By the numbers: A drought breaks in front of mammoth crowd

92,045

Fans who packed the mighty MCG on day two, second only behind the day one crowd of 94,199 for the largest attended day of cricket at the venue.

5468

Days since England's last Test victory in Australia. You have to go back to the New Year's Test of 2011, which England won by an innings and 83 runs, for their most recent win Down Under.

767

Runs made by Alex Carey in 2025. It's the 12th-most prolific calendar year for a wicketkeeper and the best since Niroshan Dickwella's (Sri Lanka) 773 in 2017. Four of the 11 names above Carey are fellow Australian Adam Gilchrist.

41

Batters who failed to reach 50 for the match – all of them. The highest score for the match was Travis Head's second innings 46. You have to go back to Edgbaston in 1981 to find an Ashes Test where the whole match was completed without a half-century being scored.

39

Years since an England batter has hit the winning runs in a Test in Australia. That was Chris Broad in Brisbane, 1986. Today's winning runs came via four leg byes, while all the seven wins in between came in either innings victories or with England defending a score.

29.5

Overs England lasted in their first innings, only the third time they've been dismissed inside 30 overs in Australia since 1904. Interestingly, when England have been bowled out in under 30 overs in their first innings (which has happened six times), they have a 4-2 winning record. Two of those were in 2019, which including that famous Ashes Test at Headingley.

28.1

Josh Tongue's strike rate from his two Tests this series. It's the best bowling strike rate for an English bowler in Australia, ever (minimum 300 balls bowled). Brydon Carse (32.7) sits second having taken 19 wickets in his four Tests.

26

Wickets taken by Mitch Starc in the series (so far). It makes the 2025-26 Ashes series the most prolific series of his career, going past the 24 scalps he took in the 2016 series in Sri Lanka.

24.3

Balls per wicket across the Test. That's the second-lowest in all Ashes matches. You have to go way back to Lord's 1888 (20.8) to find a clash where the bowlers had more regular success. For Tests in Australia, only the Australia versus South Africa Test in 1931-32 featured a lower bowling strike rate for the entire Test (22.6). You can find the full list here.

21

Test wins at the MCG for England. The English have only had more success at the Sydney Cricket Ground with 22 wins in 57 matches, giving them a win percentage of 39 per cent, slightly ahead of their Melbourne record (36 per cent). However, in the past 50 years it's the only Australian venue where they have registered five wins.

19

Matches it took for England to taste success in Australia. The tourists had a 0-16 scoreline in that period too, with two drawn Tests the only reprieve from Australia's dominance. After winning the final Test of the 2010-11 Ashes, they endured a 5-0 defeat in 2013-14, a 4-0 defeat in 2017-18, another 4-0 defeat in 2021-22 and a 3-0 deficit in this series. Joe Root featured in all of those matches, except for the final Test of the '13-14 summer.

17.85

Scott Boland's Test bowling average after 18 Tests. It sits him in sixth spot on the all-time list for bowlers with at least 75 Test wickets. Boland took his 78th wicket in Melbourne, moving him past Damien Fleming, Tim May and Shane Watson and into 52nd spot on the Australian list.

15.08

Runs per wicket across the two days. For Ashes Tests, it's the 14th lowest overall and the lowest since 1950.

7

Years old. Jacob Bethell's age when England last won a Test in Australia - he was born in October 2003.

4

The number of two-day men's Tests now completed in Australia. The second came in 2022 in a wild clash between Australia and South Africa in Brisbane, 91 years after the first in Melbourne in 1931. Then we've had two in this series, firstly Perth and now Melbourne.

2025-26 NRMA Insurance Men's Ashes

First Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Second Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Third Test: Australia won by 82 runs

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

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

Australia squad (fourth Test only): Steve Smith (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Brendan Doggett, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, 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