Starc Shines as Australia retains Ashes with 2 tests spare

Adelaide: 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 Brisbane, took the wickets of Will Jacks and Jofra Archer before Scott Boland finished it off.

England was all out for 352, giving Australia an 82-run victory.

The fourth test will start Boxing Day in Melbourne.