LAWRENCE BOOTH AT OLD TRAFFORD: Steve Smith accused England of playing into his hands after he continued to punish their bowling with a magnificent 211 in Manchester.

Trevor Bayliss will stand down from the role with England following the end of the Ashes, with the search for a successor among the ECB's high priorities.

LAWRENCE BOOTH AT OLD TRAFFORD: Three late wickets, including Joe Root, left England's Ashes hopes hanging by a thread on Friday night as they battled to save the fourth Test.

NASSER HUSSAIN AT OLD TRAFFORD: Rory Burns strikes me as the kind of lad who goes away and looks at his issues. He works with a coach he trusts and solves problems.

LAWRENCE BOOTH AT OLD TRAFFORD: Archer finished Australia's first innings with figures of none for 97, returning to earth with a bump after taking 13 wickets in his first two Tests.

BUMBLE AT THE TEST: Josh Hazlewood has put Australia in complete control of the fourth Ashes Test after grabbing three quick wickets late on during the third day at Old Trafford.

MARTIN SAMUEL AT OLD TRAFFORD: Late in the day, England digging in, Australia bowling well but increasingly frustrated, Nathan Lyon decided he might mess with a few minds.

CHIEF SPORTS WRITER: Steve Smith was still there. Turning our summer to autumn in the September chill. Taking away the Ashes. Infecting the glorious memories of the World Cup final.

England are on the verge of surrendering the Ashes after slumping to 18 for two on Saturday but coach Trevor Bayliss was still clinging to the belief that 'anything is possible'.

RICHARD GIBSON AT OLD TRAFFORD: After the miracle of Headingley kept their Ashes hopes alive, England now need a marathon stonewall across the Pennines to stop Australia killing them off.

NASSER HUSSAIN: The way that England have played their Test cricket in recent years, they were always going to be found out by a high-class bowling attack.

BUMBLE AT THE TEST: Australia retain the Ashes and in truth they have been the better team. They planned well in advance and got their attack spot on.

Steve Smith said retaining the Ashes in England was one to tick off his bucket list after Australia beat their traditional rivals by 185 runs to win the fourth test at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Sportsmail's Lawrence Booth assesses the performances of both sets of players after Australia got the better of England in the fourth Ashes Test at Old Trafford.

SPORTS AGENDA BY MIKE KEEGAN: England's footballers may well have been delighted last week when the FA announced a multi-year sponsorship deal with food delivery app Deliveroo.

MARTIN SAMUEL - CHIEF SPORTS WRITER: Some time around 2012, an internet movie geek unearthed what was quickly tagged the worst death scene in cinema history.

Steve Smith was already the pantomime villain for England fans but he has riled them even more following Australia's celebrations after they retained the Ashes on Sunday.

Sportsmail columnists Nasser Hussain, David Lloyd, Lawrence Booth and Paul Newman answer the big questions for England's Test team after they failed to regain the Ashes.

Joe Root's failed to lead England to Ashes glory for a second time and some are questioning if he really is the best man to lead an overhaul of the under-performing Test side.

Brian Mullins' mother and daughter wanted to honor his free-spirited nature after he died of a heart attack in March. So they cremated him and put his ashes in a bottle to send him on one last adventure.

A spectator reportedly left the ground on the second day on Thursday after hearing a section of supporters sing a racist song about England's Barbados-born bowler Jofra Archer.

Justin Langer rejected suggestions Australia's Ashes celebrations at Old Trafford targeted England's Jack Leach for mockery, insisting the on-pitch party was a 'two out of 10' performance.

Failing to return the Ashes has led to Joe Root's position being discussed, particularly given his batting performances have been somewhat inconsistent.

EXCLUSIVE BY MIKE KEEGAN: Sportsmail understands that hours of revealing footage has been collected from the last year, which includes Australia's trip to England for World Cup and Ashes.

Members of the Australian cricket team were understood to be trying to contact Jack Leach on Tuesday night following suggestions that they mocked him during their Ashes celebrations.

