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England Cricket Team
Australia retained the Ashes with two tests to spare after paceman Mitchell Starc took three of the last four wickets to blunt England's defiant comeback in the third cricket test. Australia started Day 5 needing four wickets to retain the Ashes, with England resuming at 6-207 and still 228 runs away from the victory target of 435 that would have required a world record to achieve. Starc took the only wicket in the morning session Jamie Smith for 60 as England piled on 102 runs. England's rally had narrowed the Ashes equation at lunch on the last day: Australia needed three wickets to clinch the old urn in Adelaide and England needed 126 runs to keep the five-match series alive. With England's lower-order doggedly mounting pressure and Australia's attack missing veteran spinner Nathan Lyon, who limped off the field with an injured hamstring, the leading bowler in the series delivered for the hosts. Starc was voted player of the match in Australia's eight-wicket wins in Perth and
Nathan Lyon severely dented England's desperate Ashes survival bid with three quick blows: vice-captain Harry Brook, bowled; captain Ben Stokes, bowled; leading scorer Zak Crawley, stumped. Just as England was starting to gain confidence Saturday chasing what needed to be a world-record 435 to keep the Ashes series alive, Lyon returned to the Australian attack. Crawley (85) and Brook (30) had combined in a 68-run stand to revive England's innings from 109-3 to 177-3 after Australia skipper Pat Cummins took out the top order. Then Lyon, who moved to No. 2 on Australia's all-time list of wicket-takers in the first innings, started a new spell in the evening session. On his second ball Lyon dismissed a cavalier Brook, who reached too far and completely missed an extravagant reverse sweep. The 38-year-old spinner quickly took three wickets for eight runs in a sequence that ripped through the middle order and suddenly England was 194-6. Stokes, England's totemic leader, was out trying