England Cricket Team vs Australian Men’s Cricket Team match scorecard: A Two-Day Ashes Classic at the MCG

Four completed innings. Under 180 runs in every single one of them. A cricket match that started on Boxing Day and was finished by the second afternoon.

England beat Australia by 4 wickets in the 4th Test of the Ashes 2025-26 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and in doing so, won a Test match in Australia for the first time in 15 years. This England Cricket Team vs Australian Men’s Cricket Team match scorecard covers a genuinely rare kind of Test: one where the pitch became as much of a story as the players.

Match in 30 Seconds

Detail	Match information
Match	4th Test, The Ashes 2025-26
Venue	Melbourne Cricket Ground
Dates	26-27 December 2025 (finished inside 2 days)
Toss	England won the toss and elected to field first
Australia’s totals	152 and 132
England’s totals	110 and 178/6
Result	England won by 4 wickets
Series context	Australia led the 5-match series 3-1 after this Test
Historic significance	England’s first Test win in Australia in 15 years

The one-line story: On a pitch the ICC would later rate “unsatisfactory,” Josh Tongue’s bowling across all four innings and a calm fourth-innings platform from Ben Duckett and Jacob Bethell carried England to a genuinely rare away Test win.

What people think is that a two-day Test finish always reflects one dominant team steamrolling a weak opponent. The reality here was messier and more interesting: both teams struggled throughout, and the match was decided by which side could survive the conditions marginally better in the fourth innings.

England Cricket Team vs Australian Men’s Cricket Team Match Scorecard

Australia’s first innings: 152 all out in 45.2 overs

Batter	Runs	Balls	Dismissal
Travis Head	20	—	c & b Atkinson
Jake Weatherald	—	—	c Smith b Tongue
Marnus Labuschagne	—	—	c Root b Tongue
Steven Smith	—	—	b Tongue
Usman Khawaja	35	55	c Smith b Root (via review)
Alex Carey	17	34	c Crawley b Stokes
Cameron Green	43	91	run out
Mitchell Starc	—	—	b Tongue
Total	152	45.2 overs

Fall of wickets: 27/1 (Head), 31/2 (Weatherald), 34/3 (Labuschagne), 51/4 (Smith), 89/5 (Khawaja), 91/6 (Carey), 143/7 (Green), 152/8, 152/9, 152/10.

England bowling: Josh Tongue 11.2-4-55-5, Brydon Carse 12-3-42-1, Gus Atkinson 14-4-28-2, Ben Stokes 8-1-25-1.

England’s first innings: 110 all out in 29.5 overs

Batter	Runs	Balls	Dismissal
Zak Crawley	5	14	c Smith b Starc
Ben Duckett	—	—	c Neser b Starc
Jacob Bethell	—	—	c/lbw Boland
Joe Root	—	—	c Carey b Neser
Harry Brook	16	—	lbw b Boland
Ben Stokes	10	10	c Smith b Boland
Brydon Carse	—	—	c Boland b (caught in deep)
Gus Atkinson	—	—	b (cleaned up)
Total	110	29.5 overs

Fall of wickets: 7/1 (Duckett), 8/2 (Bethell), 8/3 (Crawley), 16/4 (Root), 66/5 (Brook), 68/6 (Smith Jamie Smith), 77/7 (Jacks), 83/8 (Stokes), 91/9 (Carse), 110/10 (Atkinson).

Australia bowling: Mitchell Starc 6-0-23-2, Michael Neser 10-1-45-4, Scott Boland 9-1-30-3, Jhye Richardson 4-1-8-0.

Australia’s second innings: 132 all out in 34.3 overs

Batter	Runs	Balls	Dismissal
Scott Boland	6	17	c Smith b Atkinson
Travis Head	15	21	b Carse
Jake Weatherald	18	30	b (bowled)
Marnus Labuschagne	24	39	c Root b Tongue (review overturned)
Usman Khawaja	—	—	c Pope b Tongue
Alex Carey	—	—	c Brook b Stokes
Cameron Green	19	29	c Brook b Carse
Total	132	34.3 overs

Fall of wickets: 22/1 (Boland), 40/2 (Weatherald), 61/3 (Labuschagne), 82/4 (Head), 83/5 (Khawaja), 88/6 (Carey), 119/7 (Green), 120/8 (Neser), 121/9 (Starc), 132/10 (Richardson).

