Australia crush England to claim Ashes

Australia duly wrapped up the fifth and final Ashes Test by an innings and 123 runs, winning the series 4-0.

It was about as comprehensive a victory as you can get, excluding the much-criticised dead pitch presented in the fourth Test at Melbourne, in which Alastair Cook scored a double century in a laborious bore draw.

England resumed at 93-4 and lasted just another 42 overs, to be bowled out for 180, although they were not helped by the fact that Joe Root was severely hampered by a stomach ailment which forced his retirement and a spell in hospital.

Pat Cummins picked up another two wickets to end the innings on 4-39, becoming the series’ leading wicket-taker with 23.

As an indication of Australia’s domination in attack, all the England wickets throughout the entire series went to the four main Australian bowlers. Mitchell Starc was on 22, Josh Hazlewood on 21 and Nathan Lyon on 21, as they harvested 87 wickets, while the 55 taken by England were shared between nine bowlers, led by James Anderson on 17, Stuart Broad on 11 and Chris Woakes on 10. Moeen Ali, of whom much was expected as a spinning foil to Lyon, managed just five. Just to rub it in, Ali was dismissed seven times by Lyon in the series.

Man of the Match was Cummins, for his eight wickets. Man of the Series was Steven Smith, for his 687 runs, more than 300 in front of the highest-scoring England batsman, Dawid Malan.

Australia now need to negotiate a five-match ODI series against England and T20I triangular tournament including New Zealand, before they turn their attention to a four-Test series against South Africa.

Scorecard