Cricket news

• How England lost the Ashes in five charts

  23-12-2025 13:01 via bbc.com
  It took England just 11 days of cricket to lose the Ashes to Australia - BBC Sport looks at five charts that show why the hosts have gone 3-0 up after three Tests.
  
  Read more

• Injured Stokes to spend final day of Ashes tour watching from SCG pavilion

  07-01-2026 12:21 via theguardian.com
  England captain suffered groin injury in opening sessionBethell says ‘I knew it was coming’ over maiden centuryBen Stokes is set to spend the final day of this Ashes tour watching on from the old pavilion at the SCG and hoping for a miracle in his absence after seeing yet another Test series cut short by injury.The all-rounder had worked hard to get through all five Tests in Australia only to fall at the final hurdle, limping off 10 balls into his opening spell on the fourth morning
  
  Read more

• The Spin | Revealed after 100 years: how a corrupt official robbed Percy Fender of the England captaincy

  07-01-2026 11:53 via theguardian.com
  Documentary makers seeking funds to finish making film of an extraordinary man and his influence on the gameAfter a mere 100 years the Spin, always first with the news, is finally able to reveal the details of one of the more extraordinary secrets in the history of English cricket. The story comes from the private family archives of the former Surrey captain Percy Fender, which are being compiled into a fascinating new documentary film. It has always been a mystery that Fender, who was described
  
  Read more

• Jacob Bethell plays starring role in Ashes Wars Episode 5: A New Hope | Barney Ronay

  07-01-2026 11:31 via theguardian.com
  A brilliant hundred against an elite attack on a wearing pitch shows this England team can survive and evolveEt in dystopia ego. In the midst of death, we are in life. On a throbbingly hot deep blue afternoon in Sydney, as this ghost ship of an England Ashes tour creaked towards its final dock, the fourth day of the fifth Test produced an unexpected late plot twist. Something good happened.Jacob Bethell batted for six hours from mid-morning to close of play and scored a hundred of rare beauty at
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Beau Webster steps off the sidelines into the light as promise of Cameron Green wilts | Geoff Lemon

  07-01-2026 09:08 via theguardian.com
  With his one Ashes opportunity Webster outscored his fellow all-rounder while looking calmer, more organised and switching to off-spinThere was an irony to the fact that Cameron Green’s catch made Beau Webster’s day look even better. Green had not had a good one, having earlier dived in front of Australia’s most prolific slip catcher to spoil a simple Steve Smith catch. It followed a poor day the day before, skying a pull shot after getting settled on 37, and a poor series befo
  
  Read more

• Bethell’s elegant first Test century presses pause on Australia’s Ashes party

  07-01-2026 08:21 via theguardian.com
  Fifth Test; day four: England 302-8 & 384; Australia 567Tourists lead by 119 after late wickets let hosts back inIt was good. So good. So unbelievably good. On the penultimate day of an Ashes tour packed with regrets for England, a star was born when Jacob Bethell, 22 years young, raised his bat to all corners of the Sydney Cricket Ground in celebration of a hundred that offered hope for the future.There was no reason why England should collapse to defeat on this sun-soaked fourth day but ev
  
  Read more

• Australia cricket team banned from speaking to TV channel after 'out of order' Ashes rant

  06-01-2026 17:04 via express.co.uk
  Australia's cricketers have been banned from speaking to ABC during the Ashes.
  
  Read more

• ‘I wish I’d faced these poor modern teams’: world’s oldest living Test cricketer on decline in standards

  06-01-2026 14:00 via theguardian.com
  Neil Harvey, 97, the last surviving Bradman Invincible, blasts the Bazball experiment from his La-Z-Boy armchair Twenty five kilometres north of the SCG, the world’s oldest living Test cricketer is sitting in his La-Z-Boy armchair and watching the Test. Neil Harvey was once the youngest of Bradman’s Invincibles; now he’s 97, his old cricketing buddies gone. His body is a little worn around the edges, but mentally he’s astute.Harvey was Australia’s sweetheart, the se
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Majestic Smith passes Hobbs to leave only Bradman clear on top of Ashes mountain | Geoff Lemon

  06-01-2026 12:54 via theguardian.com
  The great Australian batter was typically twitchy before passing his latest personal milestone in SydneyThere was a time, while Steve Smith was at the height of his batting prowess, when “best since Bradman” was used with confidence. The thing about that line is that even when the recipient has dominated for years, it gets applied too quickly, given the point of comparison is a career-lasting two decades. Lots of players reach the top for a time, no other has stayed as long. Smith wa
  
  Read more

• Cricket Australia boycotts player interviews with ABC after Stuart Clark criticises team setup

