England on Tuesday equaled the unfortunate record for the most Test defeats in a calendar year after going down by an innings and 14 runs in the Boxing Day Test against Australia in the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Trailing by 51 runs at the start of Day 3, England resumed on their overnight score of 31 for 4 but lost their remaining six wickets for just 37 runs to match the Australian record for 9 Test defeats in a calendar year.
The Aussies had registered 9 Test defeats in 2003 under Ricky Ponting and now has England skipper Joe Root for company in the unfortunate list.
England’s 68-all out is also their 13th-lowest score in Test cricket. Debutant Scott Boland bagged a six-wicket haul in the final innings on his home ground to lead the charge for the Aussies, who have now retained the Ashes after securing an unbeatable 3-0 series lead with two Tests in Sydney and Hobart in the New Year.
Boland, only the second Indigenous Australian to play a men’s test match, strolled off the Melbourne Cricket Ground turf with a stump and astonishing innings figures of 6-7 as England’s batsmen capitulated for 68 before lunch on day three.
“I thought we had a pretty good chance of winning but I had no idea we would do it before lunch,” said Victorian Boland, who won the Johnny Mullagh medal as player of the match in front of his home crowd.
“That’s my best ever figures … Nothing happened that quickly. Obviously I thought (debuting) was going to be really tough, a big step up from anything else I’d played before. I was hoping to make a bit of an impact.
“I’d like to thank the crowd so much for the support over the last three days, I really appreciate it,” added the 32-year-old.
