Australia captain Pat Cummins said it felt “pretty awesome” Sunday after his dominant team won the third Test in Adelaide to wrap up the Ashes in just 11 days of play after some dogged resistance from England’s tail briefly threatened a great escape.
England’s last four wickets added 145 on the final day to be all out for 352 and lose by 82 runs after finally showing some fight in the series as they chased a record 435 to win.
Australia’s Scott Boland removed last man Josh Tongue, caught by Marnus Labuschagne, to spark wild celebrations as the famous urn remained in Australian hands.
“It feels pretty awesome,” said Australia captain Pat Cummins.
“It wasn’t easy today, but we got it done. The last two months have been a bit of a grind,” he added.
“But it’s all worth it for days like this. That’s when we are at our best … it’s good old-fashioned grind, and I love the toil from all the guys.”
England had to win to keep the five-match series alive after being crushed by eight wickets inside two days at Perth and in four at Brisbane, with two more Tests still to play at Melbourne and Sydney.
Australia had one setback on Sunday when they lost spin wizard Nathan Lyon, who damaged his hamstring fielding and hobbled off after saving a boundary.
But he was not needed as seamers Mitchell Starc, Cummins and Boland wrapped up the innings either side of lunch with the second new ball.
Lyon was sent for scans and later seen on crutches, potentially putting him out of the Melbourne Test, starting Friday, and Sydney on January 4.
“It doesn’t look great. Don’t know yet, but seeing someone on crutches doesn’t really bode well for someone with a Test match a week away,” said Cummins.
“It’s going to be hard to replace him but we have some guys who have already had a taste of international cricket around the traps.”
Cummins was playing his first Test since July after a long layoff with lower back issues and said he may well skip Melbourne as a precaution.
“We’ll wait and see. So we’ll work on it over the next couple days. I doubt I’ll be playing Melbourne, and then we’ll have a chat about Sydney.”
England’s demise in 11 days of play is the joint second quickest in more than a century, since the 1921 Ashes was completed in eight days, with their “Bazball” style of ultra-attacking cricket exposed.
“That dream is now over, which is incredibly disappointing,” said England skipper Ben Stokes.
“Everyone is hurting and quite emotional about it. It hurts, it sucks, but we ain’t going to stop.”
Stokes also took some positives from the way England battled, having demanded more fight leading into the match.
“That stuff I wanted to see, I’ve seen that this week. I think we can take a lot from this game,” he said.
“We have got so much to play for, and we will be flying into these next two games.”
England’s capitulation over three Tests is a far cry from the pre-Ashes hype where they were touted as having their best chance in a generation to win a series in Australia.
And it made a mockery of former fast bowler Stuart Broad’s claim that the hosts had their weakest side in 15 years, written off by others as a “Dad’s Army”.
The reality for Stokes’s men is that England have now gone 18 Tests since winning a match in Australia, dating back to their last series victory there in 2010-11.
Their last three trips yielded one-sided scorelines of 5-0, 4-0 and 4-0, with more of the same on the cards unless there is a dramatic shift in their fortunes.
They resumed on 207-6 with Will Jacks on 11 and Jamie Smith two.
Smith showed early intent by slog-sweeping Lyon over deep midwicket for six then banged another off Cameron Green as the Barmy Army fans broke into Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer”.
When Mitchell Starc took the new ball, Smith began hitting out and it proved his downfall when he skied to Pat Cummins at midwicket for 60.
Jacks produced his highest Test score of 47 and steered England’s chase below 100 as some nerves set in for Australia.
But he fell to another spectacular catch from Marnus Labuschange, diving to his left in front of wicketkeeper Alex Carey after an edge off Starc.
Starc struck again to send Jofra Archer packing before Boland took out Tongue, sparking huge celebrations.