Michael Clarke’s Australian side secured one of the greatest Ashes victories in history, sweeping England 5-0 on the third day of the fifth Test in Sydney.
The Australian second innings ended at 276 with Chris Rogers smashing another ton (119) while George Bailey was next best before giving away his wicket on 46 for the sake of the result. The total set England a task 448 with what Clarke presumed was enough time for the home side to bowl out the down on luck English. They needed just a few short hours.
Mitchell Johnson took just a couple of minutes to claim the wicket of Alastair Cook (7) before Ryan Harris snatched up Ian Bell (16) and Kevin Pietersen (6) to leave the visitors at a ghastly 3-57.
It only got worse for England. They came out of the tea break to lose a further 4-8 until the likes of Ben Stokes (32) and Stuart Broad (42) put up a bit of resistance.
England managed just 166, 281 short of the required total. Harris took five wickets for just 25 runs, Johnson 3-40 and Nathan Lyon 2-70.
The result was a massive turnaround for an Australian side struggling through tough period after having been convincingly beaten in the UK in the middle of last year. Their accomplishments at home won’t be quickly forgotten- Clarke’s side became just the third Australian Test team in history to sweep an Ashes series, joining the Australian teams of 1920-21 and 2006-07.
“I guess that’s part of life, you go through ups and downs. 2013 was a great example of how the game of cricket is one where you have to go through the tough times,” Clarke told ABC’s Grandstand.
“Sometimes you have to feel rock bottom to make a few changes and have the courage as players to make those changes. I think the boys have done that.”
Alastair Cook’s comments will surely draw mixed emotions from the brutal and unforgiving English media.
“We left everything out there, but at the end of the day we weren’t good enough,” Cook said.
“Obviously we weren’t good enough to turn it around. We tried to change the way we played.”
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Ryan Pierse, Getty Images.
