The fourth Ashes Test between Australia and England was played in Melbourne, which could not last even for 2 days. On the second day of this match, there was a lot of ruckus regarding the wicket of Marnus Labuschagne. Labuschagne was out in the second innings after scoring 8 runs in 18 balls, but there was a lot of uproar over whether Joe Root caught him cleanly or not. Was this one catch the reason for Australia’s defeat? Know here what is this whole controversy.

This incident is of the 18th over of Australia’s second innings. Josh Tong came to bowl and the very first ball of the over took the edge of the bat and went into slip. Joe Root, who was in the slip position, took the catch, after which the entire England team appealed. Labuschagne did not even move from his place because he had a suspicion in his mind that the catch had not been taken properly.

The ground umpire left the decision to the third umpire. After examining the video review from different angles, the third umpire admitted that Joe Root’s fingers were under the ball, hence Labuschagne was declared out. Labuschagne, on the other hand, looked unhappy with this decision and returned to the dressing room disappointed.

What did you make of this catch? Out or not out?#Ashes , #DRSChallenge , @Westpac pic.twitter.com/pnWo2qt6qc

— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 27, 2025

Test match ended in 142 overs, England won

The fourth Ashes Test played in Melbourne ended in just 142 overs of play. In a Test match, 90 overs are bowled in a day, so you can imagine how the fast bowlers wreaked havoc on both the days of the match. Australia’s first innings was all out for 152 runs, but in response, England’s batting unit was all out for just 110 runs, giving Australia a lead of 42 runs in the first innings.

Australia scored 132 runs in the second innings, giving England a target of 175 runs. England achieved this target with 4 wickets remaining.

The name of Melbourne Cricket Ground has been recorded in history. Australia vs England 4th Ashes Test has ended in just 2 days. England won the Melbourne Test by 4 wickets, no team could touch the 200-run mark in all four innings of the match. This was the fourth shortest Test match in terms of balls in Test cricket history, which ended in only 852 balls.

The fourth Ashes Test is surrounded by criticism. 94,199 people had come to watch this match, but within 2 days their hopes were dashed. The pitch of the Melbourne ground is also under question and veteran England cricketer Kevin Pietersen, citing India, said that Australia should also be strongly criticized due to the poor pitch.

If this had happened in India, there would have been an uproar.

Former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen tweeted after the first day’s play of the fourth Ashes Test. In fact, 20 wickets had fallen on the first day of the match, while on the second day, 16 wickets had fallen before England won by four wickets. The match ended in only 142 overs of play.

Kevin Pietersen said, “When wickets keep falling on the first day of a Test match, then India gets criticized a lot. I hope that Australia also has to become a victim of the same kind of criticism. It would be fair.”

India ALWAYS gets hammered when wickets fall like crazy on day 1 of a Test and so I hope that Australia gets the same scrutiny!
Fair is fair!

— Kevin Pietersen (@KP24) December 26, 2025

Not a single fifty in the entire match

It is also an interesting fact that not a single half-century was seen in all four innings of the Melbourne Test. The highest individual score in the match was 46 runs, which was scored by Travis Head in Australia’s second innings. Apart from him, only Harry Brook and Jacob Bethel were able to cross the 40-run mark in the entire match.

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India benefited from Australia’s defeat, know how much the points table of the World Test Championship changed after England’s victory in Melbourne.

England has got its first win in the 2025-26 Ashes series. After losing the first three Tests, England won the fourth Test. England has won in Australia after almost 14 years. The fourth Ashes Test played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground ended within just two days. In this match, the England team was all out for just 110 runs in its first innings. Even after this the English team won the match by 4 wickets.

In this Test match played in Melbourne, Australia had scored only 152 runs in its first innings. However, after this the Kangaroos bundled out the British for 110 runs. In this way Australia achieved a significant lead of 42 runs in the first innings. However, in the second innings the Australian team could score only 132 runs and gave England a target of 175 runs. These runs seemed to be quite a lot on a bowler-friendly pitch, but in the second innings, Jack Crawley 37, Ben Duckett 34 and Jacob Bethel played brilliant innings of 40 runs for England. The English team chased the target by losing 6 wickets. In bowling, Josh Tong took five wickets in the first innings and two wickets in the second innings for England. Josh Tong ,player of the match, Chosen.

England won after 5468 days

close to australia 5468 The day England won. Before this, England last won the Sydney Test in Australia on 7 January 2011. England played cricket in baseball style in the second innings. The British won the match by scoring 178 runs in 32.2 overs. England captain Ben Stokes has won on Australian soil after 13 Tests.

No batsman from both the teams could score a half century

It was also interesting in the fourth Test match played in Melbourne that the batsmen of England and Australia could not score half-centuries in both the innings. A total of 572 runs were scored in this match, but no one scored a fifty. This amazing record has been made in the history of the Ashes series.