England 513 beat Australia 98 & 258 by an innings and 157 runs.Scorecard -
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CricinfoENGLAND won the Ashes in Australia for the first time in 24 years after dishing out another humiliating innings thumping in the fourth Test in Melbourne.
Tim Bresnan completed a dream return to the Test arena by taking the final Ashes-sealing wicket as tail ender Ben Hilfenhaus edged behind to Matt Prior for a duck.
Australia had resumed on day four in an absolutely hopeless position on 169-6, still 246 runs behind, and with just three wickets left due to the ankle injury of Ryan Harris.
England made an inevitable early breakthrough when Mitchell Johnson failed to add to his overnight score of six, playing Chris Tremlett onto the stumps with an ugly inside edge via his pads.
But then a cameo from Brad Haddin and the pick of the Aussie bowlers Peter Siddle provided frustrating resistance, and the pair added 86 for the eighth wicket.
Siddle was eventually out for 40 when attempting another outlandish shot off Graeme Swann, only to be caught by Kevin Pietersen in the deep.
Hilfenhaus followed in the next over, leaving Haddin not out on 55 and giving Bresnan his Test-best figures of 4-50, as England popped open the champagne corks at a sparsely attended MCG.
The jubilant celebrations were nothing more than Andrew Strauss and his men deserved having again totally outclassed the Aussies throughout this match.
True, the toss was important to win with the Melbourne pitch tinged with grass, but England took full advantage of their chance by obliterating the hosts, bowling them out for just 98.
Strauss and the top scorer in the series Alastair Cook, on 577 runs, then guided England to 157-0 at the close of a perfect first day for the tourists.
By the end of day two, the lead had been extended to 346 as Jonathan Trott enjoyed partnerships with Pietersen and Prior on his way to an unbeaten 168.
And when England were eventually all out for 513, the lead was 415 and there was more than half of the match time left.
Australia were briefly resurgent, reaching 95-1 at tea on the third day with Philip Hughes as the only man out.
But an evening collapse featuring the wickets of Shane Watson, Ricky Ponting, Mike Hussey, Michael Clarke and Steven Smith made this morning a formality.
A formality it proved to be as England added this easy win to their other innings thrashing of the Aussies in this series which came
at Adelaide in the second Test.
Before this series, Australia had last been beaten at home by an innings 18 years ago. Now it has happened twice in the last two weeks.
England had also broken all sorts of records in the high-scoring draw
in the first Test at the Gabba in Brisbane, leaving the bad defeat
in third Test in Perth as the only blot in the copybook.
Unsurprisingly, with three dominant performances out of four, the tourists have by far the better of the
individual statistics.
Remarkably, Cook and Trott average above 100 with the bat, while Pietersen and Ian Bell are in the respectable position of being above 50.
This contrasts with the Aussies who have just three men - Hussey, Haddin and Watson - averaging between 50 and 75.
None of the rest of the Australian batsmen averages above 25 with vice-captain Clarke on 21.14 and captain Ponting on 16.14 making particularly embarrassing contributions.
The bowling figures are also in England's favour with James Anderson (17), Steven Finn (14), Swann and Tremlett (both 13) listed as the top four wicket takers in the series.
Only Siddle (also on 13 wickets) can match the English bowlers with Johnson and the injured Harris only reaching 11 thanks largely to that Perth Test.
Of course, there remains one Test match left in the New Year and it will still be considered an important one by this England team.
Having now achieved a momentous retention of the Ashes in Melbourne, they will want to follow up victory in Victoria with success in Sydney.
After all, another Test win there would make it 3-1 in the series and confirm the tourists' clear superiority.
And, barring a three-day aberration in Perth, a clear victory is frankly the least that England deserve from this fantastic campaign.
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EARLIER REPORTS
Day three: England on the edge of retaining the AshesAustralia 98 & 169-6 [Watson 54] v England 513 [Trott 168*, Prior 85, Cook 82, Strauss 69, Pietersen 51; Siddle 6-75]
ENGLAND ran through Australia's fragile top order again on day three in Melbourne to put themselves on the verge of bringing back home the Ashes.
Andrew Strauss' men reduced the Aussies to 169-6, and still have a big lead of 246 runs, meaning this fourth Test match seems certain to finish with an England innings victory on the fourth day.
Australia must reflect on another pitiful batting performance which again included failures by captain Ricky Ponting and vice-captain Michael Clarke.
