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Australia have been saved by the rain in Manchester, with England’s utter and complete domination of the fourth Test counting for nought as the heavens opened to almost completely wash out the final two days of the match.
While the series can still be squared by the hosts at The Oval in a few days time, the Ashes are safely in Australia’s keeping once more; and with Marnus Labuschagne’s defiant century combining with Mitchell Marsh to bat the visitors through the one session of play possible on the fourth afternoon, holding on for a draw did have plenty of pluck about it, even if the team were comprehensively outplayed.
For England, it was all about Zak Crawley’s incredible 189, as part of a double-century stand with Joe Root that saw Australia mercilessly Bazballed on a brutal second day; with Chris Woakes and Mark Wood again superb with the ball, there were plenty of outstanding performances that, had the weather not intervened, would have all combined to keep the series alive and set up a grandstand finish.
Here are The Roar’s player ratings for the fourth Ashes Test.
David Warner – 5.5
Coming in knowing twin failures, especially should Australia lose, would make his spot at the top of the order all but untenable heading into the fifth Test, Warner at least guaranteed he will be there at the Oval with a pair of starts in both innings.
However, scores of 32 and 28 won’t be enough to silence his armies of detractors, and his first-innings dismissal will be particularly frustrating for the veteran: having moved crisply to 32 and looking in fine touch, a loose drive off Chris Woakes saw him become the first of a swathe of Aussies to throw their wickets away once set on the opening day.
Usman Khawaja – 3
For the first time all series, Khawaja failed to make a meaningful score with the bat in either innings at Old Trafford; out LBW to Broad for 3 in the first dig and once again troubled by Mark Wood’s extra pace to edge behind on 18 in the second.
Does get points for an excellent diving catch to remove Moeen Ali on the second day, but apart from that, this was a lean match for the veteran, and one which saw him fall behind Zak Crawley on the run-scoring charts for the series.
Marnus Labuschagne – 9
After repeatedly throwing away starts across the first three Tests of the series to extend his barren run without a half-century, Labuschagne finally reached the milestone with a measure innings on the first day… only to again fail to go on with it, lazily trapped LBW by Moeen Ali on 51.
By the second innings, he was on a mission to not just save Australia, but also silence his doubters, and he’d do brilliantly on both counts, his century ensuring the Aussies stayed in the game long enough for rain to save their bacon.
His composed batting with Mitchell Marsh during the middle session on Day 4, England’s golden chance to run through the lower order and square the series, was probably the most significant of his career to date, and a reminder that while form is temporary, class is permanent.
Steve Smith – 4
Smith continues to be dismissed in ways that were previously impossible for the world’s bowlers: on 41 and looking composed in the first innings – though very nearly throwing his wicket away first ball – the extra pace from Wood saw him miss a regulation flick off his pads, the kind of ball he plundered in 2019.
Wood had his number in the second innings, too, Smith gloving a pull behind to make it a third Test out of four this Ashes in which he has failed to reach 50.
Travis Head – 5.5
Once again, the short ball was Head’s undoing in both innings in Manchester, though in completely different ways.
On Day 1, he moved at his usual brisk pace to the cusp of another half-century when, the first over after tea, he impulsively hooked Stuart Broad to fine leg to gift him his 600th Test wicket.
His downfall on Day 3, however, was even uglier: all at sea against Wood’s venomous bouncers, Head got into a terrible tangle and was only able to bunt a catch to gully to fall for 1. His reaction on walking off perfectly summed up Australia’s perilous situation at the time.
Mitchell Marsh – 7.5
There was no spectacular counterattacking century this time, but Marsh did more than enough at Old Trafford to prove his Headingley heroics weren’t just a one-off.
Arguably the pick of Australia’s batters on Day 1 with a fluent 51, he was unlucky to get the ball of the day, a vicious nipper from Chris Woakes that caught the outside edge and lead to his second bit of misfortune, with Jonny Bairstow turning his horrific series around to take a one-handed stunner.
