England won the series 3–2, regaining the Ashes after taking an unassailable lead with an innings victory in the fourth Test.

[8] Australia fast-bowler Ryan Harris announced his retirement from cricket days before the start of the series, due to an ongoing knee injury.

[12] Having been asked to field first by England, despite the start being delayed by a prolonged opening ceremony, the Australians made an early breakthrough with the wicket of Adam Lyth (6).

In what was undoubtedly the turning point in the match, Haddin dropped a fairly regulation catch from the bowling of Starc on Root's second delivery.

The dismissal would have reduced England to 43/4 after they chose to bat first, but after the let off the pair raced to their respective fifties, putting on 153 runs for the fourth wicket before Ballance was trapped LBW by Josh Hazlewood for 61.

Stokes completed his half-century before he was bowled by Starc for 52, and Jos Buttler was also out for 27 after a seventh-wicket stand of exactly 50 with Moeen Ali, but England managed to see out the day on 343/7.

Australia made a steady start to their response, putting on 52 runs before David Warner was caught by Cook in the slips for 17.

Next to go for Australia was Steve Smith, recently ranked as the best Test batsman in the world,[14] caught at short mid-on by Cook off the bowling of Moeen Ali for 33.

As England began their second innings, the Australians again made early breakthroughs, with Cook out for 12 and Ballance out for a duck, before Lyth and Bell shared a stand of 51 runs for the third wicket.

The partnership was broken when Clarke made a one-handed catch to dismiss Lyth for 37, but Bell batted on to reach his first Test half-century in 10 innings.

[16] With Australia chasing 412 to win, they lost Rogers for 10 early on, ending his record-equalling run of half-centuries, but a 78-run partnership between Warner and Smith looked to have stabilised the innings.

Haddin was next to go, caught at short midwicket by Cook for 7; the England captain parried the ball up at the first attempt, but retained his focus to cling on at the second time of asking.

After losing David Warner for 38, the duo of Chris Rogers and Steve Smith batted out the rest of day one and both scored hundreds in the process.

England captain Alastair Cook then stabilised the innings with Ben Stokes and took the score to 85/4 at the close of day's play.

Rogers was retired hurt for 49 early during the morning session of the fourth day but that did not halt the Australian onslaught.

Being set an improbable target of 509 runs to be scored in five sessions, England started poorly with none of the top-order batsmen reaching 15.

[22] On the morning of the third day, battling fifties from Peter Nevill and Mitchell Starc extended Australia's slender lead.

Stuart Broad picked up 8/15, the best bowling figures by a fast bowler in an Ashes Test, while extras outscored every one of Australia's batsmen with 14 (the top-scoring batsman was tail-ender Mitchell Johnson, with 13).

Starc dismissed Root for 130 and took two more wickets on the morning of the second day, but a quickfire lower-order partnership between Moeen Ali and Broad pushed England's total higher.

Adam Voges showed some resistance while wickets fell at the other end, taking Australia to 241/7 at the close of the day's play.

[29] At the conclusion of the match, Australian captain Michael Clarke announced he would retire from international cricket after the series.

[31] For Australia, Josh Hazlewood was ruled out with an ankle injury, paving the way for Peter Siddle to make a long-awaited return to Test cricket ahead of Pat Cummins, despite media reports to the contrary before the match.

[35][36] Australian players Michael Clarke, Chris Rogers, Shane Watson and Brad Haddin retired from Test cricket at the end of the series.

[36][37] England moved up to third in the ICC Test Championship (from sixth at the start of the series), but remained behind Australia who stayed in second place.