On this day, December 23, 2020: Australia retained the Ashes with a series sealing innings and 14-run win over England in the third test in Melbourne. The day belonged to debutant Scott Boland who finished
with a six-wicket haul in a stunning debut. The 32-year-old pacer walked off the Melbourne Cricket Ground with a stump and astonishing figures of 6-7 as England’s batsmen capitulated.
Scott Boland was called up as injury cover to Hazlewood and was lethal on his home ground at the MCG, taking 6-7 off four overs, equalling the record for the fastest five-wicket haul in just 19 balls. Mitchell Starc ended with 3-29 as England’s misery was complete and they lost the series.
England could score only 185 while batting first and restricted Australia to 267 in their first innings on the back of some excellent bowling from Jimmy Anderson. Australia took a 82-run lead but any dreams England had of coming back in the Test and the series was destroyed due to some excellent fast-bowling blitz from Starc, Cummins and Boland. In an hour of before the end of day's play, they removed openers Zak Crawley, Haseeb Hameed, Dawid Malan for a golden duck and nightwatchman Jack Leach, and England were staring into another loss on 31 for four at the end of the day. The next day, December 23 belonged to Scott Boland.
Scott Boland started an incredible spell of fast bowling in front of a massive home crowd of more than 40,000 people. He started off by dismissing Jonny Bairstow lbw for five, Root out for 28 and tailenders Mark Wood and Ollie Robinson were also dismissed by him for ducks.
“That’s my best ever figures Nothing happened that quickly. Obviously I thought (debuting) was going to be really tough, a big step up from anything else I’d played before. I was hoping to make a bit of an impact. I’d like to thank the crowd so much for the support over the last three days, I really appreciate it” said Scott Boland after his dream debut.
