England v Australia recap: Broad takes emotional final wicket to level series
Catch up on the match stats and scroll below to see who made our Flashscore combined XI.
Day five recap
That was a fitting end to a fascinating, thrilling, bonkers Ashes summer.
Australia looked like they would chase 384 down at times - first at the end of Day 4 and then at Lunch on Day 5. David Warner and Usman Khawaja gave Australia a strong start in the chase, putting on a 140-run partnership, but both fell early on Day 5, and Labuschagne could not hang around for too long.
Then, Steve Smith and Travis Head arrived to stabilise and pick boundaries regularly to take them to lunch. One flashpoint right before lunch was Stokes dropping Smith, losing control of the ball before the catch was completed. They had time and wickets to finish the job at that point.
However, the rain arrived again, robbing the game of a shortened afternoon session and offering an extended final session instead. It was one that Smith and Head started well, but Moeen found the edge of Travis Head to hasten a rapid collapse.
Smith brought up his 50 but fell the next over, to be followed by Marsh and Starc in consecutive overs. In all, four wickets in four overs in a chase like this will always be a game-breaker. Moeen and Woakes performed excellent performances to drag their team to a win.
Pat Cummins offered Alex Carey a small modicum of support, and then Todd Murphy followed suit with further support. It was up to the hero, Stuart Broad, to change the bails, get Murphy the following ball, and then Carey soon after to seal a 49 run win.
It caps off another brilliant Test match, started by a frenetic Bazball innings on Day 1, followed by Australia gaining a slender lead in response, mainly due to Cummins and Murphy. It was England’s second innings effort, a strong performance led by all top-order batters, that set England up to hammer away at Australia to defend 384.
Flashscore combined Ashes XI
Zak Crawley (England)
Usman Khawaja (Australia)
Steve Smith (Australia)
Joe Root (England)
Travis Head (Australia)
Ben Stokes (c) (England)
Jonny Bairstow (wk) (England)
Chris Woakes (England)
Mitch Starc (Australia)
Mark Wood (England)
Stuart Broad (England)
Best Bowling in 2023 Ashes
Pat Cummins - 6/91
Mark Wood - 5/34
Chris Woakes - 5/62
Mitch Starc - 5/78
Josh Hazlewood - 5/126
Highest Scores in 2023 Ashes
Zak Crawley – 189
Ben Stokes – 155
Usman Khawaja – 141
Joe Root – 118*
Mitch Marsh – 118
Most Wickets in 2023 Ashes
Mitch Starc – 23
Stuart Broad – 21
Chris Woakes – 19
Pat Cummins - 18
Josh Hazlewood – 16
Most Runs in 2023 Ashes
Usman Khawaja – 496
Zak Crawley – 480
Joe Root – 412
Ben Stokes – 405
Steve Smith - 373
