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What England can still hope is for their last four wickets to carry on batting until the heavens open.

He said that “Michael has been a mainstay in the Australia team during a very successful period in its history”.

But it still meant England had won the series 3-2, an overall result that confounded the forecasts of many pundits.

Why is Moeen Ali batting at 8? Sometimes she bowls, sometimes not.

Peter Siddle made the breakthrough when he trapped Mark Wood lbw for six before Jos Buttler chipped Mitchell Marsh to mid-off for 42.

It was a charm, however, completely lacking from the 2015 Ashes, which ended with England winning the five-match series 3-2 despite Australia’s innings and 46-run win in the concluding Test at The Oval on Sunday.

The series equalled in length the shortest five-Test series of modern times of 18 days that took place when England played the West Indies in 2000.

An abysmal batting performance by England has given Australia a commanding advantage in the final Test of their tour, with the tourists eager to end a frustrating summer of five day cricket on a high.

Earlier, a ninth-wicket stand of 57 between Moeen Ali and Mark Wood saved just a few, but not many, of England’s blushes before the same pair both fell to Johnson in a fitting anti-climax to an unsatisfactory batting display.

At stumps on the second day of the fifth Test, England had slumped to 107 for eight in reply to Australia’s first innings 481 – a huge deficit of 374 runs.