While his unbeaten 31 in the second innings pales in comparison to Labuschagne’s century, the 107 balls he calmly soaked up, most of them on a gloomy fourth afternoon against the spin of Moeen and Joe Root, were just as crucial to saving the match, and proved he doesn’t just have the shots to succeed in his latest Test stint, but the temperament as well.
With the ball, was surprisingly not given a bowl to Zak Crawley, who he’d knocked over twice at Headingley, until the opener was past triple figures; with conditions not suiting him either, Marsh was taken to the cleaners by Joe Root especially, leaking 57 runs from his nine overs.
Cameron Green – 3.5
If it wasn’t official beforehand, it is now: Green has been usurped by Marsh as the premier all-rounder in Australia.
Picked alongside his fellow sandgroper after missing the third Test, Green eked out 16 of the scratchiest runs of his career before unluckily falling to a line-ball LBW shout in the first innings. Even during his brief second innings, he looked far from comfortable, surviving a number of appeals in his 15 balls, and had more play been possible looked unlikely to be able to last long.
With the ball, he managed the wicket of Zak Crawley following his monstrous 189, and denied Bairstow a century by trapping Anderson LBW; but in between looked just as unthreatening as he has all series. Right now, he couldn’t possibly be picked over his Western Australian counterpart.
Alex Carey (wk) – 3
In both facets of his game, Carey’s performances have slowly but surely began to dwindle as this series has gone on.
His half-century at Edgbaston in his first innings of the series remains his only such score, edging Woakes behind while attempting to leave on the third evening to leave the tail exposed to the second new ball.
With the gloves, he began to look sloppy, leaking 15 byes in the innings – though most weren’t his fault as the Australian quicks lost their radar – while also missing a golden chance to run Ben Stokes out and repeatedly missing shies at the stumps that allowed Bairstow to farm the strike with James Anderson for company.
Mitchell Starc – 4.5
The pick of the Australian bowlers by a mile in Leeds, Starc started brilliantly with the ball by removing Ben Duckett for one on the second morning; but it was all downhill from there.
With Zak Crawley in particular punishing his regular loose offerings, the left-armer could have had the opener a number of times as inside edges snaked past his stumps, but his luck just wasn’t in. Making things worse were a series of niggles throughout the day, including a shoulder injury that saw him finish Day 2 receiving treatment, though he recovered enough to be able to bowl the next day.
Did pick up Moeen Ali to a blinding catch from Khawaja, while his 36 handy lower-order runs in the first innings eventually proved just as valuable as the 93 balls he soaked up compiling them.
Pat Cummins (c) – 1
An utter nightmare, and pretty comfortably the worst Test the captain has ever played.
Everything that could go wrong did go wrong for Cummins across the first three days – he lost another toss, played a loose drive to gift his wicket for 1 on the first ball of the second morning, dropped two catches, and had his bowling smashed to smithereens in his most expensive ever innings with the ball.
The greatest criticism was reserved for his captaincy. Looking utterly out of ideas as Crawley and Root blasted 178 runs in 25 overs in the middle session of Day 2, everything he tried, whether it was short balls, deep defensive fields, bowling from around the wicket or, presumably, sacrificing a goat to the Egyptian god Anubis during the tea break, failed so severely questions began to be raised over his suitability to hold the top job in Australian cricket.
Above all else, he looked utterly exhausted from start to finish: especially now with the series decided, it wouldn’t surprise if Cummins was rested for the fifth Test in favour of Michael Neser in a few days’ time.
Pat Cummins. (Photo by Alex Davidson/Getty Images)
Josh Hazlewood – 6
All the Australian quicks were a long way from their best at Old Trafford, but Hazlewood’s spell on the third morning was far and away the best of an otherwise bad bunch.
While he was taken apart like everyone else by Crawley and Root on Day 2, the castling of the latter to a slow shooter that evening proved a turning point, with Hazlewood adding four more wickets on Day 3 to secure his five-for, including Harry Brook and Woakes with consecutive balls.
