Australia retains the Ashes with 2 tests to spare after a tense victory over England in Adelaide

ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) — Australia retained the Ashes with two matches to spare after paceman Mitchell Starc took three of the last four wickets to blunt England’s defiant comeback Sunday in a tense fifth-day finish to the third cricket test.

Australia started Day 5 needing four wickets to retain the Ashes, with England resuming at 6-207 and still 228 runs away from the victory target of 435 that would have required a world record to achieve.

“Feels pretty awesome,” Australia captain Pat Cummins said of the 82-run win at the Adelaide Oval. “We got it done.”

Cummins missed the first two tests while recovering from a back problem, with Steve Smith leading the team to two eight-wicket wins. Smith was ruled out of the third test about a half-hour before the toss because of vertigo.

“You can’t really rush things here in Australia, it doesn’t work that way,” Cummins said of the test going the distance. “It’s a good old fashioned grind a lot of the time and, yeah, I love the toil from all the guys today.

“It got a little bit closer than I would have liked, but pretty happy.”

Tense Day 5

Starc took the only wicket in the morning session — Jamie Smith running out of patience and caught by Cummins for 60 — as England piled on 102 runs.

England’s rally had narrowed the Ashes equation at lunch on the last day: Australia needed three wickets to clinch the old urn in Adelaide and England needed 126 runs to keep the five-match series alive.

No team had scored more than West Indies’ 418 (in a three-wicket win over Australia in 2003) in the fourth innings to win a test.

But England skipper Ben Stokes later said he felt like his team were “on for another heist” in the morning session and was confident of achieving a record total.

With England’s lower-order doggedly mounting pressure and Australia’s attack missing veteran spinner Nathan Lyon, who limped off the field with an injured hamstring, the leading bowler in the series delivered for the hosts.

Starc, who was voted player of the match in Australia’s eight-wicket wins in Perth and Brisbane, took the wickets of Will Jacks (47) — spectacularly caught by Marnus Labuschagne, who dived from slip in front of the wicketkeeper — and Jofra Archer (3).

That left Scott Boland to finish it off. He dismissed Josh Tongue (1) and left Brydon Carse stranded on 39 as England was all out for 352.

Player of the match

Australian wicketkeeper Alex Carey was voted player of the match after posting a home ground hundred in the first innings, a half-century in the second innings in a 162-run stand with Travis Head, who top-scored with 170, and completing seven dismissals for the test.

England’s out of contention

England captain Ben Stokes said he was happier with the resilience shown by his team this week, despite ultimately surrendering the series in 11 days.

“This is going to hurt quite a bit,” Stokes said. “Obviously that dream that we came here with is now over, which is obviously incredibly disappointing.

“But look, we’ve got two more (tests) to go on and that’s where the focus needs to switch to now.”

Injured Lyon

A day after swinging the momentum back in Australia’s favor with a three-wicket burst, veteran spinner Lyon hurt his right hamstring diving to cut off a boundary in the outfield and was ruled out of the remainder of the match. He got up and clutched the back of his right leg before walking off with a trainer when England was 249-6.

Long, long drought

Domestic media noted Sunday that it had been 5,462 days since England last won a test match in Australia — dating back to January 2011.

Since then, the Australians have won the series Down Under 5-0, 4-0, 4-0 and are now 3-0.

Series continues

Melbourne will host the Boxing Day test starting Dec. 26 and Sydney will host the fifth test in the New Year.

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AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket