England have retained the Ashes after hammering the Aussies by an innings and 78 runs in the fourth Investec Ashes Test at Nottingham. The Test match finished inside three days following a disastrous batting performance from the tourists. Hosts England have already won The Ashes 2015 with a margin of 3-1 with one more Test match to be played in the 5-match Investec Ashes Series.
Stuart Broad
4th Ashes Test 2015 at Nottingham: Match Highlights of Day 1
At the start of this fourth Test, the cricket betting odds were in favour of Australia at 6/4 as England have been unpredictable. Remember in the first Test, England won but only to go on to lose the second Test, and again bouncing back to win the third Ashes Test. The first day at Nottingham itself decided who was going to win this Fourth Test at Trent Bridge as England winning the toss and bowling first had dismantled Australia for just 60! Stuart Broad recorded magic bowling figures of 9.3-5-15-8 as England shot out the Aussies in just 18.3 overs and just over one and a half hours! By the close of Day 1, England eased to 274 for 4 in 65 overs with Joe Root slamming an unbeaten 124.
4th Ashes Test 2015 at Nottingham: Match Highlights of Day 2
Australia’s fight back was led by Mitchell Starc as he took six wickets but at the same time had leaked 111 runs in his 27 overs at a high economy rate of 4.11. England raced to 391 for 9 in 85.2 overs before declaring their first innings with a sizeable lead of 331 runs! While Joe Root scored 130 from 176 balls, Jonny Bairstow scored 74. Both Root and Bairstow had put on a crucial partnership of 173 after England were reduced to 96 for 3.
4th Ashes Test 2015 at Nottingham: Match Highlights of Day 3
By the close of Day 2 itself, the match was as good as over with Australia down and out in their second innings at 241 for 7. Australia in fact had an ideal opening stand of 113 from Chris Rogers (52) and David Warner (64) but the rest of the batting collapsed in a heap yet again. Eventually the Aussies were bundled out for 253 in the morning session of Day three to go down with an innings defeat. This time ripping them apart was Ben Stokes who took six wickets for just 36 runs in 21 overs. Mark Wood chipped in with three wickets while Man of the Match Stuart Broad added one more wicket to his 8-wicket haul in the first innings.
Brief Scores of England vs Australia, 4th Ashes Test 2015 at Nottingham
Australia 1st innings 60 all out (Mitchell Johnson 13; Stuart Broad 8/15)
England 1st innings 391/9 dec (Joe Root 130 Jonny Bairstow 74 Alastair Cook 43 Moeen Ali 38; Mitchell Starc 6/111)
Australia 2nd innings 253 all out (David Warner 64 Chris Rogers 52 Adam Voges 51*; Ben Stokes 6/36 Mark Wood 3/69)
Match Result: England won the 4th Ashes Test at Nottingham by an innings and 78 runs