Australia powered their way to a dominant 4–1 Ashes series victory after defeating England by five wickets in the fifth and final Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Chasing a target of 160 after England were bowled out for 342 in their second innings, the hosts wrapped up the match with authority to bring the 2025–26 Ashes campaign to a close.
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Australia briefly found themselves under mild pressure at 121 for 5, but wicketkeeper-batter Alex Carey and all-rounder Cameron Green held their nerve to finish the job. The pair added the winning runs before the tea break, guiding Australia to victory in just 23.1 overs of the chase.
Travis Head was named Player of the Match after producing another influential performance, scoring 163 in the first innings and 31 in the second. Meanwhile, senior pacer Mitchell Starc continued his outstanding series, finishing the match with five wickets, including key dismissals of England’s top-order batters and captain Ben Stokes.
Mitchell Starc enters elite Ashes company
Mitchell Starc capped off a memorable Ashes campaign by finishing with 31 wickets across five Tests at a superb average of 19.93. With that haul, the left-arm quick became only the fifth bowler this century to take 30 or more wickets in a single Ashes series, a list made up exclusively of Australians.
Starc now joins Shane Warne (2001, 2005), Glenn McGrath (2001) and Mitchell Johnson (2013–14) in an elite group of Ashes legends. His 31 wickets place him alongside Warne’s 2001 tally, further underlining the scale of his impact.
Starc set the tone early in the series with a career-best spell of 7 for 58 at the Optus Stadium in Perth. He followed that up with a six-wicket haul in Brisbane and also made a vital contribution with the bat, scoring a match-winning 77 as Australia raced to a 2–0 lead.
Remarkably, 18 of Starc’s 31 wickets came in the first two Tests alone, highlighting just how decisive his early strikes were in shaping the series. He maintained that momentum through the remaining matches, finishing the Ashes as Australia’s standout performer with the ball.
