England 291 & 147 Australia 393 & 46-0: Victors bask in power and the glory
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Your support makes all the difference.It took Australia just over two hours on the fourth morning to complete the 5-0 whitewash. Matthew Hayden secured the 10-wicket victory when he pushed Sajid Mahmood to extra cover and completed a comfortable single. Hayden and Justin Langer high-fived each other as they crossed in the middle of the pitch. Yes, it was that easy.
Emotional scenes followed the win as a huge Sydney crowd said goodbye to three of its greatest cricketers: Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Langer. After the presentation of a cutglass replica Ashes urn the trio took a richly deserved lap of honour with their team-mates and children. Nobody left the stadium until they reached the Members' Pavilion because they did not want to see them go.
Warne and McGrath had a contest over who would take the final England wicket. It was the fiercest battle of the day as England were bowled out for 147, leaving Australia requiring 46.
It was McGrath who wrapped up England's innings when he had James Anderson caught at mid-on, and it was McGrath who ended England's last realistic hope of setting Australia a challenging total when he dismissed Kevin Pietersen with the third ball of the fourth day.
There was nothing special about the delivery, it was a ball McGrath has bowled on thousands of occasions in his career, but it found the outside edge of the bat and carried to Adam Gilchrist.
Monty Panesar fended off two hostile overs from Brett Lee but England did not look like scoring a run. In an attempt to get the scoreboard moving Chris Read dropped a McGrath delivery in to the off-side and set off for a quick single. Panesar was a little slow to react and his despairing lunge was beaten by a throw from Andrew Symonds at cover.
Read fell when he wafted at a short-of-a-length ball from Lee,and Mahmood was bowled by McGrath. Stephen Harmison struck a couple of lusty blows but it only gave Langer the chance to hit a couple of boundaries and soak up the atmosphere of a Test match for one last time.
Scoreboard from Sydney
England won toss; fourth day of five
England - First Innings 291 (A Flintoff 89, I R Bell 71).
Australia - First Innings 393 (S K Warne 71, A C Gilchrist 62).
England - Second Innings
(Overnight: 114 for 5)
A J Strauss lbw b Clark 24
68 min, 45 balls, 3 fours
A N Cook c Gilchrist b Lee 4
11 min, 8 balls, 1 four
I R Bell c Gilchrist b Lee 28
85 min, 51 balls, 5 fours
K P Pietersen c Gilchrist b McGrath 29
139 min, 95 balls, 3 fours
P D Collingwood c Hayden b Clark 17
68 min, 36 balls, 3 fours
*A Flintoff st Gilchrist b Warne 7
31 min, 21 balls, 1 four
M S Panesar run out Symonds 0
27 min, 19 balls
ÝC M W Read c Ponting b Lee 4
26 min, 17 balls, 1 four
S I Mahmood b McGrath 4
13 min, 11 balls, 1 four
S J Harmison not out 16
42 min, 26 balls, 2 fours
J M Anderson c Hussey b McGrath 5
37 min, 22 balls, 1 four
Extras (b2 lb3 w1 nb3) 9
Total (278 min, 58 overs) 147
Fall: 1-5 (Cook), 2-55 (Strauss), 3-64 (Bell), 4-98 (Collingwood), 5-113 (Flintoff), 6-114 (Pietersen), 7-114 (Panesar), 8-122 (Read), 9-123 (Mahmood), 10-147 (Anderson).
Bowling: Lee 14-5-39-3 (nb1, w1) (5-1-18-1; 5-2-16-1; 4-2-5-1); McGrath 21-11-38-3 (nb1) (5-1-12-0; 8-6-10-0; 8-4-16-3); Clark 12-4-29-2 (nb1) (5-2-14-1; 7-2-15-1); Warne 6-1-23-1 (1-0-12-0; 2-0-2-1; 3-1-9-0); Symonds 5-2-13-0 (one spell).
Progress: Third day: tea: 43-1 (Strauss 14, Bell 23) 12 overs. 50: 63 min, 13.3 overs. 100: 178 min, 37.2 overs. Close: 114-5 (Pietersen 29, Panesar 0) 43 overs. Fourth day: (10am start; min 95 overs): Innings closed: 11.22am.
Australia - Second Innings
J L Langer not out 20
44 min, 43 balls, 2 fours
M L Hayden not out 23
44 min, 22 balls, 2 fours, 1 six
Extras (lb3) 3
Total (for 0, 44 min, 10.5 overs) 46
Did not bat: *R T Ponting, M E K Hussey, M J Clarke, A Symonds, ÝA C Gilchrist, S K Warne, B Lee, S R Clark, G D McGrath.
Bowling: Anderson 4-0-12-0; Harmison 5-1-13-0; Mahmood 1.5-0-18-0 (one spell each).
Progress: Fourth day: won at 12.18pm.
Result: Australia won by 10 wickets and win five-Test series 5-0 to win back the Ashes.
Umpires: Aleem Dar (Pak) and B F Bowden (NZ).
TV replay umpire: P D Parker (Aus).
Match referee: R S Madugalle (SL).
Man of the match: S R Clark.
Man of the series: *R T Ponting.
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