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Aussies beat England to keep Ashes
PERTH, Australia -- Australia has retained the Ashes after crushing England by an innings and 48 runs to win the third test inside three days. Steve Waugh's Australians wrapped up victory after tea on the third day of the cricket rivalry as England folded to 223 all out after resuming their second innings at 33 for one. England finished two men down after Chris Silverwood twisted his ankle on Friday and did not bat and Alex Tudor was felled by a Brett Lee bouncer. On an eventful last day, English batsman Mark Butcher was charged with breaching the sport's code of conduct after smashing his stumps in frustration when he was dismissed for a duck immediately after a terrible mix-up ran out England's best batsman Michael Vaughan. Australia's massive victory gave them an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the series with two matches to go after their 384-run win in the first test in Brisbane and their innings and 51-run win in the second test in Adelaide. The result also ensured Australia retained the Ashes, which they have held since 1989, for a record eighth time, beating the previous mark of seven successive series wins established by England between 1884 and 1890. The fourth test starts in Melbourne on December 26 with the final match beginning in Sydney on January 2. Following Sunday's defeat, Nasser Hussain said he would not quit as England cricket captain. He told a news conference it was tempting to stand down after another heavy defeat but he owed it to his teammates to continue in the job. "One thing I'm not going to do is walk away from this team in their present bruised and battered state and give it to some young lad and say, 'Here, you take them out there,'" Hussain said. "It would be good for Nasser Hussain, I'd just concentrate on my batting and it would be the easiest thing for me to do, but I will not take that option against that lot."
Waugh said his joy at retaining the Ashes was slightly tempered by England's poor performance. He told a news conference that while he was thrilled to wrap up the series at the earliest opportunity, he was disappointed the English had not put up a better fight. "I don't want to sound big headed about it but some of the victories have been a little bit easy," Waugh said. "Some of the recent series have felt a bit hollow I must admit. "We'd like to come up against a side that would really get stuck in and play tough test match cricket and make it really tough to win." With the Ashes now decided, Waugh said the only thing left for his team was to try and complete a 5-0 series cleansweep. The time they completed a 5-0 whitewash was in 1920-21. "I think we've got to have something to motivate us and that certainly would be a nice thought," Waugh said. Hussain conceded that England had been comprehensively outplayed by the Australians and there were no excuses for the way his team had performed. "It's disappointing how much we've let people down and we've let ourselves down," he said. "We were building up a decent side and a decent record and in the last two months everything has been taken away from us by a great Australian side and by our own inadequacies and the injury situation, which has just been unbelievable." He said England's three massive defeats had exposed the enormous gulf between the teams and he said England would have to review the whole way they organise and play cricket if they ever wanted to beat them in the future. "If we want to win the Ashes back we have to have real good luck at everything, not just the top 10 or 15 players. You can't just put the blame on county cricket, it's a lot deeper than that." Reuters contributed to this report.
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