England endured one of their worst batting collapses in almost 100 years as Australia crushed the visitors by 384 runs to win the opening Ashes test inside four days in Brisbane today.
Set 464 to win after Australia declared their second innings at 296 for five, England crumbled to 79 all out in little more than two hours. It was England's lowest total in Australia since they were dismissed for 61 at Melbourne in 1903-04 and one of their heaviest defeats in the long history of the Ashes.
"It's a pretty devastating loss," Australia's triumphant captain Steve Waugh observed. "We've had worse tests than this," said England skipper Nasser Hussain, who came in for some fierce post-test criticism from former England player Mike Gatting. "Unfortunately we have a habit, and it's not funny, of losing first test matches….we have lost before and we have lost first test before and we have turned things around so that's one bit of history that we can call upon," Hussain added.
Filed by James Boylan.