Mike Hussey, so often the home side's saviour in this series, was out for a duck and only opener Shane Watson surpassed 50.
Watson had actually helped give Australia a decent start to their second innings as they lost just one wicket between lunch and tea to reach the interval at 95-1.
But, when the wicket fell, it came in typically farcical circumstances as Philip Hughes was run out on 23, by a combination of Jonathan Trott and Matt Prior, having hesitated on a quick single.
England stepped up the pressure after tea and Tim Bresnan made the breakthrough, removing Watson on 54 by trapping him lbw.
The Aussie opener attempted to overturn the decision by umpire Tony Hill but the review system backed up the on-field official.
As a result, Watson extended his woeful rate of converting 50s into Test centuries. It now stands at
a remarkable 15 failures to make three-figures from a total of 17 half-centuries.
And it went from bad to worse for the Aussies when Ponting was next out for 20, prompting inevitable questions about his position as captain and even his place in the team.
If this was indeed Ponting's Waterloo, then it was a sad end for one of the finest batsmen of his generation.
Ponting may have riled cricket watchers with his dreadful attitude towards the umpires yesterday but the way he was haplessly bowled by Bresnan off an inside edge was a desperate sight.
When Hussey then fell for nought to a brilliant Ian Bell catch in Bresnan's next over, Australia were in tatters again at 104-4.
With Ryan Harris unlikely to bat having badly injured his ankle in the England innings, the tourists now sensed the strong possibility of finishing the match inside three days.
But they were held up in that bid somewhat by Clarke and Steve Smith. The runs were hardly flowing, however, as Graeme Swann - with eventual figures today of 22-11-23-1 - cranked up the pressure with a series of maidens.
Swann got his just desserts by bowling around the wicket to Clarke and inducing an edge from the Aussie vice-captain which flew straight to Strauss at second slip on 13.
For the record, Clarke's series average at 21.14 while Ponting's mean score from the four Tests is an
even more pathetic 16.14.
By contrast, Steve Smith can reflect on his innings as the best he has played with the bat in this series, contributing 38 to the score.
But the way he dragged the ball onto his stumps, attempting a pull off James Anderson's bowling, left much to be desired, and he is surely still batting too high at number six.
At the close, Brad Haddin and Mitchell Johnson were left at the crease, on 11 and 6 not out respectively, knowing they will return to the MCG tomorrow with an utterly hopeless task.
Of course, most of the damage had been done on the first two days but England, resuming on 444-5, piled further misery on their hosts in the morning session today.
Well aware that their overnight lead of 346 already looked sufficient, runs were not of prime importance from the tourists' lower order.
It was no surprise then that just a single session was required to bowl England out, especially given the form of Peter Siddle with the ball on his home ground.
Prior was out first on 85, looping a simple catch off Siddle's bowling to Ponting at mid-on.
And Bresnan followed shortly afterwards for four, nicking a faint edge behind to Haddin, for Siddle's fifth wicket of the innings.
The Victoria man is perhaps the only Aussie in the whole line-up who can hold their head up high after this Test despite his own finger-jabbing in Ponting's row with the umpires.
However, Ben Hilfenhaus went some way to redeeming himself by helping his fellow bowler clear up the tail for just his third and fourth wickets of the whole series.
First, Swann - who had made a useful contribution of 22 - skied an attempted pull behind to Haddin who leapt like a salmon to take a fine catch above his head.
Then, Hilfenhaus clean bowled Chris Tremlett for four as the ball started to show some encouraging signs of reverse swing.
It was only right, though, that Siddle completed the innings, splattering Anderson's stumps with the batsmen on one to finish a fine individual performance with 6-75 and two catches.
At the other end, Trott had continued to play his natural defensive game, remaining unmoved by the tumble of wickets and finishing unbeaten on 168.
It meant England had posted their third score of the series in excess of 500, only the second time they had done that in Ashes history, matching the effort set in 1928.
More importantly, it gave England a huge lead of 415 runs and the Aussies even more than the proverbial mountain to climb.
Australia may have begun their second innings more calmly but, once the first wicket fell, the familiar fault lines started to show again.
A second humiliating innings defeat of the series now stares them in the face.
England will just want to get the final three wickets out of the way as quickly as they can so that a well-deserved party can begin.
Even the weather is on the tourists' side. It can be unpredictable in Victoria but there is no rain expected over the MCG between now and the end of the match.
Indeed, from the coin toss onwards, Melbourne has been simply perfect for England.
