Australia 445 defeated England 102 and 263 (61.3 ov, G Swann 62, S Broad 61, M Johnson 5/69, B Hilfenhaus 4/60) by an innings and 80 runs: Ashes 09 T4 D3 at Headingley, Leeds.
When Ricky Ponting led Australia onto the field at the start of play his clean shaven face (the first time I can recall seeing it thus so early in on a match day) indicated that he wanted, and probably expected the match, to be wrapped up quickly.
Well, some beer match hitting by Graeme Swann and Stuart Broad didn't postpone the inevitable for too long, even if it did show what might, just might, have been achieved had those higher in the order shown more application.
Mitchell Johnson accelerated his series improvement and Ben Hilfenhaus maintained his Ashes form, yet Stuart Clark and, to a lesser degree Peter Siddle, disappointed with the ball, and some of the Aust fielding was pretty lethargic too,
D3's biffing, which at least did give the crowd something for their overpriced ticket money, (and let the skinflint Yorkshire authorities off the hook of giving a refund) was fundamentally a coda to a monumental form reversal by each side.
Of course this isn't the first time this has happened in this series: remember Cardiff and Lord's?
Will it , can it, might it happen again? No comment....just now.
Scorecard
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