Australia 371 and 349 (Head 170, Carey 72, Tongue 4-70) beat England 286 and 352 (Crawley 85, Smith 60, Jacks 47, Starc 3-42, Cummins 3-48, Lyon 3-77) by 82 runs
In the third Test, they rose again, but there was to be no Christmas miracle. Despite a gutsy fight from England's lower order that hauled an already lost cause deep into the afternoon session of the final day, Australia held their nerve - and their catches - to seal the 2025-26 Ashes with their third victory in a row on only the 11th day of the series.
The winning moment was delivered by Scott Boland, who induced a thick edge from England's No. 11 Josh Tongue, straight to Marnus Labuschagne at first slip, who swallowed his fourth take of a truly sensational display in the field. That left Brydon Carse high and dry on 39 not out; his efforts, alongside fighting but ultimately thwarted knocks of 60 and 47 from Jamie Smith and Will Jacks, had given England genuine hope that their performances at other key moments of the Test, and the series, simply hadn't warranted.
Labuschagne's efforts included his second one-handed screamer of the match, this time to prise out Jacks at first slip, and it was a fitting reminder of one of the key differences between the sides. The winning margin of 82 runs was exactly the same score that Usman Khawaja had reached on the first day of the match, after being dropped by Harry Brook on 5, while the 71 runs that Travis Head made after the same fielder had reprieved him on 99 would prove to be the death knell of England's series hopes.
And yet hope is most certainly what England had, right up until the moment it was finally snuffed out… and by a familiar nemesis.
For the first time in the series, the Player-of-the-Match award would elude Mitchell Starc, but his claim to the Compton-Miller Medal is now beyond any further discussion. On a day when Australia's resources were stretched by a potentially series-ending injury to Nathan Lyon, Starc stepped up with the first three of the final four wickets required. His left-arm angles and command of seam and swing were able to extract rare life from an unthreatening Adelaide surface, and once armed with the harder new ball, the end was always nigh despite England's doughtiest day's work of the series.
The day of reckoning had dawned with 17 overs remaining until Australia's new ball, so Lyon and Cameron Green shared the early workload to keep the senior seamers fresh. Despite some early alarms against the short ball, Smith and Jacks settled quickly into a confident stand, with Smith smashing a brace of sixes over the leg-side off spin and seam alike to whittle the requirement below 200.
It was a boon for the Barmy Army on an overcast morning, and their ever-mounting optimism reached an early crescendo midway through the day's 11th over, when a persistent shower blew across the ground to force a 40-minute delay.
Jacks brought up the fifty stand soon after the resumption, but the biggest moment of the morning came one over later. Lyon, at fine leg, dived valiantly to intercept a Jacks pull, but was in obvious discomfort as he clambered back to his feet. It was instantly apparent that he'd damaged his right hamstring, and as the physio came out to assist him back to the dressing-room, his involvement in the series - as with his torn calf at Lord's in 2023 - appeared to have come to an abrupt end.
That was the cue for England to step up their tempo. With the new ball looming, Smith cracked three fours in a row off the part-time spin of Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne, and then - having taken a few sighters as Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins re-entered the attack - decided the new ball had to travel as well.
Smith reeled off a quartet of superb, imposing boundaries - two in a row off each man, including a straight-batted launch through long-off off Cummins to bring up his first fifty of the series. But just when it seemed he'd rocked Australia back on their heels, Smith attempted one big shot too many: a wild pick-up across the line off Starc. Cummins at wide mid-on backpedalled to swallow the chance, before turning to the crowd to celebrate with a combination of triumph, and some relief.
It was all too familiar from an England point of view: opportunity not so much knocking as ding-dong-ditching, as another moment of optimism came and went with indecent haste. Jacks, however, stayed true to the methods that had served him well in adversity at the Gabba, remaining watchful outside off and dealing largely in nudged singles square of the wicket. Despite one alarming deviation from that norm - a pre-meditated whip to leg off Cummins that he was lucky not to snick to the keeper - he and Carse carried England through to lunch on 309 for 7, a deficit of 126.
Australia thought they had their breakthrough shortly after the resumption, as Cummins pinned Carse on the pad, but umpire Nitin Menon's verdict was a shocker - the ball was shown to be missing a second middle stump, and Carse, on 15 at the time, marched on. He responded to the reprieve by planting Head's part-time spin over deep midwicket for six, and when he flicked Boland off his pads through fine leg, he had hauled the requirement down to double figures.
Australia, however, were starting to create chances and pressure with seam at both ends, and two balls later, Starc served up a wobble-seam outside off, and Labuschagne sprung to his left at first slip to pluck a fat edge in one hand, almost out of Alex Carey's waiting gloves.
The end was nigh. Carse was dropped by Green at second slip - standing so close to ensure every half-chance carried - and even Carey, Player of the Match for a peerless performance both in front and behind the stumps, endured a rare blemish as Archer snicked one into his elbow: had he been standing back to Boland, it would have been a regulation take.
It mattered not, however. Archer has been one of England's batters of the series to date - which, for a No.10/11 is a damning indictment of their efforts - but this time he couldn't be the hero. A slashing cut at Starc picked out deep point, and eight balls later, Australia's fourth home Ashes in a row was in the bag, and once again at the earliest opportunity.
