England’s Ashes joy as Aussies are hammered

The tourists took the remaining six Australian second innings wickets in little more than an hour of the final morning’s play to bowl them out for 304 and win by an innings and 71 runs – beating the thunderstorms that came too late to save the home side.

After Kevin Pietersen’s heroics with the bat – and last ball success with his bowling – on day four, it was England’s regular bowlers who stole the headlines on the final day.

There was one brief setback when wicketkeeper Matt Prior dropped Australia’s star batsman Mike Hussey just as he had reached 50. But the reprieve was only temporary. Ten balls later, the Western Australia batsman top-edged a pull shot off paceman Steven Finn and holed out to James Anderson at mid-on.

“We need to enjoy this and savour it because it was a very special victory for us.” England captain Andrew Strauss

And that was the end of Australia’s resistance, as their final six wickets tumbled for just 43 runs.

First Brad Haddin – who had shown his own ability with the bat in both the First Test and the first innings in Adelaide – edged James Anderson to Prior. Then – next ball – Anderson trapped Ryan Harris lbw – the unfortunate Harris becoming only the second Australian to register a “king pair” (out first ball in both innings) in Test history.

Then it was Graeme Swann’s turn to take charge – dismissing Marcus North lbw after a referral to the third umpire, clean-bowling Xavier Doherty and then repeating the process to dismiss last man Peter Siddle. Swann finished with 5-91 – the tenth time he has taken five wickets in a Test innings. But it was Pietersen who was given the Man of the Match award.

100th victory

It was England’s 100th Test victory against Australia, but their first win against them by an innings in 24 years and their first win on Australian soil since the 2002-3 tour. And it was in marked contrast to the Adelaide Test in 2006-7, when a second innings batting collapse cost England the match after they had amassed more than 500 in their first innings.

With England already the holders of the Ashes, they need to win just one of the three remaining Tests to ensure they hold on to the urn.

“They’ve out-batted us, out-bowled us and out-fielded us this entire game.” Australian captain Ricky Ponting

The England captain, Andrew Strauss, said the team was very pleased with its performance.

“We need to enjoy this and savour it because it was a very special victory for us – in some ways it exorcised some of the demons from four years ago here,” he said. “But it’s back to square one again…it’s important we don’t let Australia back in the series now.”

Australia’s captain, Ricky Ponting, said his team had to bounce back in time for the Third Test in Perth on 16 December.

“They’ve out-batted us, out-bowled us and out-fielded us this entire game,” he said. “We’re going to have to be at our very best if we’re going to work our way back into this series.”

There was bad news for both teams on the final day, with England losing their all-rounder Stuart Broad for the remainder of the series with a torn abdominal muscle, while Australia look like being without their opener Simon Katich for the last three Tests after he suffered an Achilles injury.

And insult was added to that injury for the home side just a few hours after the end of the game, when the torrential rain they’d been hoping might come to their rescue finally arrived – drenching the Adelaide Oval – but by then the England celebrations had already begun.