Hard to see a way back for England

CRICKET: One-hundred-and-twenty-seven minutes of mayhem yesterday afternoon brought Nasser Hussain's Ashes hopes crashing around his ears as Australia claimed the first Test as readily as if they had been toying with England all along and simply felt enough was enough.

Asked to make 464 to win England lost Michael Vaughan, controversially perhaps, to the third ball of the innings, Trescothick in the second over, and inside 29 overs had been dismissed humiliatingly for 79.

Earlier Matthew Hayden had completed his second century of the match as Australia reached 296 for five in their second innings before Steve Waugh declared halfway through the afternoon session.

He thought they were capable of getting the job done before day's end, he said, and so they pressed on because they wanted to take the weather out of the equation.

England will now approach the second Test in Adelaide on Thursday week with trepidation. The defeat, by 384 runs, was gargantuan. Only three times - against Australia at the Oval in 1934 and again in 1948, when they lost by 562 and 409 respectively, and at Old Trafford in 1976 when the West Indies inflicted a 425-run defeat on them - have England lost a Test by a greater margin.

It is their worst ever in Australia. The second-innings total was their lowest in Australia for 99 years. The manner in which Waugh's men raised their game when it mattered, and the fragile way England responded, suggests a turnaround is beyond them.

The simple fact is that the Australians, as a unit, played overall at a level below their accepted norm, the first prerequisite for an England success out here. On the second day, after what Hussain has described as his worst day in Test cricket, the team appeared to rally strongly as Australia were bowled out and then treated roughly in the field. They made more mistakes than they would expect all series.

Yet still England were unable to take advantage. Yesterday, when it really mattered, Waugh's team played the perfect game. The batting was to the point, the bowling was aggressive, technically brilliant without frills or fancy, and the catching, which had by definition been weakened by the exclusion of Mark Waugh, was faultless.

Now, before Adelaide, England must go to Hobart, to regroup, analyse, lick the wounds and then play Australia A. There will be opportunities for some to stake claims for the second Test, with one and, given the dreadful hammering inflicted on Matthew Hoggard, possibly two bowling places up for grabs.

Much has been made of the toss and Hussain himself has been man enough to admit that in putting Australia in, he got it hopelessly, horribly wrong. But, in terms of the outcome of the match, it may have made little difference

England did not possess a batsman of the calibre, confidence or relentlessness of Hayden (batting, suggested Waugh, as well as any man in history), nor bowlers to match the genius of Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne, who took seven of the nine wickets to fall yesterday.

Since his brief second-day mauling from Trescothick, Vaughan and Mark Butcher, McGrath was mighty, bowling a further 26 overs and taking seven for 66 in that time (four for 36 yesterday), giving him eight for 123 in the match. Warne, teased and twirled yesterday as conditions played into his hands, and collected three for 29.

Only Butcher, for the second time in the match, played with any measure of certainty, surviving phlegmatically for almost two hours for 40 before Warne had him caught in the close cordon.

Butcher apart, only Hussain and Craig White reached double figures with Trescothick edging nervously to slip, Alec Stewart adding a first-ball nought to his second-ball dismissal on Saturday - the first pair of his Test career - and the tail offering no resistance.

The Australian intentions were never better personified than Adam Gilchrist's innings in the morning. He advanced down the pitch to his first ball and spanked it back over the bowler's head for six. He made an unbeaten 60 at his habitual run a ball, and played beautifully and ominously.

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Australia's Matthew Hayden ducks a high delivery on day four of the first Ashes Test at the Gabba in Brisbane yesterday. - (Photograph: Nick Wilson/ GettyImages).