Andrew Strauss was over the moon as England thrashed Australia in the second Ashes Test in Adelaide, but also warned his team it's too early to start patting themselves on the back.

England are 1-0 up in the five-match series after beating their hosts by an innings and 71 runs on Tuesday. Needing to claim six wickets on the final day, England used just over an hour to bowl Australia out for 304 for their 100th Ashes Test win.

Captain Strauss admitted that pretty much everything went their way in the Adelaide Test, but also cautioned his troops not to get too carried away.

"We were pretty clinical in everything we did in this game," Strauss said.

"Bowling them out for 245 on the first day was an outstanding effort, and then we didn't let them back into the game.

"A lot of boxes were ticked in this game and we're pretty happy with our performance.

"We're always conscious that if you start patting yourself on the back too much in cricket it comes back to haunt you, but we're going to enjoy tonight - we deserved the victory - but that Perth Test match is even more important now.

"When you're confident things start happening for you as a matter of course. You don't have to force the issue too much."

Graeme Swann picked up five for 91 in Australia's second innings, but the Man of the Match award went to Kevin Pietersen after his career-best 227 helped England to a first-innings score of 620 for five declared.

Strauss believes Pietersen's return to form has been a long time coming.

"He's been threatening to play like that for a while, certainly all through the warm-up games, there just looked to be a bit of a swagger about him and he was seeing the ball well and early," he said.

"It's great for us, because when he is on song he dominates bowling attacks, and not many players can do that."

Pietersen also warned that "anything can still happen" in the final three Tests.

"Australia are a formidable team here in Australia and we're only 1-0 up in the series and there are still three Tests to play - anything can happen in those three Tests," he said.

"Australia are going to get better and we're going to have to play better cricket going into Perth and Melbourne and Sydney, because normally an England team doesn't finish off a series too well, so we've got to make sure we've got our heads on."

Swann felt the wicket of Hussey was the key moment on the final day.

The left-hander looked in command on day four, but had a life early on the final day when Matt Prior failed to hang onto a faint nick. However, he didn't pay much as Hussey mistimed a pull off Steven Finn when he was on 52.

"It was a dream session," he said.

"To get Hussey early on is exactly what we were looking for. Good old Finny came to the party, and when that ball went in the air I don't think there were 10 more excited players.

"To get him out, it started the procession. As the fielding side that was just what the doctor ordered. You don't want an hour and a half without any wickets and then looking over your shoulder and seeing the clouds building up.

"We're certainly playing well. It's been 18 to 24 months of solid cricket from us. We're not doing anything special, we're just not doing anything wrong."

England coach Andy Flower was left to bask in a convincing all-round performance from his men.

"It was pretty much a perfect game for us," enthused a proud Flower.

"We bowled and caught so well in that first innings - and fielded well with two run-outs - all it required from us was a big total in that first innings.

"That's been a big focus for us for a while and it was nice to see us do that.

"The players work very hard on their fielding - it's been a focus for a long time now - and you can see the results. You can never be complacent on it and you can see the value of taking chances on flat wickets.

"If we can keep those sort of fielding standards up it will keep us in good stead."

Flower rued the loss of Broad, but looked forward to Tim Bresnan, Ajmal Shahzad and Chris Tremlett vying to replace Broad.

"Losing Stuart is a big blow. For a young man he is a very experienced cricketer and he does some important jobs for us.

"But we have three guys in reserve and they will get a run out in the three day game in Melbourne and we'll make our decision thereafter," he concluded ahead of Friday through Sunday's clash against Victoria.