You would have thought it was the Oval not the SCG where the England team enjoyed one of there best days as professional cricketers as they won in Australia for the first time in 24 years.
For the fourth time in five matches the final day began with only one team able to win the match, the Australian supporters conspicuous by their absence and the fanatical England fans in full voice.
The first test at Brisbane could only yield a draw (albeit with England taking the moral victory) but at Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney they have romped home by an innings – the first side ever to win by such a margin three times in a series away from home and the first time Australia have lost three home games in a series since a 3-1 crushing by the all-conquering West Indies side in 1988.
Records fell at an almost daily level across the five tests the truly historic nature of this series will probably only be fully realised in the fullness of time.
This series produced a number of record for England: They made their highest ever score against Australia, the highest ever second innings stand, 100 partnerships for the 7th 8th and 9th wickets were achieved for the first time, Jimmy Anderson took 24 wickets in the series - more than any England pace bowler in Australia since Frank Tyson in 1954-55, Alastair Cook overtook the likes of Geoff Boycott, Graham Gooch and Dennis Compton in amassing 755 runs over the series, with only Wally Hammond in 1928/29 ahead of him. Their innings-and-157-run win at the MCG was their biggest Ashes win in Australia since 1912 and anywhere since Old Trafford in 1956.
Andrew Struass has joined an elite band of captains to win the Ashes at home and away and it will be something he will cherish when he retires but he has got his sights on becoming the number one team in the world. Australian skipper Ricky Ponting now carries with him the unwanted stat of being only the third ever Australian captain to lose three Ashes series and the first since the 19th century.
