Australia crushed England by an innings on Sunday to win the second Ashes test and take a 2-0 lead in the five-match series after the tourists collapsed to 159 all out at tea on the fourth day. Needing to score 210 to force the home team to bat a second time, England lost by an innings and 51 runs after starting the day on 36/3 at the Adelaide Oval. Alec Stewart made a defiant 57 to become only the fourth Englishman to hit 8,000 Test runs after Glenn McGrath took a spectacular outfield catch to remove first innings centurion Michael Vaughan and trigger another familiar batting collapse. SCOREBOARD England (1st innings): 342. Australia (1st innings): 552-9 declared. England (2nd innings): (overnight 36-3) M Trescothick lbw b Gillespie 0, M Vaughan c McGrath b Warne 41, M Butcher lbw b McGrath 4, N Hussain b Bichel 10, R Key c Lehmann B Bichel 1, A Stewart lbw b Warne 57, C White c sub (Lee) b McGrath 5, R Dawson c Gilchrist b McGrath 19, M Hoggard b McGrath 1, S Harmison lbw b Warne 0, A Caddick not out 6. Extras: (b-3, lb-4, nb-8) 15. Total: (all out, 59.2 overs) 159 Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-17, 3-36, 4-40, 5-114, 6-130, 7-130, 8-132, 9-134. Bowling: McGrath 17.2-6-41-4 (nb-4), Gillespie 12-1-44-1, Warne 25-7-36-3 (nb-4), Bichel 5-0-31-2. Result: Australia won by an innings and 51 runs. McGrath mopped up the tail to finish with 4/41 and leg-spinner Shane Warne captured three wickets as England lost their last six batsmen for just 45 runs after three rain delays offered the hope that bad weather might save them. Australia also won the first Test in Brisbane inside four days and now need one more victory to claim a record eighth successive Ashes series. The third Test in Perth starts on Friday. Left with no real prospect of winning, England’s best chance was to try and salvage a draw by batting until the arrival of thunderstorms which were forecast to hit the Adelaide Oval late in the afternoon. Light rain did delay the resumption of play after lunch and there were another two short stoppages in the next two hours which forced the players off the field for a total of 47 minutes. But the intermittent showers did not last long enough to save England from another heavy defeat. Resuming at 36/3, England could not have made a worse start when Robert Key fell for one in the third over of the day, pulling a short-pitched delivery from paceman Andy Bichel straight to Darren Lehmann at mid-wicket. (Reuters) Aussie captain says his team has never played better - We are playing superbly. In five or 10 years time we’ll look back and say this was a great era in Australian cricket. We’re proud of the way we play and it’s nice to win, that’s why we play, but I don’t think the record 16-Test winning streak will ever be beaten. You need a bit of luck to get there. If you win quickly you take the rain out of the equation , but I don’t think we’ll do 16 again. - We get plenty of accolades but sometimes people say the other sides aren’t strong enough. But I’ve played Test cricket for 17 years and the teams we’re up against are pretty good sides. Hussain conceded his team was facing a whitewash - I anticipate them wanting to beat us 5-0, they’ll be completely cut-throat, they’ll show no mercy at all. The old days of teams turning up and thinking this game doesn’t matter, we’ll win 4-1 or whatever, are gone, that’s not the Australian side we’re playing against at the moment. Unless we improve we’ll get beaten. - I don’t think there’s any disgrace at having a look at the best side in the world and trying to learn from them. I’m not asking each of our bowlers to beMcGrath or batlike Ponting, I’m just asking them to improve their disciplines.