Hazlewood will bowl far better for less reward than this, but a five-for is a five-for, even if the opposition rack up 592.
Zak Crawley – 9.5
The only reason Crawley’s breathtaking 182-ball 189 doesn’t receive the first perfect 10 of the series is the amount of good fortune he had while compiling it.
With CricViz listing his control percentage at 64 per cent when he raised his maiden Ashes ton on the fourth afternoon – one of the lowest they’ve recorded for a triple figure score – he certainly rode his luck; but the runs he plundered after reaching the milestone were anything but chancy as he turned an excellent century into a fabled ‘daddy hundred’, and a rare century of runs in a session to boot.
His and Root’s 206-run stand was the fastest double-century partnership in Ashes history, off just 178 balls; having come into the series as the batter many in England wanted removed from the team, he is officially entrenched for the foreseeable future.
Ben Duckett – 1
Duckett didn’t get the chance to make amends for his first innings 1 when a perfectly pitched Mitchell Starc outswinger took his outside edge.
Remarkably, he is averaging under 12 across the first, third and fourth Tests of this series, having only passed 23 with his 98 and 83 at Lord’s, by far his favourite ground in first-class cricket.
In fact, add in the Ireland Test there before the Ashes and a County game against Middlesex in May, and in first-class cricket this season Duckett has averaged 109.4 in six innings with two centuries at Lord’s, and 22.83 in seven matches literally everywhere else.
Moeen Ali – 8
Derided as the worst number three in history when England promoted him to enable their middle order to bat in their usual positions, Moeen didn’t just provide a stop-gap: he starred.
The all-rounder benefitted from his team-first act, as well as vindicated Stokes’ trust in him to do the job, with a composed 54 in a century stand with Crawley that tired the Australian attack and laid the platform for the carnage to follow, while also seeing him past 3000 Test runs to go with his 200-plus wickets.
Picked up Labuschagne’s wicket again at a crucial stage on Day 1 when Australia seemed on track for a monster total; however, given a chance to bowl an extended spell in the middle session of Day 4 with the quicks banned due to bad light, looked unthreatening, with Root finding far more spin and bounce at the other end.
Joe Root – 9
Australia and Cummins had successfully prevented England’s premier batting from having a say on proceedings in either the second or third Tests, but it was only a matter of time until Root scored big once again.
Sure enough, his 84 alongside Crawley was arguably an even better knock than the opener’s; certainly, it was more chanceless, Root dispatching the Aussie attack with contemptuous ease and even bringing out his pet shot, the reverse-ramp, several more times.
Had he not copped an unplayable grubber from Hazlewood, a second century of the series was a foregone conclusion; throw in his removal of Labuschagne on the fourth afternoon, which seemed at the time to be the circuit-breaker for England, and he could scarcely have done more to drag his team home.
Harry Brook – 7
There’s an argument that Brook, while looking sound at the crease throughout in scoring his second half-century in succession in England’s first innings, cost them valuable time by needing 100 balls to make it.
Hitting just five boundaries, while Australia took their time to get him out, they at least ensured Brook was kept far quieter than in his match-winning turn in England’s run chase at Headingley.
There’s no such thing as a bad half-century, but how England will wish they’d given themselves an extra couple of hours to bowl at the Aussies.
Ben Stokes (c) – 6.5
In the context of the fourth Test alone, Stokes had an excellent match: expertly marshalling his quicks, especially Wood, in the first innings, his canny bowling changes and knack for putting fielders in the perfect spot were vital in ensuring Australia could only manage a below-par 317.
Then with the bat, he started sedately but picked up the pace on the third morning chasing quick runs, reaching 51 before being bowled attacking by Cummins. Then in Australia’s second innings, he again hardly put a foot wrong as skipper, with the targeted short-ball assault at Head working an absolute treat to remove the visitors’ talisman for 1.
However, given how the final two days panned out, it’s clear now Stokes erred in not declaring earlier, perhaps even on the second evening, to allow his bowlers more than 71 overs to take the 10 wickets they needed.
