Australia wrap up dominant Ashes series with five-wicket victory

England’s Ashes misadventure came to a familiar conclusion in Sydney, where a superior Australia side took the final Test by five wickets to tie up a comprehensive 4-1 win.

Whether the end of a troubled tour also spells the definitive end of the ‘Bazball’ era remains to be seen, but change of some kind is surely in the works after a two-month trip which has exposed clear gaps in the preparation, practice and philosophy of a regime.

Head coach Brendon McCullum, managing director of cricket Rob Key and captain Ben Stokes have led the project for the past three-and-a-half years and it is likely each will be called to offer their own vision for the future as the England and Wales Cricket Board decide on the fates of the leadership group.

The last day of the series had an end-of-term looseness, Australia losing five batters in a messy pursuit of 160 but still taking care of business.

With Stokes unfit to bowl, Josh Tongue led with heart as he claimed three for 42, again showing why his omission from the first two Tests was a mistake.

Will Jacks removed Steve Smith with a ripper in a mixed spell that does little to clear up his uncertain role going forward and Usman Khawaja was dismissed for six in his farewell knock. Matthew Potts, completely frozen out of the attack after his first-innings horror show, found his own way of getting involved by running out Marnus Labuschagne.

The SCG saw final contributions from the two standout players – both Australian, naturally – as Travis Head’s cameo took his series record to 629 runs at 62.90 and Mitchell Starc bagged two more wickets to close with 31 scalps at 19.93.

The pair have been twin forces of nature, leagues above anything in the England ranks over the course of the journey, and it was fitting both had a hand to play in the closing stanza.

Just as inevitably there was one last row about the DRS process as a Snicko review once again went controversially against England. The technology has been almost entirely discredited over the past eight weeks but Brydon Carse could not hide his fury when TV official Kumar Dharmasena ruled that a small ripple of the soundwave was not enough to hand him the wicket of Jake Weatherald.

His indignation was justifiable, with a noise lining up perfectly with the ball passing the bat and similar scenarios having counted against English batters earlier in the series.

But his reaction may have gone too far as he angrily confronted on-field umpire Ahsan Raza, at one stage placing his arm in his shoulder before being moved along by Stokes.

That the skipper was even on the field was something of a surprise given the adductor muscle strain that effectively ruled him out of the match on day four. He was unable to bowl and stood stiffly at slip but this was a captain who decided to go down with the ship.

His patched-up attack, already lacking the injured Mark Wood, Jofra Archer and Gus Atkinson, was carried by Tongue. He benefited from Head’s impatience to end things as the dangerman slogged one up in the air for 29, bounced out Weatherald for 34 and bowled the retiring Khawaja off an inside edge.

Like Jacob Bethell, who went from 138 not out overnight to 154 before he was ninth man out in a total of 342, Tongue is inked in as a key man this summer – regardless of who is in charge.

Jacks coughed up some cheap runs but cleaned up Smith with a big turner through the gate, while Potts stayed alert enough to run out Labuschagne despite being conspicuously sidelined by his skipper.

One of the costliest themes of the English struggle has been the mismatch in their catching compared to Australia’s and two more difficult chances went begging as the game ticked towards its end.

Stokes lacked the mobility to take an edge off Khawaja, while Bethell made a brilliant athletic dive when Labuschagne carved to gully, only for the ball to squirm free.

Cameron Green and Alex Carey produced some farcical running between the wickets as the winning line moved into sight but finished things off with a boundary each to kick off the celebrations.