably got things spot-on in the build-up to the rapid Melbourne Test, most tellingly with how he was able to galvanise his team.

He pledged to support Duckett after that unwanted, and unverified, clip seemingly showing his team-mate intoxicated in Noosa had been circulated. Stokes knew first-hand how Duckett must be feeling after the Bristol incident back in 2017.

With England being accused of having a drinking culture, Stokes asked for “empathy” for players amid a gruelling schedule, having also had to field questions about his own future as leader earlier in the week after his men had tumbled 3-0 down.

After backing his players, his players subsequently backed him, doing enough to outlast Australia in a Boxing Day Test that careered along at breakneck speed and dash the hosts’ hopes of a 5-0 whitewash. Glenn McGrath’s prediction will now not come to pass.

I was very pleased for Stokes. It was a difficult build-up for him, not only because the team were 3-0 down but also because of the off-field stories, and I was very impressed with how he dealt with it. He basically wrapped his arms around the team and said ,‘I give them my full backing no matter what’. There are always things to play for even when you have lost a series and his team showed that they were committed to playing for him.

Carse promotion and Brook cameo add to the Melbourne ‘mayhem’

It would have been easy for England to fold after a 20-wicket opening day which them left them 46 runs behind but they returned the next morning to raze Australia for the second time in the game, helped by some injudicious shots and that helpful surface.

Pursuing 175 on that pitch was never going to be easy but England did so with typical and, on this occasion, wise aggression and there were relatively few jitters. In fact, the most eye-catching moment was probably when Brydon Carse strolled out to bat at No 3.

The experiment did not explicitly work – Carse making six off eight balls – but considering England won the game, it wasn’t an epic fail either and perhaps worked in the sense it gave Jacob Bethell slightly longer to prepare before he headed out at No 4 and scored 40.

There was “method to the mayhem”, as Stokes put it, adding: “The top order from both teams were struggling to consistently score runs and feel fluency, so we went with someone who’s got talent with the bat and a very good eye for hitting the ball.

“It didn’t quite come off, but the 15-20 minutes [Carse] spent out there made it a little bit easier for Bethell to build the innings he did.”

It was perhaps fitting that the winning runs came off Harry Brook – albeit off his backside as opposed to his bat – when you consider the vice-captain’s method of mayhem in the first innings was crucial in England securing victory in this low-scorer.

Brook has played numerous daft shots throughout the series, and we can probably add his wild swipe after charging Mitchell Starc first ball at the MCG to that, but his two outrageous sixes and as many fours in a 34-ball 41 – England’s highest innings of the game – proved key. Without that cameo, they may well be 4-0 down.

Brook’s knock showed there is a time and a place for Bazball: it makes sense to target quick runs on a pitch where there is likely to be a ball with your name on it soon enough.

It’s just a shame England were unable to park that mindset on previous pitches when composure, not chaos was required. They royally stuffed up in Perth and Brisbane.

Duckett and Bethell key as England complete victory

It was also fitting that Duckett and Bethell were England’s highest scorers in the final innings, with the former having struggled for runs on the field and had his apparent behaviour off it enter the conversation, and the latter spending too much time off the pitch after bursting onto the Test scene in New Zealand last winter.

Duckett looked all at sea – and not in a Noosa holiday kind of way – in the first innings as he spooned to mid-on but creamed 36 off 24 balls in the second, including an audacious ramped six, to get the chase off to a scorching start.

Bethell, meanwhile, rallied from a knock of one on Ashes debut a day earlier with a 46-ball innings of style and substance. Some of his cover driving was supreme. There was a reverse scoop, too.

It is possibly hard to read too much into a score of 40 – much like when a Premier League striker nets a hat-trick against inferior opposition in the FA Cup – but it also doesn’t mean nothing and Bethell does bat with an air of authority that the man he replaced in the XI, Ollie Pope, often struggles to locate.

England’s management of Bethell, which led to a distinct lack of first-class cricket for the player in 2025 before he was pressed into action in front of 90,000 at the MCG, has been branded “ridiculous” by Atherton but there is surely no mothballing him now. He looks set for a long run in the team, whether at No 3 or lower.

Victory may not be one to truly savour with the team’s Ashes dreams turned to dust by that point, but it did at least give fans something to smile about at last.

After a chaotic series, and an especially chaotic week, England delivered a timely Christmas present.

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