Former captain Steve Smith who won the Ashes for Australia has opened up about the sandpaper scandal saying there was a time when he thought he wouldn't play again for the country.

Steve Smith's glorious Ashes has raised calls from some fans and pundits for his restoration to the Australia captaincy but incumbent Tim Paine has no plans to hand over the reins quietly.

Jason Roy's Test future looks uncertain after he was dropped from Thursday's Ashes finale at The Oval, as England look to finish their summer with a series-squaring win over Australia.

NASSER HUSSAIN: What happens on the field over the next five days is hugely important because a 2-2 scoreline in the Ashes would be far better for England than 3-1 to Australia.

PAUL NEWMAN AT THE OVAL: Root wore the tired, almost haunted, look of many an England captain coming to the end of the road as he tried to summon up one last effort on Wednesday.

After years of playing and commentating, David Lloyd knows a thing or two about how to enjoy the perfect day out at the cricket.

His time in charge is destined to be remembered for a phenomenal improvement in white-ball cricket, capped off by this summer's World Cup win at Lord's.

LAWRENCE BOOTH AT THE OVAL: Buttler, whose previous eight innings in this series had produced a best of 41, deposited Josh Hazlewood for three sixes to reach stumps on 64 not out.

LAWRENCE BOOTH AT THE OVAL: In a summer where Test openers have generally enjoyed the lifespan of a mayfly, Rory Burns has come dangerously close to spreading his wings.

DAVID LLOYD AT THE OVAL: England's batting line-up is flimsy. At 130 for two, you would have thought it would be plain sailing for them, with most of the top order getting starts

MIKE DICKSON: The Oval is no stranger to farewells, and this final Test will be the valedictory appearance of both David Gower (left) and Sir Ian Botham (right) on the Sky commentary team.

IAN HERBERT AT THE OVAL: The Australians have demonstrated in recent years the art of salvaging pride when the long shadows of late summer are falling across The Oval.

PAUL NEWMAN AT THE OVAL: For a short, sweet spell Jos Buttler produced a passable imitation of Kevin Pietersen's famous innings here at the Oval in the greatest of all Ashes series.

Mick Jagger cut a casual figure as he watched England take on Australia in the Ashes on Thursday.

Yvonne Cannings, 60, from Lancashire said her close friend and former employee June Watson was 'worse than heartless', after she was left relying on food parcels following the £225K theft.

LAWRENCE BOOTH AT THE OVAL: Jofra Archer picked up the second six-wicket haul of his fledging Test career as England gave themselves hope of squaring the Ashes on a dramatic day at The Oval.

BUMBLE AT THE TEST: Finally I have an answer to my question. How do you get Steve Smith out? A straight one from Chris Woakes. Simple.

LAWRENCE BOOTH AT THE OVAL: There was a moment when a few critics were lured into the view that Jofra Archer was not, after all, the best thing that has happened to English cricket.

NASSER HUSSAIN AT THE OVAL: The duel between Matthew Wade and Jofra Archer at the Oval typified a fantastically watchable series that has been great for cricket.

England beat Australia by 135 runs in the fifth Ashes test to see the series end as a draw after the tourists had already retained the urn. Sportsmail gives a rating to every player throughout the series.

BUMBLE AT THE TEST: England produced a fine bowling display to draw the Ashes series with a 135-run fifth Test victory at The Oval. Consecutive Joe Root catches signalled the end of an era.

LAWRENCE BOOTH AT THE OVAL: Joe Root hailed a 'phenomenal' summer of cricket after England squared the Ashes at 2-2 almost exactly two months after England's World Cup win.

IAN HERBERT AT THE OVAL: There was something telling about Tim Paine sitting down to say that his terrible record with the decision review system might require him to 'enrol in umpire school'.

Australia may have retained the urn but couldn't do enough to win the 2019 Ashes series as England clinched a 135-run fifth Test victory to level the scores.

SPORTS AGENDA BY MIKE KEEGAN: Eddie Jones has included lessons on Japanese history as part of England's World Cup preparations