England ends 18-match winless streak in Australia with 4-wicket victory in the 4th Ashes test

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — England ended an 18-match winless streak in Australia and beat the home side by four wickets in the fourth Ashes test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday.

England lost the first three tests to allow Australia to retain the Ashes in just 11 days of on-field action at Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide.

But England returned the favor by winning the MCG test Saturday inside two days, similar to Australia's opening win at Perth.

It was the first time the same series has had multiple two-day tests in 129 years.

The England winless streak had dated to the 2013-14 Ashes series, which Australia won 5-0. Since England convincingly won the 2010-11 Ashes 3-1, England had lost 16 matches and drawn the other two of their 18 tests Down Under over a period of nearly 15 years.

Needing 175 second-innings runs to win and 98 after the tea break, England reached its target at 178-6 to clinch the match and send thousands of its long-suffering but faithful “Barmy Army” fans into frenzied celebration.

"It’s obviously been a tough tour up until now,” England captain Ben Stokes said. “The way that we did it was fantastic. It showed bravery, we were courageous in the way we operated.”

England raced to 70-2 off the first 10 overs in its second innings, losing the wickets of Ben Duckett (34) and Brydon Carse (6). Scott Boland removed Zak Crawley (37) and Jacob Bethell (40), who both made valuable contributions.

Joe Root (15) and Stokes (2) fell cheaply before Jamie Smith and Harry Brook guided the visiting side to a morale-boosting win ahead of the fifth and final test beginning Jan. 4 in Sydney.

Earlier Saturday, England bowled out Australia out for 132 in its second innings after lunch on Day 2. On an MCG pitch offering substantial sideways movement for pace bowlers, England successfully chased down a target of 175 to win after 30 wickets had fallen in 4 1-2 sessions.

The dismissal of opener Travis Head (46) was quickly followed by the departures of Usman Khawaja (0) and Alex Carey (4) in the next two overs as Australia slumped from 82-3 to 88-6 in the morning session.

Stokes (3-24) claimed the important wicket of Cameron Green (19) after lunch, caught at second slip, and Brydon Carse sliced through the tail to finish with 4-34.

“If we got 50 or 60 more across both innings, we might have been there in the end,” Australia stand-in skipper Steve Smith said.

Australia held an overall lead of 46 Friday after scoring 152, running through England for 110 in a dramatic first day

Josh Tongue, named player of the match, claimed a career-best 5-45 to lead England’s bowling attack Friday before Michael Neser grabbed 4-45 for Australia.

Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg said Saturday “short tests are bad for business," and said CA would consider a closer role in pitch preparation in the future.

“Historically we have taken a hands-off approach in all of our wicket preparation and allowed the staff and the conditions and those characteristics to be presented,” Greenberg told SEN Radio. ”But it’s hard not to get more involved when you see the impact on the sport, particularly commercially."

The attendance at the MCG on Saturday was 92,045, the second-highest test crowd in Australia, only behind Friday's opening-day crowd of 94,199. Officials said 90,000 tickets had been sold for the non-existent third day.

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

England's Jamie Smith, center right, and batting partner Harry Brook shake hands after defeating Australia on Day 2 of their Ashes cricket test match in Melbourne, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Hamish Blair)

Fans celebrate England's win over Australia on Day 2 of their Ashes cricket test match in Melbourne, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Hamish Blair)

Fans celebrate England's win over Australia on Day 2 of their Ashes cricket test match in Melbourne, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Hamish Blair)

England's Jamie Smith, left, Ben Stokes, second left, Harry Brook andJoe Root, right, shake hands after defeating Australia on Day 2 of their Ashes cricket test match in Melbourne, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Hamish Blair)

England's Ben Stokes applauds the crowd after England defeated Australia on Day 2 of their Ashes cricket test match in Melbourne, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Hamish Blair)

Australia's Scott Boland, center, successfully appeals for a LBW decision on England's Zak Crawley, right, on Day 2 of their Ashes cricket test match in Melbourne, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Hamish Blair)

England's Joe Root bats against Australia on Day 2 of their Ashes cricket test match in Melbourne, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Hamish Blair)

England's Jamie Smith, left and Harry Brook touch bats near the end of their Ashes cricket test match against Australia in Melbourne, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Hamish Blair)

England's Brydon Carse, left, grabs the ball for a caught and bowled on Australia's Michael Neser, right, on Day 2 of their Ashes cricket test match in Melbourne, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Hamish Blair)

Australia's Steve Smith watches the ball while batting against England on Day 2 of their Ashes cricket test match in Melbourne, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Hamish Blair)

England's Ben Duckett bats against Australia on Day 2 of their Ashes cricket test match in Melbourne, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Hamish Blair)

England's Ben Stokes, right, celebrates with teammates after taking Australia's final wicket of their second innings on Day 2 of their Ashes cricket test match in Melbourne, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Hamish Blair)

England's Brydon Carse celebrates the wicket of Australia's Mitchell Starc on Day 2 of their Ashes cricket test match in Melbourne, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Hamish Blair)

Fans of the England cricket team, known as the Barmy Army, wave flags on Day 2 of the Ashes cricket test match between Australia and England in Melbourne, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Hamish Blair)

Australia's Jake Weatherald his bowled by England's Ben Stokes on Day 2 of their Ashes cricket test match in Melbourne, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Hamish Blair)