  06-01-2026 11:55 via theguardian.com
  Former fast bowler called head of cricket James Allsopp a ‘grade coach’ and said selector George Bailey lacks gravitasCricket Australia has boycotted player interviews with the ABC, furious with the national broadcaster over former Test quick Stuart Clark’s criticism of selector George Bailey and head of cricket James Allsopp.Clark created headlines on Monday when he criticised the Australian setup in his role as an ABC commentator, labelling Allsopp a “grade coach”
  
  Read more

• Bethell admits ‘tired’ England need to ‘graft’ after hitting Ashes wall in Sydney

  06-01-2026 11:04 via theguardian.com
  ‘It was a tough day but that’s what it’s about’Player suggests spin may now play a part in TestEngland hit the wall on day three at the Sydney Cricket Ground, or at least the latest in a series of walls, at the end of which Jacob Bethell admitted mental and physical fatigue was understandably, playing a part. There were dropped catches and some scattergun bowling lengths as Australia batted all day to reach 518-7, 134 runs ahead on first innings.“This is proper Test
  
  Read more

• Conscript Potts is England’s paratrooper fighting a lonely Ashes war in Sydney | Barney Ronay

  06-01-2026 10:39 via theguardian.com
  While England’s batting always gets to hog the limelight, this tour has also been lost in in the bowling fade-outsForty-five minutes into a quietly overcast morning at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Matt Potts came into the England attack from the Randwick End, and immediately began running through his variations.His first ball was wide and smashed through cover by Travis Head. His second ball was both short and wide and hacked over gully by Travis Head. His third ball was short and straight a
  
  Read more

• Australia v England: fifth Ashes Test, day three – as it happened

  06-01-2026 08:38 via theguardian.com
  Australia 518-7 at stumps with a lead of 134 runs on England’s first innings total after centuries from Head and Smith36th over: Australia 167-2 (Head 92, Neser 1) “It’s at least possible we’ll see the traditional England management shakeup after the Ashes,” says Ben Mimmack, “so who in the current squad do you think would welcome a change and who won’t? These are my guesses:“(Like the) Status Quo: Crawley, Duckett, Stokes, Carse, Archer, Wood, Jac
  
  Read more

• Australia v England: fifth Ashes Test, day three – live reaction

  06-01-2026 08:26 via theguardian.com
  Australia 518-7 with a lead of 134 runs after centuries from Head and Smith36th over: Australia 167-2 (Head 92, Neser 1) “It’s at least possible we’ll see the traditional England management shakeup after the Ashes,” says Ben Mimmack, “so who in the current squad do you think would welcome a change and who won’t? These are my guesses:“(Like the) Status Quo: Crawley, Duckett, Stokes, Carse, Archer, Wood, Jacks, Atkinson, Fisher. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Smith and Head hit centuries to help Australia grind England into the dust

  06-01-2026 08:25 via theguardian.com
  Fifth Ashes Test; day three: England 384. Australia 518-7Host captain on 129 not out following Head’s 163 from 166They do these things well here in Australia. They honoured the victims and first responders of the Bondi atrocity fittingly on the first day of this fifth Test, and on the third the Sydney Cricket Ground became a sea of pink to once again generate welcome funds for the McGrath Foundation.Out in the middle, however, Australian charity was in far shorter supply. Across three sess
  
  Read more

• Australia v England: fifth Ashes Test, day three – live

  05-01-2026 23:33 via theguardian.com
  Over-by-over updates from Sydney Cricket Ground
  Play starts at 10am local at the SCG/11pm GMT
  Live scorecard | The Ashes top 100 | Email RobHello and welcome to live coverage of day three at the SCG. There’s a big first session comi- ah, I can’t be bothered. Sure, the first session will shape the rest of this match, and may tell us whether Travis Head is going to make a third matchwinning century of the series, but it’s impossible to escape the end-of-term feeling that has per
  
  Read more

• Ben Stokes unlikely to face reprimand for sweary Ashes spat with Labuschagne

  05-01-2026 14:23 via theguardian.com
  England captain told Australia batter to ‘shut the fuck up’Root defends Jamie Smith’s widely derided dismissalIt was hard to know whether it was a message to Australia or his own bowlers as Ben Stokes signed off from a frustrating second evening in Sydney by swapping words out in the middle with Marnus Labuschagne.Seemingly reacting to something said by Labuschagne as the hosts made a rapid reply to England’s 384 all out, Stokes was heard saying “shut the fuck up&rd
  
