Man of the match: Stuart Broad
ENGLAND regained the Ashes in style on Saturday after taking an unassailable 3-1 lead with an innings victory in the fourth Test at Trent Bridge.
In all honesty, the match was effectively over in just 94 minutes as Australia contrived to follow up their weak batting display at Edgbaston with an even worse one in Nottingham.
Notts man Stuart Broad was the architect of the Aussies' downfall, at one stage holding figures of 5-6 on his way to a remarkable 8-15 - so it is fair to say then that England coped pretty well in the absence of their all-time leading Test wicket-taker James Anderson.
With one wicket apiece for Steven Finn and the recalled Durham paceman Mark Wood in addition to Broad's magnificent haul, Australia were humiliatingly all out for just 60 in 18.3 overs, their lowest Ashes total since 1936.
The whole innings, in fact, was a statistician's delight, being the shortest ever completed first innings of a Test in terms of the number of balls bowled.
Broad's five-fer, meanwhile, came off just 19 balls, the joint-shortest spell for five wickets in a Test and the shortest when taken from the very start of a match.
Moreover, Broad's final analysis of 8-15 were the best ever figures in a Test at Trent Bridge - and the best ever return by an English seamer in Ashes cricket.
In fact, they were the third best figures by any Englishman in the Ashes - and, only Jim Laker twice, with 9-37 and 10-53 in his eponymous match at Old Trafford in 1956, has ever done better.
It was not only the bowling which was a bit special from England - much improved in their catching generally in this series, Ben Stokes produced an absolute ripper at fifth slip to dismiss Adam Voges.
But, while that perhaps was moment of the match, no one was going to deny Broad from being named man of the match.
For some years now, he has been a top frontline bowler - but he really stepped it up in front on his home ground.
It is not even a stretch to say he actually acquired legendary status with his spell on Thursday as he joined Fred Trueman in joint fourth-place on the all-time list of England Test wicket-takers, with 307 scalps. Only Anderson (413), Ian Botham (383) and Bob Willis (325) are still ahead.
Of course, in the context of the match and this Ashes series, Broad's bowling and the Aussies' collapse meant England had to bat only half-competently to take complete control.
Thanks to Joe Root's second glorious century of the campaign, the hosts fared rather better than that, eventually reaching 391-9 before a declaration of intent shortly before lunch on day two.
Alastair Cook's decision was the first time he had actually been able to declare a first innings closed in his three-year tenure as permanent captain.
And, as well as giving Australia a tricky spell before the interval, it also meant he denied the tourists the pleasure of having at least bowled England out.
As it happened, Australia survived unscathed before lunch - and, in the afternoon, progressed serenely past their first innings total without loss and onto 113-0.
Thankfully, England never panicked. Internally, they knew if they persisted with the correct lines and lengths, the rewards would eventually come - after all, David Warner, having been dropped twice, was hardly playing a chanceless innings.
Duly, the precious wickets began to arrive. Chris Rogers (52) was caught by Root - and Warner (64) by Broad - both off the excellent Stokes.
The breaking of the opening partnership sparked another collapse as Steve Smith (5) and Shaun Marsh (2) both continued their respective poor runs - and, at tea on day two, Australia were 138-4, still a hopeless 193 runs behind.
From that point onwards, it quickly became a case of whether England could win inside two days, just as they had threatened to do at Edgbaston.
First, though, a few words on the beleaguered Australia captain Michael Clarke who was out for unlucky 13. After all, though his swipe to Wood outside off-stump was injudicious, it was also juggled by his counterpart Cook and caught on the rebound by Ian Bell.
It was, however, the shot of a broken man who could sense his time was over, not only in this Test but in his career as a whole, something he went onto confirm immediately after the defeat.
Australia at least survived the night, though not before Stokes had recorded a second Ashes career five-fer, following on from the 6-99 taken in Sydney in the nightmare whitewash 18 months ago.
Peter Nevill and, to the delight of the crowd, Mitchell Johnson were Stokes' evening victims on a much happier occasion as Australia reached 241-7 and England settled off for coming back refreshed on the third day to regain the urn.
When they did resume, there was indeed little resistance from the broken Aussies as the unbeaten Voges (51*) understandably made no attempt to farm the strike for three days.
Mitchell Starc (0) was caught by Bell off Stokes who eventually recorded 6-36 as England became the first Test side in history to have four different players take at least six wickets in four consecutive innings.
Anderson, Finn, Broad and Stokes have proven to be a lethal combination and - having caused complete mental disintegration in the Australian batting line-up - they have ultimately been the difference between the two sides.
Wood, too, has more than played his part - and, with only him and Stokes bowling on the third morning, it was effectively Durham v Australia.
Durham won, Wood flattening Josh Hazlewood's middle stump for a fifth Aussie duck of the match, before he also comprehensively defeated Nathan Lyon (4).
England had done it - regaining the Ashes in just 14 days of play, and only 18 months after being whitewashed.
This disparity in results has already prompted a slightly unnecessarily spirit-dampening article about the dominance of home sides in recent series.
Meanwhile, England selector Angus Fraser has used the victory to turn his fire on the detractors of Cook and others, acting as if any previous criticisms of the set-up had no validity.
Instead of that, England should be enjoying this moment in the sun. After all, this unexpected triumph has come from a still developing team which, as even Cook admits, has perhaps not been properly battle-hardened.
In terms of the team itself, Cook remains without a reliable opening partner after Adam Lyth (14) was out cheaply again - while Moeen Ali currently contributes far more with bat than ball for a frontline spinner.
For the rest of the side, an Ashes win will do wonders to strengthen the sometimes fragile confidence of some of its members.
Undoubtedly, though, England will face far tougher examinations than that eventually posed by this set of touring Australians, not least on the tours this winter against Pakistan in the UAE and in South Africa.
Nevertheless, in favourable conditions, England have shown they are back to their invincible best, reaching a performance level that has matched anything produced by the team which enjoyed world number one status for a year in 2011-12.
Naturally, this young side will not always have such bountiful matches - and, as the Lord's Test in this very series demonstrated, there will still be a few dark days ahead.
If this team achieves its potential, however, those dark days will be far outshone by countless days and matches of brilliance. These are exciting times for English cricket.
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 |
| 29-31 July | 3RD England 281 & 124-2 beat Australia 136 & 265 by eight wickets | Edgbaston |
| 6-8 August | 4TH England 391-9d beat Australia 60 & 253 by an innings and 78 runs | 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
130 Joe Root (England) in the fourth Test, Trent Bridge
FIVE-WICKET HAULS
8-15 Stuart Broad (England) in the fourth Test, Trent Bridge
6-47 James Anderson (England) in the third Test, Edgbaston
6-79 Steven Finn (England) in the third Test, Edgbaston
6-36 Ben Stokes (England) in the fourth Test, Trent Bridge
6-111 Mitchell Starc (Australia) in the fourth Test, Trent Bridge
5-114 Mitchell Starc (Australia) in the first Test, Cardiff
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