England has retained the Ashes in grand style here in Melbourne, romping to a mammoth innings and 157 run-victory less than ninety minutes into the fourth day.
The fourth Test triumph powers England to a 2-1 series lead, but thoughts of Sydney were well and truly on hold as celebrations became the priority.
With Ryan Harris being prepped for immediate surgery on his ankle stress fracture, Australia started the day with only three wickets in hand, and England secured the win in just 19.4 overs in the end.
With just his fifth ball, and in only the second over of the day, giant paceman Chris Tremlett knocked over Mitchell Johnson after a lazy inside edge smashed into his off stump.
Tremlett’s sole second innings wicket was his fifth for the match, and he has now taken 13 wickets for the series since coming into the England side in Perth, equal to Graeme Swann, and only topped by Jimmy Anderson.
As in Perth, Tremlett did the early damage in Australia’s first innings here in Melbourne too, and his sudden revival as a Test spearhead over the last fortnight has been simply breathtaking.
Peter Siddle provided some cameo relief for the home side, and with some lusty hitting and an at times contemptuous approach to anything Graeme Swan delivered, he combined with Brad Haddin to add 86 for the eighth wicket, in just under 17 overs.
At one point, Siddle launched Swan over midwicket from one knee, a shot that I initially mistook for Haddin himself. Siddle’s 40 included a bombed six into the Barmy Army over long on, and he would have added one more into the sightscreen, too, if not for the outstretched hands of Kevin Pietersen.
When Tim Bresnan induced an inside edge from Ben Hilfenhaus into the awaiting gloves of Matt Prior, the celebrations on both sides of the boundary rope erupted into full swing. It was difficult there, for minute or so, to work out whether the players or the long-suffering Army were jumping around more.
Post-match, Andrew Strauss was obviously a happy man, and while admitting securing the Ashes was “immensely satisfying” personally, he was very quick to deflect all due credit onto his teammates and wider entourage.
“The players have stood up when it matters, the backroom staff have prepared us well, and we all sit here very happy with what we’ve achieved,” Strauss offered.
“They all richly deserve what they’ve got so far.”
Strauss said he was very much looking forward to celebrations – “We should enjoy tonight and rightly so” – even admitting that he may not remember everything about them, a comment that the lower grade premiership winner in me quite appreciated.
However, he was also quick to acknowledge that the job is not complete, offering, “Our goal was to win the series, and we haven’t done that yet.”
It is apparent that England’s focus is still very much on Sydney; just the view may be a bit hazy for a bit.
For Ricky Ponting though, everything from this point on becomes about restoring some face, and even a motivation to square the series.
Near the end of the post-match presser, I asked Ponting what, if anything, he felt the team could do differently or better to be back “up” for Sydney with just a few days turnaround, and his reply was both surprising and unsurprising.
“We’ve learnt a lot about how to play very good Test cricket from some of the cricket the English side have played over the last few weeks,” Ponting said.
“If we could change anything, we can learn a bit from what they’ve done, and employ it into our own games and make sure that when Sydney comes around, we’re not going to take any one delivery for granted.
“If we’re 100% committed to every ball for every one of those five days, and if we can do that I’m sure our skills will stack up well against theirs.”
At first, this sounds completely reactionary, that the way to beat England is to just do what England have been doing well. It even sounds a bit like “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”
But I think the message is really just about getting back to basics, and that if the match is broken down to its tiniest element, the two teams – as has been the case for the whole series – are not that far apart in terms of skill and talent.
That is obvious, of course, but the big difference between the two teams over the four Tests has been a simple case of execution of basic cricket skills.
In truth, we probably haven’t seen both teams at their very best at the same time. In pretty much every moment of the series, one team has been on top.
It’s just a shame it’s taken until this point, the lowest of all low points in Ashes contests, for this to be acknowledged.
For Australia, Sydney needs to be about getting back to basics, and rescuing what faint skerrick of credibility remains.
For England though, you almost hope they win so that the series finishes with a true reflection of the dominant team.
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