Australia defeated England by 8 wicketsImage Credit source: Getty Images
For the last three and a half years, England has created a lot of buzz in Test cricket with its ‘baseball’ style. Ben Stokes’s team won many matches and lost some too. But everyone was waiting for the Ashes to be held in Australia and finally, within just two days, England’s ‘baseball’ was deflated. In the first Test match of the Ashes played in Perth, Australia defeated England by 8 wickets in just 2 days. While fast bowler Mitchell Starc troubled the English batsmen by taking 10 wickets in the match, Travis Head scored an explosive century and took Australia to the target of 205 runs in just 29 overs.
The first Test match of Ashes 2025-26 started in Perth on Friday 21 November and the process of falling wickets started from the first over of the match. This sequence continued till the end of England’s second innings on the second day. During this, 19 wickets had fallen on the first day itself, in which England had scored only 172 runs and then Australia had also fallen 9 wickets for 123 runs.
Starc-Boland defeated England
After Australia was bundled out for 132 runs on the second day, England took a lead of 40 runs and had a chance to score a good score. But once again Mitchell Starc’s havoc fell on him and Starc started taking wickets in the first over itself. This time Starc also got good support from Scott Boland, while debutant Brandon Doggett also took wickets in the middle order. In this way, once again, in an effort to bat aggressively, England’s entire innings ended at just 164 runs. Starc completed his 10 victims in the match by taking 3 wickets, while Boland took 4 wickets this time and Doggett took 3 wickets.
Head’s century turned the match
Australia had a target of 205 runs and barely two and a half to three hours were left in the second day’s play. But in this innings, Travis Head, who came to open, ended the challenge of the fourth innings with his stormy batting. This left-handed batsman, who had played some strong innings in Perth before, scored a half-century in just 36 balls and soon completed a century in 69 balls. On the basis of this innings, Australia defeated England in just 28.2 overs, destroying the English bowlers. Head scored 123 runs in just 83 balls, which included 16 fours and 4 sixes. Marnus Labuschagne also led the team to victory by playing an unbeaten inning of 51 runs.
Second shortest match in Australia
With this victory, Australia took a 1-0 lead in the Ashes. The special thing is that this is the second shortest match in the history of Test cricket in Australia. Including all four innings, this match ended in just 847 balls. In this way, after 94 years, a match in Australia ended in so few balls. Earlier in February 1932, the match between Australia and South Africa ended in just 656 balls.