Day two: Trott ton makes Australia toil(Close) Australia 98 v England 444-5 [Trott 141*, Cook 82, Prior 75*, Strauss 69, Pietersen 51]
JONATHAN TROTT hit an unbeaten century as England took a giant step towards retaining the Ashes by extending their lead over Australia to 346 runs.
Trott took the match totally out of the Aussies' hands by sharing big partnerships with Kevin Pietersen and Matt Prior during the course of the second day of the fourth Test.
While England stand on the edge of glory, Australia are in complete disarray with
captain Ricky Ponting fined 40% of his match fee for his disgraceful verbal attack on umpire Aleem Dar.
Ponting, who faces the prospect of becoming the first Aussie captain in modern day history to lose the Ashes three times, could not hide his desperation after Pietersen had survived an caught behind appeal through the video referral.
This incident is not the first time that Ponting has come across as a bad loser and there have been murmurs about his captaincy for a while now.
The Tasmanian was truly a pitiful sight as he clings on not only to the captaincy but even his place in the Aussie batting line-up after a woeful series in which he averages just 15.50.
Australia actually had the better of the early exchanges on day two after England resumed on 157-0, taking two early wickets in an attempt to haul themselves back in the contest.
Alastair Cook was first to be snared for the addition of just two runs to his and England's overnight total.
Cook departed on 82 having edged a Peter Siddle delivery to Shane Watson at first slip.
England then lost their other opener, Andrew Strauss, as Victorian Siddle - playing on his own ground - struck again to remove the skipper for 69.
Strauss failed to deal with a full delivery which clipped the shoulder of his bat and looped gently to Mike Hussey at slip.
Even with those wickets down early on day two, England were still in an immensely comfortably position at 170-2, a lead of 72.
And Trott and Pietersen then killed off any thoughts of an unlikely Aussie comeback by taking England beyond lunch in a 92 partnership.
Australia's frustration at being unable to run through the England batting line-up was telling and Ponting was furious when Pietersen was given not out by the referral system.
Pietersen did fall shortly afterwards, just two overs after he had brought up his 50, and Siddle was the man to do the damage yet again, trapping KP lbw on 51.
The break up of that partnership precipitated further wickets as Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell failed to get out of single figures.
Siddle simply could not be kept out the action, taking both catches as the batsmen hooked into the leg side off the bowling of Mitchell Johnson.
Collingwood's score of eight was the 10th instance of a single-figure score for the Durham man in his last 12 Test innings.
While he is still a fine fielder, England will have succeeded in spite of Collingwood and it is hard to see him lasting much longer in the batting line-up.
Certainly, there was some surprise that the in-form Bell had not been promoted above him after the Perth Test.
But, perhaps that was just as well after Bell suffered a rare failure, out for a solitary run, to boost Johnson's flagging figures which ended up as 2-103 off 25 overs.
Australia thought they had a fourth wicket in the session when Prior edged behind to Brad Haddin but replays showed it was a no ball, invoking further fury in Ponting.
Prior made Johnson pay for over-stepping the line, sharing an unbeaten sixth-wicket stand of 158 with Trott to take England from their position at tea on 304-5 to the close without further loss.
England's score of 444-5 at stumps gives them a commanding lead of 346.
Better still, there is plenty of time left in the match for that advantage to be extended further by throwing the bat around a bit at a demoralised Aussie attack in the morning session of day three.
The lead already leaves Australia needing to bat for almost the whole of the second half of this match in the unenviable position of having to eat up time as well as runs.
And, while no one expects the Aussies to fail as badly as they did in their first innings, surely only the Melbourne's often unpredictably weather can save the home side.
But even that forecast favours England with no significant spells of rain expected in the coming days.
Perhaps, then, the only debate is whether England will win this match and retain the Ashes on day three (tonight at 11pm GMT) or day four.
Day one: Magnificent England smash Aussies at the MCG (Close) Australia 98 v England 157-0 [Cook 80, Strauss 64]
ENGLAND enjoyed a perfect first day of the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne by bowling Australia out for 98 before building a lead of 59 runs without loss.
James Anderson and Chris Tremlett took four wickets each, and new man Tim Bresnan chipped in with the other two, as Australia completely folded.
All the wickets fell to full-length balls and were caught behind the stumps as wicketkeeper Matt Prior took six catches in another exemplary bowling and fielding performance by England.