England bowling: Gus Atkinson 5-1-20-1, Brydon Carse 11-3-34-4, Josh Tongue 11-2-44-2, Ben Stokes 7.3-1-24-3.

England’s second innings: 178/6 in 32.2 overs (chasing 175)

Batter	Runs	Balls	Dismissal
Zak Crawley	37	48	lbw
Ben Duckett	34	26	bowled (yorker)
Brydon Carse	6	8	caught
Jacob Bethell	40	46	caught
Joe Root	15	38	lbw (umpire’s call)
Harry Brook	18*	—	not out
Ben Stokes	2	—	caught behind
Jamie Smith	3*	—	not out
Extras	23	—	8 b, 10 lb, 5 nb
Total	178/6	32.2 overs

Fall of wickets: 51/1 (Duckett), 65/2 (Carse), 112/3 (Crawley), 137/4 (Bethell), 158/5 (Root), 165/6 (Stokes).

Australia bowling: Mitchell Starc 10-0-55-2, Michael Neser 8-1-54-0, Jhye Richardson 5.2-1-22-2, Scott Boland 9-0-29-2.

Highlights and Key Moments

1. The two-day finish, innings by innings

Australia’s first innings of 152 fell in 45.2 overs. England’s reply of 110 lasted only 29.5. Australia’s second innings of 132 took 34.3 overs. England’s chase of 175 was completed in 32.2. Four completed innings, one entire Test match, finished before the end of the second day’s play.

What most people miss: a two-day Test finish is often assumed to mean one team was completely outclassed. Here, both sides bowled well and both sides batted poorly the match was less about a talent gap and more about which team could find just enough runs and wickets at the right moments on a genuinely difficult surface.

2. Josh Tongue’s five-wicket haul sets the tone

Tongue took 5/55 in Australia’s first innings, then added two more wickets in the second innings, finishing with match figures that shaped the entire contest. His new-ball partner-in-crime, Brydon Carse, contributed across both Australian innings as well.

Counterintuitive point: in a match this low-scoring, it would be easy to assume the bowling was simply too good for either batting lineup to cope with. The more precise reading is that Tongue specifically found a length and seam movement that Australia’s middle order, in particular, never solved while England’s own batters faced a similar but not identical problem against Starc, Neser, and Boland.

3. The “unsatisfactory” pitch: what the ICC actually said

Following the match, the ICC rated the MCG pitch “unsatisfactory” the third tier in its four-level rating system, a genuinely rare and significant sanction that also results in a demerit point for the venue.

Bold opinion: a pitch rating this severe should reframe how this entire match gets remembered. It wasn’t simply “an exciting, fast-paced Test” it was a surface that made genuinely elite Test batters on both sides look consistently uncomfortable, to the point where cricket’s own governing body formally intervened after the fact.

4. Bethell’s role in England’s fourth-innings success

Jacob Bethell made 40 off 46 balls in England’s successful chase, forming a key part of the innings alongside Zak Crawley’s 37 and Ben Duckett’s rapid 34. ESPN’s own post-match analysis was direct: “Bethell late than never, but No. 3 is his to lose now” a reference to the ongoing debate about whether he should have started the series in that specific batting position ahead of Ollie Pope.

This is where things go wrong for a selection panel, in hindsight: if Bethell’s technique suits the No. 3 role this well on a genuinely hostile pitch, the broader question becomes why that decision wasn’t made from the start of the series, rather than only after the Ashes had already been decided.

Player Performance Breakdown

Josh Tongue: the bowler who dominated all four innings

Tongue’s 5/55 in the first innings was the standout individual bowling performance of the match, and he remained a threat throughout Australia’s second innings as well.

Original observation: Tongue’s success across two separate Australian innings, on the same surface, suggests his method full, seam-presenting deliveries that moved off the pitch was specifically suited to these conditions rather than being a one-off spell. That distinction matters for England’s team planning heading into future matches on similar surfaces.

