Australia romp to resounding two-nil series lead

Australia

Australia required less than 12 overs on day five of the second Ashes Test to complete a resounding 218-run win – and comprehensive two-nil series lead – at the Adelaide Oval on Monday.

Australia required less than 12 overs on day five of the second Ashes Test to complete a resounding 218-run win at the Adelaide Oval on Monday.

The visiting batsmen's collective inability to successfully combat the host pace attack continued, as right-armers Ryan Harris and Peter Siddle finished the job left-armer Mitchell Johnson had started with a first-innings seven-wicket haul.

All-rounder Stuart Broad perished on the pull, tail-ender Graeme Swann was caught in the slip cordon in the wake of a halfhearted poke outside the off-stump, half-centurion Matt Prior's defiance ended with an awkward hook shot – and number 11 Monty Panesar slapped a straightforward delivery to cover.

The Australians' dominance was thorough, with no corner left unexplored nor any Englishman spared a bout of verbal aggression en route to a comprehensive two-nil series lead. An insufficient pursuit of a daunting 531-run target, indeed, only amounted to 312 all out.

Johnson was named Man of the Match, while the hosts later named an unchanged squad for the third fixture in Perth, although seamers Nathan Coulter-Nile and Doug Bollinger remain on standby.

England, meanwhile, have to overturn history in an unlikely bid to become the first team to win the coveted Ashes title to from two-nil down since the Aussies in 1937.

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