| 21-24 Nov | FIRST: Australia 295 & 401-7d beat England 136 & 179 by 381 runs | Brisbane |
| 5-9 Dec | SECOND: Australia 570-9d & 132-3d bt England 172 & 312 by 218 runs | Adelaide |
| 13-17 Dec | THIRD: Australia 385 & 369-6d beat England 251 & 353 by 150 runs | Perth |
| 26-29 Dec | FOURTH: Australia 204 & 231-2 beat England 255 & 179 by eight wkts | Melbourne |
| 3-5 Jan | FIFTH: Australia 326 & 276 beat England 155 & 166 by 281 runs | Sydney |
ENGLAND arrived in Australia in November seeking a fourth successive Ashes series win but ended it having to face up to a shameful whitewash.
In between, Alastair Cook's team were out-thought, out-fought and simply out-classed in every facet of the game. It was a pathetic, humiliating surrender of the urn.
Even the great Aussie era of Steve Waugh, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne surely did not find their Ashes series this easy. Even the dreadful whitewash seven years ago resembled more of a contest.
For a start, not one of the matches in this series was close. The margins of victory - 381 runs, 281 runs, 218 runs, 150 runs and eight wickets - were all absolutely massive and a complete embarrassment for England.
Now, reflecting on the campaign as a whole, it is obvious that, of all their issues, the tourists' biggest problem came with the bat.
Actually, as coach Andy Flower has since acknowledged, this was not just something new. Throughout their double success last summer - a 2-0 win over New Zealand and a 3-0 Ashes triumph - England had failed to make 400 once.
Down Under, there were few thoughts of anything like 400, given that the team failed to make even half that in six out of their 10 innings.
Most damagingly, England's best first innings total was 255 and their average knock was 193.8. This compares badly against the Aussies' best of 570-9 declared and team average of 356.
Overall, Australia scored over 1,000 more runs than England, and the biggest difference often came in how the tail approached their task.
Aided by wicket-keeper Brad Haddin, who boasted the best batting average at 61.62 and whose aggregate of 493 was beaten only by David Warner, the Aussie tail wagged throughout the series.
By contrast, England's last few men were regularly blown away by man of the series Mitchell Johnson.
The Queenslander's terrifying pace earned him 37 wickets at the brilliant average of 13.97, including three five-fers, each of which won him a Man of the Match award.
Johnson was ably assisted in the attack by workhorse Ryan Harris (22 wickets at 19.31), Peter Siddle (16 at 24.12), and the off-spin of Nathan Lyon who took 19 wickets at an average under 30.
And, out of the England players who played more than one Test, only Stuart Broad from the England ranks got anywhere near that standard.
James Anderson was a shadow of his former self and Tim Bresnan - who took just five scalps - was down on pace throughout.
Meanwhile, things got so bad for off-spinner Graeme Swann that he retired once the Ashes had been lost in Perth, having taken seven wickets at the monstrous average of 80.
But, even in the face of some unavoidable changes, England's line-up rapidly became a confused mess.
In all, 18 of the 19 players originally taken on tour featured at some point with Steven Finn the only man to miss out.
Fellow giant bowlers Chris Tremlett and debutant Boyd Rankin played just one Test apiece, and the trio became labelled the Tallest Drinks Waiters in the world.
There were debuts also in the series for Ben Stokes, England only centurion who also took a six-fer in the fifth Test, Scott Borthwick who impressed with ball more than bat, and Gary Ballance.
Ballance arrived at the crease at 17-4, only a marginally better position than his Yorkshire predecessor Michael Vaughan who made his debut at 2-4 against South Africa in 1999.
England, who were in transition then just as they clearly are now, lost that match in Johannesburg badly.
But Vaughan learned a lot from his baptism of fire and he became a hugely successful captain with a positive mindset like Aussie skipper Michael Clarke rather than the negative run-saving approach favoured by Cook.
Can Cook change his ways and revitalise England? Will he even get the chance and, that said, does he deserve it?
Certainly, at this stage, a change of at the top would favour England whose defensive nature actually seems to stem directly from Flower.
As successful as he has been in the past, the Zimbabwean's meticulous approach to matches now appears to be getting less and less attention from his players who are perhaps tired of hearing what they are going to do to stop the opposition.
Since his appointment last year, Australia coach Darren Lehmann has restored the self-belief of his squad, and Johnson in particular, by concentrating on their own strengths instead.
It has worked better than Lehmann could ever imagined and, indeed, easily the most remarkable statistic of all is that the hosts used the same 11 players all the way through the series.
