Australia huff and puff to final Test win as England reduced to Ashes

Sydney: Mitchell Starc took 31 wickets. Travis Head posted three centuries and tallied 629 runs. Alex Carey completed 28 dismissals.

The bowling, batting and fielding performances feature highly on the all-time lists for Aussies in the Ashes, underscoring Australia’s dominance in the 4-1 series win that was completed on Day 5 of the fifth Test with a five-wicket in Sydney.

“Yeah, it has been magnificent,” Steve Smith, Australia’s stand-in captain for four of the five Tests in the absence of Pat Cummins, said of the individual contributions. “I think everyone’s stood up at different times. (Starc, Head and Carey) were obviously huge standouts, but other guys stood up at different times throughout the series and, you know, that’s what makes a good team.”

The Australians bowled England out for 342 on the fifth morning of the series finale and, chasing 160 for victory, finished 161-5 with Carey hitting the winnings runs and Cameron Green unbeaten on 22. Usman Khawaja was sent into retirement with a guard of honor and a standing ovation.

“It was nice to finish on a high note,” said Smith, who scored a century in the first innings to move up to No. 6 on the all-time list. “We know the importance of every test match with the World Test Championship, so to get the result here and finish the series on a high was incredibly pleasing.”

The Australians retained the Ashes with wins in the first three Tests, but England was determined to narrow the margin after its drought-breaking win in Melbourne.

“Tough one to take knowing that we can play a lot better than that, but ... the Australian cricket team, they’ve just been incredible for five test matches,” injured England captain Ben Stokes said. “But also, being pretty truthful to ourselves, we’ve done a little bit of damage ourselves.”