Australia rose to heights not seen since the Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath glory days to astonish England and level the wildly fluctuating Ashes series with a memorable third Test triumph in Perth.
An Australian victory when the hosts slumped to 5-69 on day one seemed as likely as catching lightning in a bottle, but that’s what happened at the WACA Ground.
The 267-run victory left the series on a knife edge at 1-1 heading into the Boxing Day Test at the MCG and showed exactly what Ricky Ponting and his troops are capable of if they keep their heads.
After a serene start to the tour, the England team has suddenly begun to fray, but Ponting believed Australia must maintain the momentum over the final two Tests in order to win back the urn.
“We’ve set ourselves, I believe anyway, a new set of standards as far as our Test cricket’s concerned this week,” Ponting said.
“I think we’ve just reinforced with ourselves the best way for us to go about our cricket.
“It’s important we maintain that standard now for the next few weeks.”
Play lasted only 48 minutes on Sunday as the tourists were rumbled out for 123.
Australian pacemen Ryan Harris (6-47 to follow 3-59 in the first innings) and Mitchell Johnson (3-44 and 6-38) rounded up the England tail, and shared 18 wickets between them in all.
Johnson was named man of the match for his extraordinary performance on the second day, rightfully described by Ponting as “one of the all-time great Ashes spells”.
But by the end of the match, Johnson was not the only Australian player close to the peak of his powers.
Mike Hussey, Shane Watson, Brad Haddin, Ryan Harris and Ben Hilfenhaus have all produced innings, spells or catches to rank with anything they have ever done previously.
“Momentum and confidence is a great thing in sport,” said Ponting.
“We had a fair bit of it for the first few days in Brisbane, we probably had no momentum at all throughout the Adelaide game and sometimes it’s really hard to turn around but we’ve got the tide going back in our direction again now.
“More importantly, we’ve got some of our key players, like (Johnson) are probably on top of the world and carrying as much confidence as they’ve probably had in their Test careers.
“We’ve got a number of guys now that are really playing somewhere near their best and that’s why I’m confident in this group.
“It’s an amazing thing what a bit of confidence does and just having that winning feeling back around the team again can make the team achieve some pretty amazing things.
“There’s no doubt that all those wins that we strung together years ago, whether the 16 straight Test wins or 30-odd one-day wins whatever it was, it’s amazing how infectious that feeling can become around the dressing room, and we’ve got that now.”
Resuming at 5-81 following Paul Collingwood’s demise from the final ball of day three, England soon lost their sixth when nightwatchman Jimmy Anderson lost his off-stump to a delivery that skidded through.
Harris was fast, accurate and moving the ball a little in both directions, and Bell was palpably lbw when he played around one that tailed into him.
Three balls later, Prior could not ride some sharp bounce, Mike Hussey dived for an agile catch and Harris had his first five-wicket haul in Test matches.
Graeme Swann drove ambitiously at Johnson and was bowled via an inside edge, then last man Steve Finn snicked a shortish delivery to third slip to complete the rout.
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