Several of them had been derided and written off in the fairly recent past.
But now 'the Unchangeables', as they have been dubbed, are part of a truly legendary moment in Australian cricket history as only the third team to complete an Ashes whitewash.
Through slightly embittered English teeth then, I must congratulate skipper Clarke and his men for a phenomenal campaign, and just hope that it will surely be closer next time... won't it?
THE ASHES 2013/14: A STATISTICAL PERSPECTIVE
TEAM SCORES570-9dec Australia in the second Test, Adelaide
401-7dec Australia in the first Test, Brisbane
385 Australia in the third Test, Perth
369-6dec Australia in the third Test, Perth
353 England in the third Test, Perth
326 Australia in the fifth Test, Sydney
312 England in the second Test, Adelaide
295 Australia in the first Test, Brisbame
276 Australia in the fifth Test, Sydney
255 England in the fourth Test, Melbourne
251 England in the third Test, Perth
231-2dec Australia in fourth Test, Melbourne
204 Australia in the fourth Test, Melbourne
179 England in the first Test, Brisbane
179 England in the fourth Test, Melbourne
172 England in the second Test, Adelaide
166 England in the fifth Test, Sydney
155 England in the fifth Test, Sydney
136 England in the first Test, Brisbane
132-3dec Australia in the second Test, Adelaide
TEAM AGGREGATES
Runs scored Australia 3189, England 2158
Wickets taken Australia 100, England 77
BATTING
BEST AVERAGES
61.62 Brad Haddin (Australia)
58.11 David Warner (Australia)
46.30 Chris Rogers (Australia)
40.87 Steve Smith (Australia)
40.33 Michael Clarke (Australia)
38.33 Shane Watson (Australia)
34.87 Ben Stokes (England)
29.40 Kevin Pietersen (England)
28.10 Michael Carberry (England)
27.50 Mitchell Johnson (Australia)
27.42 Joe Root (England)
26.14 George Bailey (Australia)
26.11 Ian Bell (England)
24.60 Alastair Cook (England)
23.40 Ryan Harris (Australia)
19.37 Stuart Broad (England)
HIGHEST RUN SCORERS (minimum 200 runs)
523 David Warner (Australia)
493 Brad Haddin (Australia)
463 Chris Rogers (Australia)
363 Michael Clarke (Australia)
345 Shane Watson (Australia)
327 Steve Smith (Australia)
294 Kevin Pietersen (England)
281 Michael Carberry (England)
279 Ben Stokes (England)
246 Alastair Cook (England)
235 Ian Bell (England)
CENTURIES
Australia 10-1 England
148 Michael Clarke (Australia), second Test
124 David Warner (Australia), first Test
120 Ben Stokes (England), third Test
119 Chris Rogers (Australia), fifth Test
118 Brad Haddin (Australia), second Test
116 Chris Rogers (Australia), fourth Test
115 Steve Smith (Australia), fifth Test
113 Michael Clarke (Australia), first Test
112 David Warner (Australia), third Test
111 Steve Smith (Australia), third Test
103 Shane Watson (Australia), third Test
BOWLING
BEST AVERAGES
13.97 Mitchell Johnson (Australia)
19.31 Ryan Harris (Australia)
20.50 Scott Borthwick (England)
24.12 Peter Siddle (Australia)
27.52 Stuart Broad (England)
29.36 Nathan Lyon (Australia)
30.00 Chris Tremlett (England)
30.50 Shane Watson (Australia)
32.80 Ben Stokes (England)
41.20 Tim Bresnan (England)
43.92 James Anderson (England)
WICKET TAKERS
37 Mitchell Johnson (Australia)
22 Ryan Harris (Australia)
21 Stuart Broad (England)
19 Nathan Lyon (Australia)
16 Peter Siddle (Australia)
15 Ben Stokes (England)
14 James Anderson (England)
7 Graeme Swann (England)
5 Tim Bresnan (England)
4 Scott Borthwick (England), Chris Tremlett (England), Shane Watson (Australia)
3 Monty Panesar (England)
1 Steve Smith (Australia), Boyd Rankin (England)
FIVE-WICKET HAULS
Australia 5-2 England
7-40 Mitchell Johnson (Australia), second Test
6-81 Stuart Broad (England), first Test
6-99 Ben Stokes (England), fifth Test
5-25 Ryan Harris (Australia), fifth Test
5-42 Mitchell Johnson (Australia), first Test
5-50 Nathan Lyon (Australia), fourth Test
5-63 Mitchell Johnson (Australia), fourth Test
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