Rain rain go away! England have to accept heart-breaking draw against Australia

Mother nature spoiled the rest of the Ashes showdowns between England and Australia last weekend as a rain-soaked Manchester gave the Aussies a lucky draw.

With the unfortunate rain for England, Australia will retain the Ashes and take them back to the Southern Hemisphere.

Old Trafford denied England taking the five wickets needed to keep the series alive and take the matchup to a title-deciding Test.

England had the momentum heading into the fourth Test at Old Trafford, halving the deficit to 2-1 after a quality display with the bat at Headingley.

And after three days of play in Manchester, England looked to have carried on that momentum from Leeds, hitting 592 runs in their first inning.

Only 30 overs were possible on Saturday, with Australia bringing the deficit to 61 runs and five wickets in hand.

The rain continued to bucket down from Saturday to Sunday, with the decision to abandon the game taken at 5:24 pm on Sunday.

Australia captain Pat Cummins and his team now know they can't lose the Ashes, and he will hope his team can come out free and aggressive to put a seal on the series.

According to tntsports.co.uk, Cummins said: "It's nice to retain, but not in the circumstances we would have liked. It feels a bit weird."

"It's good that we have retained, but we know we have a fair bit of work to do for next week. In some regards, whatever happened, it would not change how we view next week – we want to win."

Despite the obvious heartbreak for England, Ben Stokes and his England team will turn their focus on something equally important, extending Australia's winless run in England to 22 years.

The England captain will take a lot of confidence from the fourth Test at Old Trafford, believing his team played the perfect game before it was rained off.

After the heartbreaking draw, Ben Stokes said: "We were completely and utterly dominant. The weather didn't help us, we can't change that."

"I can't actually look back and think we could have been better because we were pretty much perfect throughout the whole game."

The draw, which robbed England of taking Australia to the fifth and final test, has raised issues as to whether they can come up with a solution to make sure the game can be played out.

Cricket could extend the play for another day, playing behind closed doors, or make the days longer. Either way, in this series, Australia has benefitted and will take the Ashes home this year.