England's Josh Tongue, second left, celebrates with teammates after the wicket of Australia Usman Khawaja on Day 2 of their Ashes cricket test match in Melbourne, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Hamish Blair)

Australia's Travis Head walks off after he is bowled by England's Brydon Carse on Day 2 of their Ashes cricket test match in Melbourne, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Hamish Blair)

England's Josh Tongue, right, celebrates with teammate Jacob Bethell after the wicket of Australia Usman Khawaja on Day 2 of their Ashes cricket test match in Melbourne, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Hamish Blair)

JABO, Nigeria (AP) — Sanusi Madabo, a 40-year-old farmer in the Nigerian village of Jabo, was preparing for bed on Thursday night when he heard a loud noise that sounded like a plane crashing. He rushed outside his mud house with his wife to see the sky glowing a bright red.

The light burned bright for hours, Madabo said: “It was almost like daytime."

He did not learn until later that he had witnessed a U.S attack on an alleged camp of the militant Islamic State group.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced late Thursday that the United States had launched a “powerful and deadly strike” against IS militants in Nigeria. The Nigerian government has since confirmed that it cooperated with the U.S government in its strike.

Nigerian government spokesperson Mohammed Idris said Friday that the strikes were launched from the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean shortly after midnight and involved “16 GPS-guided precision" missiles and also MQ-9 Reaper drones.

Idris said the strikes targeted areas used as “staging grounds by foreign" IS fighters who had sneaked into Nigeria from the Sahel, the southern fringe of Africa's vast Sahara Desert. The government did not release any casualty figures among the militants.

Residents of Jabo, a village in the northwestern Nigerian state of Sokoto, spoke to The Associated Press on Friday about panic and confusion among the villagers following the strikes, which they said hit not far from Jabo's outskirts. There were no casualties among the villagers.

They said that Jabo has never been attacked as part of the violence the U.S. says is widespread — though such attacks regularly occur in neighboring villages.

Abubakar Sani, who lives on the edge of the village, recalled the “intense heat” as the strikes hit.

“Our rooms began to shake, and then fire broke out,” he told the AP.

“The Nigerian government should take appropriate measures to protect us as citizens," he added. "We have never experienced anything like this before.”

The strikes are the outcome of a monthslong tense diplomatic clash between the West African nation and the U.S.

The Trump administration has said Nigeria is experiencing a genocide of Christians, a claim the Nigerian government has rejected.

However, Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs now said the strikes resulted from intelligence sharing and strategic coordination between the two governments.

Yusuf Tuggar, Nigeria's foreign minister, called the airstrikes a “new phase of an old conflict" and said he expected more strikes to follow.

“For us, it is something that has been ongoing," Tuggar added, referring to attacks that have targeted Christians and Muslims in Nigeria for years.

Bulama Bukarti, a security analyst on sub-Saharan Africa, said the residents' fear is compounded by a lack of information.

Nigerian security forces have since cordoned off the area of the strikes and access was not allowed.

Bukarti said transparency would go a long way to calm the local residents. "The more opaque the governments are, the more panic there will be on the ground, and that is what will escalate tensions.”

Analysts say the strikes might have been intended for the Lakurawa group, a relatively new entrant to Nigeria's complex security crisis.

The group's first attack was recorded around 2018 in the northwestern region before the Nigerian government officially announced its presence last year. The composition of the group has been documented by security researchers as primarily consisting of foreigners from the Sahel.

However, experts say ties between the Lakurawa group and the IS are unproven. The Islamic State West African Province — an IS affiliate in Nigeria — has its strongholds in the northeastern part of the country, where it is currently involved in a power struggle with its parent organization, Boko Haram.

“What might have happened is that, working with the American government, Nigeria identified Lakurawa as a threat and identified camps that belong to the group,” Bukarti said.

Still, some local people feel vulnerable.

Aliyu Garba, a Jabo village leader, told the AP that debris left after the strikes was scattered, and that residents had rushed to the scene. Some picked up pieces of the debris, hoping for valuable metal to trade, and Garba said he fears they could get hurt.

The strikes rattled 17-year-old Balira Sa’idu, who has been preparing for her upcoming marriage.

"I am supposed to be thinking about my wedding, but right now I am panicking," she said. “The strike has changed everything. My family is afraid, and I don’t even know if it is safe to continue with the wedding plan in Jabo.”

Adetayo reported from Lagos, Nigeria.

A previous version of this story was corrected to note that analyst Bulama Bukarti is no longer with the Tony Blair Institute.

People visit the site of a U.S. airstrike in Northwest, Jabo, Nigeria, Friday, Dec. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/ Tunde Omolehin)

A boy picks debris at the site of a U.S. airstrike in Northwest, Jabo, Nigeria, Friday, Dec. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/ Tunde Omolehin)

Police Anti-Bomb squad inspect the site of a U.S. airstrike in Northwest, Jabo, Nigeria, Friday, Dec. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/ Tunde Omolehin)

Nigeria police, Anti-Bomb squad, secure the scene of a U.S. airstrike in Northwest, Jabo, Nigeria, Friday, Dec. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/ Tunde Omolehin)

People visit the site of a U.S. airstrike in Northwest, Jabo, Nigeria, Friday, Dec. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/ Tunde Omolehin)