With the series at 1-1, the momentum of the Ashes has now shifted back to the tourists after
the Aussies' win in Perth had papered over the cracks of a woefully out-of-form batting line-up.
This time the likes of Mike Hussey, Brad Haddin and Shane Watson could not save Australia who collapsed to their lowest ever total against England at the MCG.
England won the toss and Andrew Strauss elected to bowl under cloud cover and on a surface tinged in green. Just like on day one in Perth, the tourists made an early breakthrough.
Watson was the man out, caught by Kevin Pietersen off Tremlett's bowling, for just five runs from an eventful innings in which he was dropped twice by Paul Collingwood and Pietersen on nought.
Thankfully, the two drops did not dent England's confidence in the field and Pietersen soon pouched a second catch as Philip Hughes played a rash shot to Bresnan to be out for 16.
In the following over, Aussie captain Ricky Ponting was dismissed for another cheap score, this time managing only 10 runs before being caught by Graeme Swann off Tremlett.
Australia were 37-3 but they had been in similar situations before as Hussey arrived at the crease, most recently of course in the last match at Perth where they eventually prevailed by 267 runs.
Then, they were 69-5 in the first innings before Hussey scored a century and the Aussie tail wagged to take their total beyond 250.
This time, there was no such reprieve - even after Hussey had survived an optimistic lbw appeal, meaning England had blown their two umpire reviews early on.
But Anderson, Bresnan and Tremlett were bowling well enough not to need assistance from the third umpire and it was Anderson who removed Hussey for eight as Prior took the first of his six catches.
England knew that Hussey, who came into the match with a series average of 103, was the vital man to get out and his dismissal became even more important given the circumstances.
For, immediately after Hussey's wicket, the match was delayed for an hour and a half due to heavy rain as Melbourne lived up to its reputation for changeable weather.
The fact that Australia resumed on 58-4 without Hussey, rather than 58-3 with him at the crease, was a great fillip for the England bowlers who soon delivered again.
And it was the same combination to remove Hussey - Anderson's bowling and Prior's catching - which put an end to Steve Smith on just six to leave Australia on 66-5.
England were determined not to let Australia off the hook like they had done in Perth, and Anderson and Bresnan took three wickets while the Aussies were stuck on 77.
Michael Clarke was the first man to fall, top-scoring for his team with 20 runs, as Prior caught another full-length Anderson delivery.
Another danger man Haddin was out for five in the next over as Strauss took a slip catch off Bresnan before Anderson and Prior combined again to remove Mitchell Johnson for a duck.
Australia were now 77-8 and the only matter up for debate was whether their last three men - Ryan Harris, Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus - could push the hosts past 100.
They could not, falling just short to be all out for a humiliating 98. Siddle was out first for 11, edging Tremlett behind to Prior before the same men were involved in taking out Hilfenhaus for a duck.
After an early tea, Strauss and Alastair Cook emerged from the pavilion to a pitch which had been flattened somewhat by the heavy roller.
But the pair still had to bat well, each making half centuries under cloud cover, as the tourists finished the day unscathed on 157-0, already a lead of 59.
The Aussies' limp display took up fewer than 43 overs leaving plenty of time in the game for England to build a big first innings lead.
England will want to bat through day two and build their advantage in the knowledge that Australia will surely provide more resistance on a flatter pitch in their second innings.
However, the Melbourne pitch should begin to offer turn which should lend a hand to the off-spin of Swann who
ultimately bowled his side to victory in Adelaide with a five-for.
That Swann was barely needed in this first innings effort justified the selectors' rejigging of the bowling attack with Bresnan preferred to Steven Finn.
Finn, with
14 wickets in the series, was the leading Ashes wicket-taker but the youngster had proved to be expensive at Perth, going for more than five an over.
Bresnan bowled a fuller length on his way to six maidens, conceding just 25 runs off his 13 overs, allowing the main threat to come from Anderson and Tremlett.
Anderson took 4-44 off 16 overs while Tremlett had the best figures, taking 4-26 off fewer than 12 overs, including five maidens.
Australia had been strangled out of their runs, their total of 98 coming at just 2.28 per over.
Indeed, it was a classic case of the wickets falling to rash shots under the pressure of not scoring as England took full advantage of the best of the conditions.
Of course, the tourists only need to win either in Melbourne or in the fifth Test to retain the Ashes and win in Australia
for the first time since 1986-87.
And Strauss' men will never get a better chance of doing it at the MCG with a Test to spare after today's amazing performance.
