A RUTHLESS AUSTRALIA crushed England by nine wickets to win the first Ashes Test in style just after lunch on day four at the Gabba on Saturday.
Needing just 20 runs after bowling England out for 297 in their second innings — with Nathan Lyon taking his 400th Test scalp — Australia cruised to the target in 5.1 overs when Marcus Harris square-drove Mark Wood for a boundary.
The only blemish was the wicket of makeshift opener Alex Carey, who was out for nine, caught behind off the bowling of Ollie Robinson.
Regular opener David Warner was unable to bat due to a rib injury he suffered when he was twice hit by Wood in the first innings.
Australia will carry a 1-0 lead in the five-match series into the second Test, which starts in Adelaide on Thursday.
“A lot of things did go right,” said Pat Cummins, making his debut as Australia Test skipper.
“So someone was smiling on me. I’m really proud of everyone, I thought it was a really complete performance.”
England will need to regroup after being dismantled with both bat and ball at the Gabba, through another collapse.
After being bowled out for 147 in the first innings, England then struggled to make any impression with the ball, with player of the match Travis Head (152), Warner (94) and Marnus Labuschagne (74) all punishing the English attack, particularly left-arm spinner Jack Leach.
The visitors did fight back on the third day with a defiant partnership between captain Joe Root and Dawid Malan, but once they both fell early on Saturday, English resistance crumbled.
“Frustration, we worked really hard to get ourselves back into the game last night and we knew how important this first session was,” said Root.
“If we had got through to the new ball unscathed and carried that partnership forward we would have given ourselves a really good opportunity to go in and post a total that would have kept us in the game.
“It’s a shame we couldn’t quite get through that initial phase (today) because it could have been very different.”
Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has warned England they are already in danger of an Ashes whitewash after just one Test.
Ponting believes the tourists had a real chance of coming out on top in the series opener in Brisbane, with a comprehensive nine-wicket defeat spelling bad news for their prospects over the next four games.
The 46-year-old, who took in events at The Gabba as a pundit for host broadcasters Channel 7, knows exactly how a 5-0 Ashes win feels having captained one in 2006/07.
“The conditions are only going to get better for Australia. The conditions (in Brisbane) were very English like,” he told cricket.com.au.
“There was more pace and bounce but as far as their bowling is concerned, they’re probably not going to get that much movement anywhere else for the entire series.
“If they don’t win in Adelaide then there could be shades of ’06/07.”
