There is a generation of England players who do not know what it is to win an Ashes series. Stokes himself and Joe Root, who have done so much for the game in our country, have — amazingly — yet to play on a winning side in Australia. The next tour here may be a step too far for both. With the Hundred now drawing big salaries, the dangers of further erosion to the Test format in England are clear and present.

Defeat on Sunday will mean Australia equal the record set by Steve Waugh’s great teams in England in 2001 and Australia in 2002-03 of winning the Ashes in 11 days, but this current side is not on a par with those, which reflects how far below their abilities England have performed.

With an hour to go to stumps, England were tracking quite nicely at 177 for three. The idea that they might have won was fanciful but Zak Crawley, who played his best innings of the series for 85, and Harry Brook looked organised and at ease. The Australian bowlers were tiring and operating in short spells.

Then Brook fell attempting another reverse sweep, a shot he had been playing well, and Ben Stokes and Crawley himself quickly followed and three wickets tumbled in 38 balls. The game was effectively up. Jamie Smith and Will Jacks hung on until the close.

England’s innings, which began an awkward 11 minutes before lunch, got off to its customary terrible start, and when they went two down 20 minutes after lunch there was definitely scope for a swift execution. Crawley managed to negotiate Mitchell Starc’s routinely dangerous first over but Ben Duckett fared less well against Pat Cummins.

Duckett’s mind is riven with doubt after such a torrid series, and he could be seen practising his “leaves” before the innings began and moments after it ended. Sadly, he did not deploy the manoeuvre during it. He clipped his first ball to the midwicket boundary, and the second was wide enough to let go but he played at it anyway, without conviction. The edge flew straight to Marnus Labuschagne at second slip.

Duckett has not made a fifty in 20 competitive innings since the end of the India Test series, and needs to rediscover his mojo fast.

There were a few theatrics as Crawley made sure there was not time for another over by walking down the pitch to tap down an imaginary blemish. Cummins retaliated by pretending to tie his shoelace before quickly getting up and running in, in an attempt to surprise Crawley, but Crawley was wise to it, and pulled away. Eventually the ball was bowled and zipped past Crawley’s bat, one of his closer escapes.

Pope, drinking firmly in the last chance saloon, was given a stern examination by Starc and Cummins as the afternoon began and he never really gave off an air of permanence. Eventually, a short ball from Cummins deflected into his helmet, which perhaps unsettled him; the next ball was in the channel and Pope pushed firmly, and saw the ball fly low to Labuschagne’s left where he clung onto a great one-handed catch.

Crawley and Joe Root settled in and played nicely until tea. They dealt assuredly with Lyon with sweeps either side of the wicket and there appeared few serious threats. Starc was given two warnings for running down the pitch during his first spell, which kept him out of the picture for a while.

The mood changed when Cummins turned to Travis Head’s off-breaks straight after tea. He almost immediately trapped Root lbw playing no shot. Then in the next over Cummins brought himself on against Root, the player he has dismissed more than any other, and with his last ball drew Root into playing at a ball he might have left. It was Cummins’ thirteenth success against Root. English morale dipped further.

Brook joined Crawley and played well within himself, as he had promised to do before the game after his aberrations in Perth and Brisbane. He did not hit a boundary until his 35th ball but when a Head over went for 13 Cummins recalled Lyon and the change did for Brook as he missed his sweep.

Stokes entered to find Starc and Lyon operating in tandem, the two bowlers he has found most difficult. Starc actually withdrew quite quickly but Lyon did not and soon drew the error with Stokes defending from deep in his crease and not at the pitch of the ball. Lyon set off on another jig.

With the ship listing badly, Crawley appeared to lose focus, advancing to a full ball from Lyon and being beaten on the outside edge. Carey made an excellent take to complete his first stumping to go with his six catches and 178 runs.

Earlier in the day, Australia did not accomplish quite what they had hoped by batting deep and putting more miles into the legs of England’s bowlers ahead of Melbourne. They added only 78 more, and wicket-to-wicket their last six wickets fell for only 38 from the point at which the overnight pair of Head and Carey were separated.

England looked better off for having Stokes back on bowling duty — he started the day with a seven-over spell up to the taking of the second new ball. If he was carrying an injury from the previous day, nothing was apparent, and unlike Brydon Carse at the other end he gave the batsmen little to work with.

Carse was hoicked out of the attack after delivering three overs for 26 and his replacement Josh Tongue made an immediate impact when his awkward angle induced an error from Head, on 170, who got too much elevation on his pull and holed out to deep square leg, where Crawley took a good catch looking into the sun.

Stokes then accounted for Carey for 72 (the same score on which he was unjustly reprieved by Snicko on the first day) with a good bouncer that tucked him up for room and took the glove before looping to Brook at slip. It was Stokes’ fiftieth wicket against Australia and made him the eighth all-rounder to do 1,000 runs-50wicket double in Anglo-Australian contests.

With the last over of the old ball, Tongue found Josh Inglis’s outside edge and this may prove enough to see Inglis rather than Usman Khawaja make way in Melbourne, provided Steve Smith is fit to return.

Armed with the second new ball, Jofra Archer and Carse then mopped up the last three wickets in ten balls. Carse had Cummins chasing a wide ball to be caught at slip before pinning Lyon lbw first ball. Archer then caught Boland off his own bowling.

Nonetheless, Australia had become the first team on either side to score more than 700 runs in an Ashes Test at faster than four runs per over since 2015. So much for Bazball.