  Read more

• Ben Stokes unlikely to face reprimand for Ashes spat with Labuschagne

  05-01-2026 14:23 via theguardian.com
  England captain clashes Australian batterJor Root defends Jamie Smith’s dismissalIt was hard to know whether it was a message to Australia or his own bowlers. Ben Stokes signed off from a frustrating second evening in Sydney by swapping words out in the middle with Marnus Labuschagne. Seemingly reacting to something said by Labuschagne as the hosts made a rapid reply to England’s 384, Stokes was heard saying “shut the fuck up” at the end of the over he had just bowled. He
  
  Read more

• Australia ignoring spin forgets that good bowlers are good bowlers | Geoff Lemon

  05-01-2026 12:43 via theguardian.com
  Why is a middling back-up seamer suddenly better than a quality spinner, whatever the conditions? When Shane Warne called his biography No Spin, it wasn’t a recommendation. Speaking for the dead is unacceptably presumptuous, but his record in life was loud and clear in backing his guild. Teams should always give themselves the option of spin bowling was his common contention.Nor is allegiance of style the only factor. His old teammate Jason Gillespie, as pure a paceman as they come, had th
  
  Read more

• Anatomy of an Ashes brain-fade: Jamie Smith and the shot heard around the world

  05-01-2026 12:28 via theguardian.com
  England’s meek concession of the series is a waste of talent and this stroke sums up the structural failureNo doubt someone, somewhere, in some fevered corner of the internet will come up with a counter view. If the universe of cricketing hot takes really is infinite, then logically there must be a feed, a page, a platform where a voice is saying, Jamie Smith and The Shot: on second thoughts.You might think this was a bad shot, perhaps even the Worst Shot. You might think all surviving foo
  
  Read more

• England captain Ben Stokes' heated confrontation with Australia star as Ashes row erupts

  05-01-2026 11:59 via express.co.uk
  Ben Stokes exchanged some words with Magnus Labuschagne at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
  
  Read more

• Centurion Root eyes next Ashes series down under

  05-01-2026 09:55 via bbc.com
  Joe Root says he would "love" to be part of England's next Ashes tour in 2029-30, when he will turn 39 years old.
  
  Read more

• Root hits 160 but Head leads Australia's response on day two

  05-01-2026 09:21 via bbc.com
  Joe Root hits 160 as England are bowled out for 384 in their first innings of the fifth Test with Australia closing day two 218 runs behind, as they finish on 166-2 at stumps, with Travis Head unbeaten on 91 in Sydney.
  
  Read more

• '2/10' - how England's bowling unravelled in Sydney

  05-01-2026 09:19 via bbc.com
  Why England's bowling performance on day two of the fifth Test is an alarming hint to the future.
  
  Read more

• The Ashes: Root’s resolve, Smith’s shocker and Australia start well

  05-01-2026 09:01 via bbc.co.uk
  We hear from Joe Root who scored his 41st Test century and Australia bowler Scott Boland
  
  Read more

• Daily Ashes Debrief: Vaughan & Tufnell react to day two in Sydney

  05-01-2026 09:00 via bbc.co.uk
  Alex Hartley and guests react to the day's play.
  
  Read more

• Australia 166-2 after England reach 384 on day two of fifth Ashes Test – as it happened

  05-01-2026 08:43 via theguardian.com
  Head steers hosts to within 218 runs of England’s first innings total after Root amasses his second century on Australian soil47th over: England 223-3 (Root 78, Brook 83) Here comes England’s spectre. Brook pulls his first ball, splendidly stopped on the rope by Webster. Pancakes his fifth in a not altogether convincing way, but gets away with it.46th over: England 217-3 (Root 77, Brook 79) With Brian Draper’s Jerusalem being sung by men in white T-shirts with a printed MCC tie
  
  Read more

• Root hits masterful century for England before Head leads Australia fightback

  05-01-2026 08:39 via theguardian.com
  Fifth Ashes Test; day two: Australia 166-2, England 384Root makes 160 but hosts’ opener helps reduce lead to 218The Richies were out in force for the final time on the second day at the Sydney Cricket Ground, an entire block decked out in either cream, bone, white, off-white, ivory, or beige. Bathed in sunshine, flags fluttering over the two heritage-listed pavilions, the backdrop for Joe Root’s 41st Test century was absolutely marvellous.This has not been the case for Root here over
  
  Read more

• Head hits back after Root 160 in Ashes finale

  05-01-2026 08:12 via bbc.com
  England's Joe Root makes a sublime 160 before Australia opener Travis Head replies with an unbeaten 91 on day two of the fifth Ashes Test in Sydney.
  
  Read more

• 'He can bat in Australia!' - Root hits sublime 160 for England

  05-01-2026 06:12 via bbc.com
  Watch the best shots of Joe Root's first innings as he scores an impressive 160 to help England to 384 all out against Australia on day two of the fifth Ashes Test in Sydney.
  
  Read more

Follow @Cricket_News_UK on Twitter!