Man of the match: Steve Smith
DOMINANT Australia completely overwhelmed England at Lord's to win by 405 runs and level the Ashes series at 1-1.
This was England's fourth worst Test defeat ever in terms of runs - and, while the overall scoreline is level, it feels as if the Aussies may have struck a decisive blow to the English psyche.
From the moment skipper Michael Clarke won the toss and elected to bat, Australia were in control - and, over the next four days, they never released their grip on the match.
Chris Rogers and David Warner put on 78 for the first wicket - and, even when the Aussies lost the latter to a misguided attack against Moeen Ali before lunch, Steve Smith quickly settled in for a long spell at the crease.
Smith eventually scored a magnificent 215 and became the first Australian to hit a double hundred at Lord's since Bill Brown in 1938. Also, notably, he and Rogers enjoyed a record stand for any Aussie wicket at Lord's of 284.
It gave Australia the ideal start - and by the fall of Smith's wicket, they had progressed to 533-6 and were already thinking about a first innings declaration.
That came when Mitchell Johnson was out, caught by James Anderson off Stuart Broad, at 566-8. Unsurprisingly, Johnson's contribution with the ball would be far more decisive.
Not that the dangerous left-armer was left unsupported by the others in the attack - in both innings, five Aussie bowlers took wickets.
Of course, they were also aided by the English top order who continue to collapse on a frighteningly regular basis.
Indeed, England - which now statistically has a worse top order than any Test side except for Zimbabwe - have been three wickets down for 52 runs or less on eight occasions this year.
Here, in the first innings, they were 30-4 with Adam Lyth (0), Gary Ballance (23), and Ian Bell (1) all falling cheaply before Joe Root (1) also failed to mount his usual salvage mission.
At least skipper Alastair Cook was showing some resistance - and he, along with Ben Stokes, took England to the close on day two without any further damage.
The pair then almost made it to lunch on the third day, only for Stokes (87) to get an inside edge onto the stumps off Mitchell Marsh.
And, in the afternoon, Cook suffered the same fate to depart an agonising four runs short of a century. It was the seventh time in Tests he had fallen in the 90s - and England were still exactly 300 behind on 266-7.
The tail wagged a little bit either side of tea to put on 46 for the final three wickets - but Australia continued to plug away relentlessly on what was still a pretty flat surface.
Indeed, by the end of the day, the tourists were batting again, having declined the opportunity to enforce the follow-on despite taking a first innings lead of 254.
This time Rogers and Warner put on 114 before the former retired 49 not out early on the fourth day after a spell of dizziness.
Smith resumed his assault on the England bowling with a quick-fire 58 - and, although both he and Warner (83) would succumb to Moeen, successive sixes from Mitch Marsh took the lead above 500.
At 254-2, Australia declared for a second time. England had taken just 10 wickets in the match for the concession of 820 runs - and they now needed to bat for five full sessions to save it.
Ultimately, the Aussies only needed 37 overs to knock England over with Lyth (7) again falling early after edging Mitchell Starc behind to Peter Nevill for the second time in the match.
Keeper Nevill, on debut, would have a fine game behind the stumps - and Cook (11) and Ballance (14) were also caught behind off Johnson and Mitch Marsh respectively.
42-3 became 48-4 when Bell (11) popped an easy catch to substitute fielder Shaun Marsh off the spin of Nathan Lyon.
And then came the most ridiculous wicket of all. Stokes - who is regularly cast alongside Root as a shining example of the supposed new aggressive England era under Trevor Bayliss - was run out for a duck to a direct hit from Johnson after failing amateurishly to ground his bat.
At tea, England were 64-5 and the cause was already effectively lost. Not that this should necessarily excuse Jos Buttler for falling to the first ball after tea even if, by this stage, Johnson was clearly in his element.
The Queensland quick then made it two in the over when Moeen departed for a duck having only managed to fence a short ball to sub Marsh at short leg - and the score had still not moved on since tea.
With Root (17) attempting to remain calm while about him lost their heads, the Yorkshire lad and eventual top scorer Broad (25) launched a very brief counter attack lasting about 20 minutes.
Broad, nevertheless, was out to a horrible waft off Lyon straight to Adam Voges at cover - and Root fell in the next over, bowled by the unfailingly accurate Hazlewood.
Indeed, it was Hazlewood himself who finished the job, rattling Anderson's stumps on 0 - and England, on a pretty flat pitch, had been turned over for a pathetic 103.
The size of the defeat - by an eye-watering 405 runs - and also the nature of it undoubtedly threatens to open the scars from 18 months ago when Johnson starred in a 5-0 whitewash, taking 37 wickets at 13.97.
And, with Australia having definitively responded to the questions asked of them after the first Test in Cardiff, it is now England who must provide answers to some pretty fundamental queries.
Most urgently of all, how long will the hosts persist with the failure of the top order? Should Root be moved from his relative comfort zone at five to assist?
But, also importantly, what can be done to reinvigorate a bowling attack which took 20 Aussie wickets in Cardiff but struggled terribly in taking just 10 at Lord's?
Certainly, in response to the third question, the groundsman at Edgbaston will hopefully produce a livelier pitch.
After all, if - as suspected - the track at Lord's was made to order with the aim of deliberately slowing down Johnson, Friday and today proved undoubtedly that this tactic does not and will not work.
Surely it would be better to have a pitch which offered Anderson some seam movement so he and Johnson can go toe to toe.
For, it cannot be escaped that Anderson - England highest Test wicket-taker in history - returned match figures of 0-137 and looked disgruntled throughout.
Bizarrely, after a such a thumping and with issues to resolve, England cannot be discounted from winning this series and regaining the Ashes. It is, after all, 1-1 with three matches to play.
Moreover, recent Ashes history shows England recovering from sound beatings - at Lord's in 2005, Headingley in 2009, and Perth in 2010 - to go on and actually win the urn.
But, admittedly, perhaps more relevant recent Ashes history suggests the scars of those five horrible defeats in 2013-14 have been reopened by Johnson and the others.
Yes, it would be no surprise if Australia went onto win the series quite comfortably from now and that Cardiff is merely seen as an aberration - especially in the light of today's second innings batting collapse.
To call it a performance would be to do a disservice to the word.
Fragile England desperately need a second wind in this series, starting 10 days from now in Birmingham.
THE ASHES 2015
| 8-11 July | 1ST England 430 & 289 beat Australia 308 & 242 by 169 runs | Cardiff |
| 16-19 July | 2ND Australia 566-8d & 254-2d beat England 312 & 103 by 405 runs | Lord's |
| 29-2 August | THIRD TEST | Edgbaston |
| 6-10 August | FOURTH TEST | Trent Bridge |
| 20-24 August | FIFTH TEST | The Oval |
CENTURIES
215 Steve Smith (Australia) in the second Test, Lord's
173 Chris Rogers (Australia) in the second Test, Lord's
134 Joe Root (England) in the first Test, Cardiff
FIVE-WICKET HAULS
5-114 Mitchell Starc (Australia) in the first Test, Cardiff
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