Ashes 2010

Ashes 2010: England destroy Australia in fourth Test to retain urn

• England win by an innings and 157 runs
• End 24-year wait to retain Ashes in Australia
• Read Rob Smyth's over-by-over report

The fourth day crowd wended its joyous way to the MCG to witness the denouement of the fourth Test and the destiny of the Ashes. There was no hope to be found for Australia in a warm, cloud-free morning, for high pressure dominated the weather as much as it has Ricky Ponting and his team these past few weeks.

England had arrived knowing that they required four more wickets, but notionally three for the crippled Ryan Harris was never going to bat: no tail-ender in a surgical boot has ever batted out more than five sessions to secure a draw and they were not about to find out. Eventual victory did not come easily however and Andrew Strauss and his men had to wait until 40 minutes before lunch before Matt Prior swooped on to an inside edge from Ben Hilfenhaus, a fourth wicket for Tim Bresnan, and the entire team, along with a corner of a very large foreign field that was England, were able to erupt in their collective euphoria.

They had made the best of starts to the day when Chris Tremlett's fifth ball ghosted in at Mitchell Johnson and bowled him from inside edge and pad. From then on they met resistance from the redoubtable Brad Haddin and the astringent Peter Siddle, Australia's lone bowling hero, who added 86 bold runs for the eighth wicket with little alarm save an early run out scare and an edge to Prior that may have fallen a fraction short of his dive.

But Siddle heaved Graeme Swann to long on for 40, and Haddin was left high and dry on 55. Australia were all out for 258: England's win, by an innings and 157, their second innings win of the series, did not belie the difference between the teams. The previous evening, as the shadows of the gargantuan stands spread out, more than 68,000 people filed away knowing that England were already on the very verge of their primary goal of retaining the Ashes.

The scoreboard told its story: that England had extended their overnight score to 513, their 415-lead exceeded by them in Ashes cricket only at the Oval in 1938; and that Australia had then succumbed once more to the skill and urgency of the England attack so that by the close they had been reduced to 169 for six.

The turn of the screw came after tea, at which point Australia were rattling along at 95 for one with Shane Watson on his fourth half century of the series. While Swann wove a brilliant mesmeric spell at one end, that brought him figures of 22-11-23-1 and reinforced his standing as the best in the business it was Bresnan, a brilliant selection, who responded by producing the bowling of his life to start propelling Australia into the abyss.

The ball reversed, as England always knew it would on this Melbourne drop-in pitch: David Saker had said as much all along and there are no MCG onions to which he is not privy. They know how to condition the ball and then use it, skills not seen to the same level in the opposition. And with this old ball, Bresnan, a picture of parsimony in his first spell as he calmed down the understandable overpitching overeagerness at the start of the Australian innings (which nonetheless contributed to the abrasion of the ball), suddenly caused mayhem. Watson was lbw for 54, offering no stroke as the ball snaked into him, a man scared of ghosts and, so it seems, three figures such is his dreadful conversion rate of half centuries.

Next went Ponting, a figure so haunted now as to make the hairs stand up on Watson's nape. Just 20 struggling runs, raging against the dying of the light, before he dragged an inswinger on to his wicket, and grimacing, crinkle-faced and sad, walked away from this great arena, who knows, perhaps for the last time in a Test. This series has seen him make only 113 runs, and take away the unbeaten 51 in Brisbane when England were using an opportunity to see if he could still hook, and he averages nine for the four Tests. The vultures have been circling over this great batsman for a while now: the next week may see an upheaval in Australian cricket.

When Mike Hussey, Australia's batsman of the series, drove firmly to short extra cover for Ian Bell to collect superbly, Bresnan's spell of wicket taking had brought him three for two in four overs and with its pace and skill revived memories of Dean Headley propelling England to an unlikely win on this ground a dozen years ago. Swann then went round the wicket and immediately had Michael Clarke taken sharply in the gully, so that Australia were 134 for five and as good as cooked. The return of Anderson towards the day's end produced the further wicket of Steve Smith, who made an uncomfortable 38 in the manner of a tail-end hacker before flinging the bat wantonly and losing his middle stump.

Just as in Adelaide, the Australian decline had been kick-started by a runout, perpetrated by Watson and his partner, and executed by Jonathan Trott. Here, after a 53-run opening stand, Watson played Swann into the covers and called for a single.

Phil Hughes was slow to respond, Trott gathered and threw to Matt Prior who completed the job with the batsman a foot or so short, the wicketkeepers take crucially in front of the stumps, worth several frames on a replay and a contrast to the failed Australian effort to run out Trott the previous day.

In the morning, Trott, imperturbably, had taken his score on to an unbeaten 168 before Peter Siddle finished the innings with his sixth thoroughly deserved wicket. As the last man Anderson surveyed his smashed wicket, Trott turned at the other end, and purposefully and at considerable length, remarked his guard. Worth doing of course: he will play here again.

Australian captain needing to reclaim the Ashes on home soil following another series defeat in England last year. Last time it served as a huge motivation as Australia stormed to a historic 5-0 whitewash during the 2006-07 contest and similar emotions are already starting to brew inside the skipper.

Since the previous series ended at The Oval last August talk has been about the return contest which starts in November although players from both sides have insisted attention remains focussed on more immediate challenges. Now, though, with Australia having arrived in England for a five-match one-day series Ponting admitted the Test series is starting to loom large.

"Whenever there is a big series coming up the build-up starts a fair way out - and for the Ashes it's already started," said Ponting. "The Ashes is probably on all of our minds a little bit. It's exciting for the game - there's nothing bigger as far as I'm concerned than an Ashes series.

"When it's in Australia as well and we need to win it back, it adds a little more to it. I'm expecting the guys to be in exactly the same frame of mind as they were for the return bout last time.

"Pretty much from now until the Ashes are over and done with in the middle of January, everything we do will have some sort of focus on the Ashes series. There will be no excuses for us come late November."

Ponting wasn't part of the Australia side that lost the World Twenty20 final to England in Barbados last month having retired from the format. Michael Clarke, who captained that team, played down the potential impact on the result on the Ashes and Ponting took a similar approach with regard to the upcoming five ODIs which start at The Rose Bowl on Tuesday.

"I don't think it will have much impact on the Ashes at all. There is a long way to go before the first Test match," he said. "[But] the guys will now want to push for a place in the Test team.

"There won't be much we don't know about England by the end of the summer. We already know each other pretty well. We've played a fair bit against each other and we're going to play a little bit more, but I like that."

Australia's squad for the one-day series includes a number of fringe Test players pushing for an Ashes place including Cameron White, Ryan Harris and possibly young legspinning allrounder Steven Smith.