The Ashes: England snare first win Down Under since 2011 with wild result over Australia inside two days

England has won a Test in Australia for the first time in almost 15 years and avoided the ignominy of another series whitewash in a frenetic and bizarre Boxing Day match wrapped up in two days.

Albeit too little too late, with the series sealed by Australia in Adelaide last week, England chased down a fourth-innings score of 175 with four wickets remaining at the MCG on Saturday.

They bowled Australia out for 132 as 36 wickets fell in less than six sessions.

It is just the fourth two-day Test match ever played in Australia, but remarkably the second this series — after the high-octane opener in Perth — and the third in four seasons.

That looms as a significant financial shortfall for Cricket Australia, with a full house expected for what would have been a third straight time on Sunday. It is believed they lost millions of dollars for each lost day of the Perth Test, with that hole likely to be significantly bigger in Melbourne given the bumper crowds.

The day-two attendance was 92,045 and the second-biggest cricket crowd in Australian history, only behind the day one’s 94,199.

But the stadium’s drop-in wicket was again in the crosshairs, with former England captain Michael Vaughan calling it a “shocker” as batters copped vicious blows from balls jumping up off a good length.

This match was almost a perfect inverse of the bonkers Test in Perth last month, where Travis Head scored a century to lead Australia to a fourth-innings chase that was the biggest score of the entire match.

Throwing caution to the wind and replacing it with their hell-for-leather BazBall approach, England sensationally sent hard-hitting tail-ender Brydon Carse out at No.3 and chased the score in just 32.2 overs.

Ashes debutant Jacob Bethell made top-scored with 40 off 46, Zak Crawley steered the ship for 37 and with the spotlight shining brightest on him, Ben Duckett made a rapid 34.

Harry Brook hit the winning runs, moments after striking a boundary that crossed the rope in front of hoards of travelling fans.

It leaves the series at 3-1 ahead of the final bout at the Sydney Cricket Ground next week, the site of England’s previous Test victory Down Under, in January 2011.

The dents Australia made with the ball came from Mitchell Starc (3-55), Jhye Richardson (2-26) and Scott Boland (2-29).

Starc rolled through Duckett with a searing yorker that bordered on unplayable, while Richardson had hitman Carse caught off a top-edge for his first Test wicket in four years, before he also claimed Joe Root lbw for 15 in the dying stages.

Boland had Crawley out lbw, a call he only hopefully reviewed. Captain Ben Stokes flashed at a ball and was out just 10 runs short of the target.

The innings started with Duckett clipping his first ball away for four and the under-siege pair of openers tearing away at more than six-an-over. A raucous Barmy Army poked fun at scrutiny over the dimunutive opener’s off-field behaviour as he built a foundation for victory.

Bethell, who spent the first three Tests of the trip as a reserve, played a series of picture-perfect drives interspersed by trick shots, including one scoop that carried for six off Michael Neser. He fell when he smoked a Boland delivery to cover.

It took less than three hours for England to sweep Australia’s 10 wickets after the hosts resumed at 0-4, having braved one over before stumps on Friday.

And the tsunami has left the positions of Jake Weatherald, Usman Khawaja and Cam Green all hanging by a thread.

Green could be dropped for the first time in his Test career after an innings West Australian great Simon Katich labelled “rubbish” and was dismissed for 19, a day after he ran himself out for 17.

“On the move, not balanced with his foot, particularly his back foot, it’s just premeditated batting,” he told Channel 7.

“It’s predetermined rubbish. Watch the ball and play it instinctively off the track.”

Green was also unused with the ball after sending down just five deliveries in the first innings.

Khawaja was out hooking for a second-ball duck and Weatherald removed for five, giving Australian selectors plenty to mull over before the Sydney Test, despite their unassailable series lead.

The hosts slumped to 6-98 at the lunch break, with Head’s 46 their top score.

In-form wicketkeeper Alex Carey was dismissed just before lunch for four, caught by a diving Brook in the cordon

Marnus Labuschagne briefly batted through pain after copping two blows to the hand from deliveries by Stokes that reared up at him shortly before he was dismissed.

He was caught by Root at third slip in a tight call that was checked by the third umpire, much to the batter’s frustration.

Nightwatchman Boland was the first of the Australian batters to go after his final-over heroics in Friday’s evening session. He was caught behind off Gus Atkinson after revving up a raucous home crowd by reaching six off 17 balls.

Weatherald’s position will also be up for discussion. He fell for five, bowled Stokes, having sent Boland out to cover for him overnight. He has scored 146 runs at 24.85 in his eight Test knocks.

Green wore a body blow from the bowling of Carse in the moments before lunch. He then edged a streaky boundary behind square on the off-side on the final ball.

Richardson was the final wicket to ball when he skied a ball off Stokes after a bizarre passage of play where a set Smith took singles off the first ball of three consecutive overs. Richardson struck a driven boundary in his seven off nine deliveries.

Australia’s collapse also saved England from a fast-bowling shortage, with Atkinson limping off the field during the first session for treatment on what appears to be a left hamstring injury.

The paceman will almost certainly need to be replaced for the Sydney Test. He is likely to join Mark Wood and Jofra Archer in being ruled out for the series as injury continues to decimate England’s long-touted pace battery. Matthew Potts and Matthew Fisher are the back-up quicks in the squad.