England v Australia, 2015

	The England players get together and celebrate their Ashes win © Getty Images Enlarge
Related Links Tour and tournament reports : England v Australia, 2015 Matches: England v Australia at The Oval Series/Tournaments: Australia tour of England and Ireland Teams: Australia | England

At The Oval, August 20-23. Australia won by an innings and 46 runs. Toss: England. "Shame on you, Alastair Cook. Deer do not want to die." It was a puzzling start to the final Test of a puzzling series. Outside The Oval, in the hour before the game began, two demonstrations were taking place: one protesting at the incompetence of the game's administrators; the other at an old image of the England captain, a man of the countryside, posing with a shotgun and his spoils.

Inside The Oval, events proved no less perplexing. This was the last match in a three-series Ashes extravaganza compressed into two years. The score stood at 6-6: England had gained three home wins in 2013 and again in this series, matched by Australia's 5-0 whitewash in between, plus their victory at Lord's a month earlier; there had been only two draws, both rain-affected. If that suggested equality, it was of an unequal kind: of the 14 matches, only the Trent Bridge Test of 2013 had been remotely close. Now, this game went according to type: Australia won by a thumping margin.

Whether this reversal from the previous two Tests occurred because the Ashes had already been decided was a moot point. After all, the hosts didn't seem complacent: keen to heap further humiliation on Australia, and hoping to lead the first England team to win four times in a home Ashes, Cook had rung his players in the build-up to demand renewed effort and focus. But for some - notably Root and Stokes - it looked a game too far. And that put Cook's remarkable second-innings performance, when he batted for five and a half hours, into context.

For Australia's players, with Clarke about to retire, there was the future to play for - and a captain-elect, Steve Smith, to impress. Selection had been a troubling feature throughout the series, with players coming and going amid a whiff of panic. The return of the 22-year-old Pat Cummins for what would have been his second Test, almost four years after his first, was widely expected. But, in an apparently late change of heart from the selectors - and one made against Clarke's wishes - Siddle was brought back instead.

He fully justified his inclusion. Match figures of 37.4-17-67-6 highlighted how badly he had been missed in the Midlands - both for his control and his ability to present an upright seam and allow the ball to respond from helpful surfaces. Smith won the match award for his hundred, but it could equally have gone to Siddle.

Australia had made one further tweak, reversing that of the previous Test, as one Marsh (Mitchell) replaced another (Shaun); England were unchanged. At the toss, Clarke's rueful smile when the coin landed in Cook's favour told its own story. He had already said he expected the match to be over swiftly because of a thick matting of grass. That, allied to the heavy overhead conditions, meant he would have made the same mistake as Cook, and bowled - a mistake, that is, in hindsight. Few disagreed at the time with the decision, even if it was only the 13th time in 98 Oval Tests that a captain had chosen to bowl.

The tourists' batting had been their Achilles heel all summer, with Clarke horribly out of touch, and a lower-middle order full of poor form and inexperience. They remained reliant on a top three of Rogers, Warner and Smith, who now found conditions easier than in the last two Tests. The openers put on 110 in a wise show of restraint - it was 88 balls until they found the boundary - and built a platform that enabled Smith to flourish for the second time in the capital, following his double-century at Lord's.

Rogers, also heading into retirement, had proved a redoubtable opponent on pitches that were, in the main, bowler-friendly, relying on a homespun technique developed in England as much as in Australia. He played the ball noticeably later and more softly than his colleagues, and so looked the least inconvenienced by movement off the seam. To Rogers fell the honour of leading the team out on the final day, and he later received Australia's Man of the Series award, nominated by the England coach, Trevor Bayliss. Over the three Ashes series, he scored more runs (1,310) than anyone, a testament to his adaptability and staying power.

Rogers made 43, before edging Wood to slip. Warner hit 85 - his fifth half-century of the series, though his first in the first innings - then fell to Ali for the fourth time. And Smith was finally dismissed on the second afternoon, eighth out for a composed 143, though he had been caught behind off a Finn no-ball on 92, with the bowler still on 99 Test wickets. It was his 11th Test hundred. What turned out to be Clarke's last Test innings began with a guard of honour and a handshake from Cook, and ended with a faint edge off Stokes (and a futile review). As if it needed confirming, his batting had lost its spark. Voges made 76, underlining the good impression he made during his career-saving half- century at Nottingham. But Broad, unable to scale the heights of Trent Bridge, went wicketless, and England rued the continued absence of the convalescing Jimmy Anderson, who was spotted only during the intervals, sprinting from cone to cone. At least Finn finally reached his 100th Test wicket when Marsh sparred to second slip.

Australia's resurgence had put a dampener on what was supposed to be a coronation for England's Ashes winners. A packed house roused themselves in the mornings with the usual renditions of "Jerusalem", but the atmosphere grew subdued. Occasionally, a cheer of "Stand up if you're 3-1 up!" rang around The Oval, while a sign hung from the window of a flat beyond the Peter May Stand: "Don't panic, we've won them back!" But, with Starc's 58 cancelling out the two wickets Ali claimed in the last over before lunch on day two, it was clear England supporters would have to search hard for any good news to finish the series.

In reply to Australia's 481 - the highest score here by a team being put in, beating South Africa's 476 in 1935 - England batted abjectly, declining for no apparent reason from 46 for one to 92 for eight. Nobody passed Ali's 30; that his alliances with Broad had produced more runs in the series than any other England partnership summed up its curious nature. The wickets were shared around, though there were none for Starc. Certainly, with Siddle and Lyon applying constant pressure, and Mitchell Marsh an impactful fifth bowler, Australia's attack looked more balanced, and allowed Johnson to revisit his role as shock, rather than stock, bowler. Even so, England were dire.

They didn't improve much on the third morning, when - for the first time, having declined four previous opportunities - Clarke enforced the follow-on. It was a move determined by a 332-run lead, the relative freshness of his bowlers, and a forecast suggesting rain. Lyth concluded a poor series - and Bell an inconsistent one - by nicking to Clarke at second slip, while Root and Stokes fell to sloppy, weary shots. Root, England's Man of the Series, would be rested from the limited-overs matches.

Cook battled gamely, and looked set for his third century in three follow-ons, after Galle in 2007-08 and Ahmedabad in 2012-13. But he was deceived by Smith's leg-spin two overs before the third-day close - Clarke's final rabbit-from-the-hat flourish. Buttler, who had been keeping wicket better than at any stage in England colours, finally found some form and rhythm with the bat, until he scooped to mid-off on the fourth morning. Rain held Australia up for nearly three hours, before Broad was bowled and Ali caught behind, both off the persevering Siddle. For Clarke it was a fitting send-off. A player and captain of his calibre deserved to go out on a winning note, and he received a warm ovation. But an Ashes defeat was fitting, too, since this was his fifth in seven series (though the match tally was 15 wins and 13 defeats). Coming after the great Australian teams either side of the millennium, his was an era in which England had, for the most part, been in the ascendant. And so, amid the familiar pomp and circumstance, the urn was returned to their keeping. While they celebrated after an innings defeat, Australia bade farewell to nearly half a team, having played some of their best cricket of the summer. With or without dead deer, it was a puzzling series.
Man of the Match: S. P. D. Smith.