Awesome Aussies round off in style

By Ted Corbett

LONDON, AUG. 27. Even though the tail mounted a spirited rearguard action England's main batsmen performed pathetically against Shane Warne, who finished the fifth Test with 11 wickets, at the Oval today. Australia won by an innings and 25 runs.

It was England's third innings defeat of a series which must rank as low as the depressing 1989 tournament when England lost 4-0 and the 1958-59 trip to Australia when a team of all the talents led by Peter May were also defeated 4-0. On all three occasions England started with high expectations of at worst a tightly- fought contest.

You can argue that England won a Test this summer but there was a large slice of luck in the way the weather changed at Leeds and allowed Mark Butcher to guide it home by six wickets. I am not trying to take away from the magic of his innings or England's win but it found a favourable tide and sailed with it.

The Australians needed no smile from Lady Luck; their bowlers needed to take the second new ball only three times in eight England innings and they dismissed England for under 190 five times.

Shane Warne was the main wicket-taker in the five Tests and finished with an aggregate of 31; Glenn McGrath finished with five for 43 and had 32 in the series. Warne bowled until he was tired out after 26 successive over putting all his various skills on display, looking as if he was enjoying his deceptions enormously and removing Butcher, Nasser Hussain, Mark Ramprakash and Alec Stewart, top scorer with 34 out of 184.

Decisive phase

The result was all but decided when the first three wickets fell in three successive overs to Warne and McGrath so that half an hour into the day England were 50 for four and seven overs later 55 for five. By the time Usman Afzaal was out the Australians were singing Waltzing Matilda and chanting Warne's name at the top of their voices. The English fans tried a Mexican Wave that was more like a funeral procession.

I will not dignify the England batting with a detailed description of their dismissals and it is unnecessary to say that Warne bowled beautifully and that McGrath, who went past Dennis Lillee's aggregate of 355 when he removed Afzaal, provided exactly the right back-up.

Darren Gough received a nasty blow on the thigh off his second ball but batted with James Ormond for 20 overs in a stand of 58 for the ninth wicket. For a while the Australians seemed to lose interest, their fielding dropped away and Warne, tired after more than 25 overs, to go through the motions. But when McGrath came back, after Warne had been replaced following his 28th over, he had Ormond and Phil Tufnell caught in three balls. Gough made top score of 39 with six lusty fours.

England formed a line to shake hands with the Australians as they went up the long staircase to their dressing room which would have been a nice gesture if England had lost after a struggle. Champion teams are not beaten often but, as India showed only a few months ago, the Australians can be stopped and the disappointment of this summer is that England lost the Ashes in three Tests and that it failed to put up a fight. How Hussain and the coach Duncan Fletcher will regroup in time for the series in India will be their biggest test.

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