Comeback kings prove Australia's difference makers

It's no small thing to have almost 900 Test wickets returning to your team for a potentially series-deciding contest.

And the genius of Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon came through precisely when Australia needed it most across day four of this third Ashes Test in Adelaide.

As the last vestiges of Bazball were swallowed up by the late afternoon shadows that stretched across the Adelaide Oval, it was Lyon, a one-time apprentice groundsman at this famed venue, who drew the plaudits of the crowd after his final-session heroics left Australia needing just four wickets to retain the Ashes inside 11 dominant days.

With an hour to play and England just three down with dangermen Zak Crawley and Harry Brook well set, nervous 'what ifs' were beginning to do the rounds in loungerooms and pubs across Australia.

The pair had been accruing runs steadily – Brook, albeit, a little skittishly – and as their total approached 200, the question of where Australia's next wicket might be coming from seemed a reasonable one to pose.

While Brook remained something of a wildcard – always itching to find the boundaries of which he was shrewdly deprived – there were other factors working well for the visitors.

Zak Crawley was playing with patience and a decisiveness of shot selection that has eluded him for much of his Test career. And England as a batting unit had come at Lyon with an aggressive, effective plan, sweeping the off-spinner – both conventionally and reverse – to the tune of 35 runs from six overs.

It meant Cummins was left with little choice but to pull his banker, the man he had expected to operate almost constantly from one end, out of the attack.

Let's stay with Cummins for now. The right-arm quick did not miss a beat in the first innings, removing Crawley and Joe Root to leave England in tatters at 4-71.

Second time around, with one innings under his belt, he was better still. From his second ball he comfortably accounted for a hapless Ben Duckett, who prodded wide of his off stump and paid the price. It was a sizeable blow, coming as it did before the lunch break, and after the interval, Cummins was at it again.

Like a doctor feeling for the pain point, he relentlessly probed around Ollie Pope's off stump, causing all kinds of discomfort for the out-of-form number three before finding his edge with the 13th delivery he bowled to him.

With the Adelaide temperatures staying well below the dizzying highs of day two, Cummins opted for a change of strategy with his pacemen, giving himself seven straight overs to begin the innings, at the end of which he had figures of 2-19.

He returned an hour later with his side needing a breakthrough. Crawley and Root had added 78 at almost four an over, and were toying with Lyon in the aforementioned fashion. They had seen off a tiring Mitchell Starc, and been largely untroubled by Scott Boland and Cameron Green.

From the final ball of the first over of his second spell, Cummins struck with the gargantuan wicket of Root. No player has taken the England great's wicket more in Test cricket than Cummins' 13 and this one looked to mean as much as any to the Australian skipper, who celebrated fiercely.

It was a trademark Cummins-Root wicket: a good length, just outside off stump, a hint of movement and a tickle through to Alex Carey. Just like that, England's rock was back in the pavilion, and Australia's had 3-19 – and six in his return match.

Again however, the tide turned, which is where the significance of this returning double act cannot be overstated.

Two years ago, as England fought their way back into the series from two-nil down by chasing down 251 in the third Test at Headingley, they did so against an Australian side featuring debutant off-spinner Todd Murphy.

Murphy bowled just 9.3 overs in that match, and there appeared a reluctance from captain Cummins to throw the ball to him regularly.

Today, on the Adelaide Oval, where Lyon has taken more Test wickets than anyone, the contrast to that scenario could not have been clearer. Since he saw England's Will Jacks extract some turn on day one, Lyon has practically demanded the ball from his skipper, and more importantly, he has done the business.

It happened again in today's final session. Not content to milk the many singles on offer, Brook got himself in a tangle attempting a reverse sweep, and a stock off-break from Lyon collected his off stump.

An over earlier, Brook had hit just his second four from the same shot – this one against the off-spin of Travis Head – and the high-tempo right-hander seemed particularly keen on breaking the shackles.

Instead, all he managed to break were English spirits. Upon his dismissal, he lingered at the crease, barely believing what had happened, but was forced to trudge off when replays confirmed that yes, he had indeed been clean bowled.

The end for Brook was only the beginning for Lyon, who was suddenly sensing a quick kill. Four overs later, coming around the wicket to the left-handed Ben Stokes, he drifted one in that straightened, evaded the bat, and crashed into off stump.

It was another peach of a delivery, very similar to the one that accounted for Duckett in the first innings, and with Stokes' exit, any remaining hope seemed to vanish for the visitors.

But Lyon wasn't yet done. His next act was to deceive the well-set Crawley with a slightly slower delivery that pushed on with the arm. The tall right-hander stepped forward, but lunged at thin air, and the excellent Alex Carey whipped off the bails for a sharp stumping.

For the comeback kings, it was a neat return: three wickets apiece en route to what is increasingly looking like a three-nil scoreline on Sunday.

2025-26 NRMA Insurance Men's Ashes

First Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Second Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Third Test: December 17-21: Adelaide Oval, 10:30am AEDT

Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10:30am AEDT

Fifth Test: January 4-8: SCG, Sydney, 10:30am AEDT

Australia squad (third Test only): Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Brendan Doggett, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Jake Weatherald, Beau Webster

England squad: Ben Stokes (c), Harry Brook (vc), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Matthew Fisher, Will Jacks, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Jamie Smith (wk), Josh Tongue