Ben Duckett and Jacob Bethell England’s fourth-innings platform

Duckett’s rapid 34 off 26 balls, including a description of his innings as “a priceless cameo” before he was bowled by a “piledriver of a yorker,” gave England’s chase early momentum. Bethell’s more measured 40 off 46 then anchored the middle of the innings.

Practical lesson for batting partnerships in a low-scoring chase: Duckett’s aggression and Bethell’s relative solidity worked because they served different, complementary purposes one attacking the bowling early to relieve pressure, the other absorbing time and building a platform once early wickets threatened to derail the chase.

Steven Smith a rare batting failure in a low-scoring match

Smith was dismissed cheaply in Australia’s first innings and continued to struggle in the second, at one point exposing what commentary described as “a major technical deficiency” against the moving ball. For a batter of his caliber, back-to-back low scores in this specific Test stood out even within an overall low-scoring match.

What people think vs reality: fans often assume elite batters like Smith are simply immune to genuinely difficult conditions. This match is a reminder that even the best players in the world can be exposed by a pitch and bowling combination that specifically targets a known technical vulnerability.

Brydon Carse wickets across both Australian innings

Carse took a wicket in Australia’s first innings and four more in the second, including what commentary called “one heck of a nut” to dismiss Travis Head a delivery praised as nearly comparable to one of the most famous deliveries in recent Ashes history.

Common mistake in analysis: focusing entirely on the headline bowler (Tongue) and underrating the support seamer whose wickets, arriving at different intervals across the match, were just as important to sustaining pressure on Australia’s batting order throughout.

Analysis: Why England Ended a 15-Year Drought

The toss decision that shaped everything

England won the toss and chose to field first a decision that, given how the match unfolded, put Australia in first on a surface that would trouble every batting lineup that used it. Winning the toss and bowling first is often framed as the “safe” option; here, it directly set up England’s bowlers to exploit conditions before anyone had adapted to them.

Bold opinion: in a match this unpredictable, the toss decision deserves more credit than it typically receives in post-match analysis. England’s captain effectively chose to make Australia the first team to face bowling-friendly conditions, and that sequencing advantage never fully disappeared, even through two innings apiece.

A genuinely difficult pitch, not just a bad performance

What people think: four low totals in one Test usually reflects poor batting from both sides.

Reality: the ICC’s own “unsatisfactory” rating confirms this wasn’t simply a batting failure it was a pitch that fell below the standard expected for international cricket. That distinction matters when evaluating individual and team performances from this specific match; batting figures here should be read in the context of genuinely difficult, borderline-substandard conditions.

What this result meant for the series

Australia led the five-match series 3-1 after this Test, meaning the Ashes had already been retained before this match’s result was even decided. England’s win, while it didn’t change the outcome of the series, ended their specific 15-year wait for a Test victory on Australian soil.

Practical takeaway for reading a “dead rubber” result: a match that doesn’t affect the overall series outcome can still carry genuine historic weight for the team that needed the specific milestone. England’s players and fans treated this result as significant in its own right, separate from the already-decided series context.

Records, Series Context and Historical Guardrail

Records and milestones from this match

Milestone	Detail
England’s Test win in Australia	First in 15 years
Match duration	Finished inside two days of play
ICC pitch rating	“Unsatisfactory” — third tier of a four-level system, resulting in a demerit point
Series state after this Test	Australia led 3-1 in the 5-match series

The origin of the Ashes: a separate historical note

The name “The Ashes” originates from an 1882 Test match at The Oval, where Australia beat England on English soil for the first time, prompting a satirical obituary in a British newspaper mourning “the death of English cricket” and declaring that “the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.” That match, played under entirely different playing conditions and cricketing norms, is not connected to this 2025-26 4th Test beyond sharing the same historic rivalry name.

Format and series guardrail

Fixture	Correct context
England vs Australia, 4th Test, Ashes 2025-26, MCG (this article)	The two-day finish and 15-year drought-breaker — this article’s core scorecard
England vs Australia, 1st Test, Ashes 2025-26, Perth	A different match earlier in the same series
Australia vs England, 5th Test, Ashes 2025-26, Sydney	The series decider, played after this Test
England vs Australia, Only Test, 1882, The Oval	The historic origin match of the Ashes name — an entirely different era

Frequently Asked Questions