Having defined his captaincy with aggressive gambits throughout the last 12 months, including that first-day declaration at Edgbaston that very nearly paid off, that Stokes didn’t call an early close to the innings at all, given the forecast for the final two days, at least partly cost his team the chance to square the series.
(Photo by Alex Davidson/Getty Images)
Jonny Bairstow (wk) – 9
Having fumbled regulation takes en masse on the first day, it was clear Bairstow was in for one of *those* Tests when he pulled off a one-handed blinder to remove Marsh late in the day. While the Test will be remembered for his batting, it was one of two excellent chances he took, the second a sharp grab up to the stumps for Root off a thick Labuschagne top edge.
Given a chance to rest for a full day and coming out with Australia in pieces, Bairstow relished the chance to cash in, looking every inch the destroyer of worlds he was last English summer as he flayed the visitors for his second half-century of the series, and first innings of note since the first day of the series.
On 98, he’d end up stranding himself when he chanced a single trying for the two that would have brought up his century; with Anderson trapped LBW to end a thrill-a-minute 66-run stand, it was the only thing that went wrong for him all Test… apart from the result.
Chris Woakes – 9
Having been overlooked for the first two Tests, Woakes’ inclusion in the last two has turned the series decidedly in England’s favour.
Brilliant again with the ball in picking up five first-innings wickets, including Green and Marsh in one over to spark a late-day collapse, Woakes added Warner for the second time in the match on Day 3 when his perfect line and length had the opener in two minds chopping on.
Might have fallen for a first-ball duck with the bat, but remains as handy a number eight as there is in world cricket, and he appears to once again be a key component of England’s best Test team.
Mark Wood – 8.5
Along with Woakes, Wood’s inclusion at Headingley and Old Trafford has been crucial to England’s rapid improvement in the series – oh, how they would love to turn back time and pick him for the first Test now.
While he picked up the big fish of Smith on Day 1, the express paceman was otherwise safely handled in Australia’s first innings; it was in the second innings where he had his greater impact by far.
Removing Khawaja early, Wood then added Smith and Head in a rapid spell late on Day 3, his vicious bouncer that had the latter all at sea as comprehensive a working-over as you will see.
Mark Wood celebrates dismissing Travis Head. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)
Australia will no doubt be praying England err on the side of caution and rest him for the now dead-rubber fifth Test; should he play, it seems inevitable he will cause them more trouble.
Stuart Broad – 5
A memorable match for the ageless seamer, with Broad becoming just the fifth bowler – and second paceman – to reach 600 Test wickets, joining Anderson in the exclusive club (though one imagines he’ll be a bit disappointed the milestone wicket was Head and not Warner).
Aside from that, though, this was Broad’s worst Test of the series as fatigue looked to set in: his first spell on Day 1 wasted helpful conditions with plenty of loose deliveries, though he did still remove Khawaja, while his lack of impact in the middle session on Day 4 was a big reason why Labuschagne and Marsh were able to take Australia to safety.
A likely candidate for a rest for the fifth Test now that the urn is out of England’s reach, will this be Broad’s farewell to Ashes cricket? Knowing him… it’s unlikely.
James Anderson – 3.5
Anderson’s ageless bowling across the last decade has been one of world cricket’s most extraordinary stories: but in Manchester as it has been all series long, he looked every inch the world-wearied 40-year old (soon to be 41) that he is.
He’d at least avoid a wicketless match by removing Cummins with the first ball of the second morning, but his unthreatening bowling was summed up on the fourth afternoon.
Under cloudy skies that seemed perfect for his trademark swing bowling, Anderson was given the first over of the day by Stokes, was handled with ease, and then yanked from the attack for Wood and Woakes.
Does get a bonus half-mark, though, for a gutsy effort in a 66-run stand with Bairstow for the last wicket, holding out for 18 balls to get his mate within a run of his century.
The end appears nigh for one of England’s finest ever – the only question is whether The Oval is his swansong, or if he chooses to go around for one more year and a hopefully more fitting farewell.
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