England suffered their inevitable defeat in the second Test and are now facing a miserable Christmas with a long list of questions.
The final day was notably pockets of resistance from Jos Buttler and Chris Woakes, but there was no chance of stopping Australia from taking a 2-0 lead in the series.
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Butler’s vigil lasted 207 balls – during which he scored just 26 runs – and ended when he was thrown at his stumps and hit wicketed.
The Aussies are not mathematically sure of retaining the Ashes, but we can read from it that the small urn will be at the bottom.
England were bowled out for 192 in their second innings at the Adelaide Oval and that meant a crushing 275-run victory for Baggy Greens.
Captain Joe Root and head coach Chris Silverwood will have to decide whether several members of the team are eligible for selection for the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.
Batsmen Rory Burns, Haseeb Hameed and Ollie Pope are under the most pressure while possibly two Woakes, Olly Robinson, Stuart Broad and James Anderson, will be replaced on the bowling front.
It is now exactly 4,000 days since England last won a Test match in Australia as of January 2011.
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There has been a lot of pain and eleven losses in the 12 Tests in the intervening time.
And there’s no sign of the pain ending anytime soon – certainly not on this tour. England have never gone down 0-2 to win an Ashes series.
Root and Silverwood’s futures are already in the news and scrutiny will only increase in the coming weeks.
Starting again with 82-4, England’s realistic mission was to show some pride and fight rather than actually save the Test match.
His position seemed hopeless and so it proved to be. But it would be fair to say that he showed more resilience with the bat than before on this journey.
But Rigaard only served to highlight his poor first innings batting on the final day – and indeed his efforts in the first Test defeat at Brisbane.
Pope starts off with a brilliant clip off mid-wicket boundary off Mitchell Starc in the first over. But, in the second over of Starc, Pope shunted Steve Smith at second slip.
It was another soft dismissal for the Surrey batsman, who is often referred to as some kind of wonderkid but, in reality, looks to be a charming presence at the crease, who averages 21 in Test cricket this year.
For Pope, it was an opportunity to score some runs in the relatively low pressure environment of the match heading towards a possible conclusion. But he blew it.
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Ben Stokes has been little more than a defensive stoner at the crease this series, trying to block and create something that compensates for the failures of the other batsmen.
After reviewing the Aussies, he reduced spinner Nathan Lyon to 12 runs in 77 balls lbw.
Buttler escaped with a pair when he edged Starc between wicketkeeper Alex Carey and first slip David Warner. They both kept looking at the ball but it should have been a catch by Carey.
The England wicket-keeper became an astute wonder of strategy to an even greater extent than Stokes. But he disappointed the Aussies with his dead-bat approach.
Butler and Woakes remained together for 31 overs while Woakes was bowled by a nip-backer from Jhye Richardson for the seventh wicket of 61 runs.
Robinson helped Australia add another 15 overs to wait before it was caught at slip off Lyon.
Buttler was eventually dismissed when, deep in his crease, he tried to manipulate the strike and troubled the stumps with his right heel.
The final wicket came when Anderson guided a short ball into the hands of Gully and fast bowler Richardson took five wickets.
With the return of captain Pat Cummins and fellow pacer Josh Hazlewood, Australia’s team is likely to be strengthened for the next Test.
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