Sport - The Ashes 5th Test Sydney. England in the pink.

Man of the series Alistair Cook

It was a lovely touch for the ACB to hand over the 3rd day (and every subsequent 3rd day at Sydney herein) to Jane McGrath and the Breast Cancer Awareness charity. The only shame for Jane's surviving husband Glenn was that Australia's bowlers took it as the chance to hand over the series to England in such a timid and lucklustre way that would have been anathema to the Aussie ex-great. Jane found herself sharing her day with Alistair Cook who added another mere 189 for a series total of 766. One hopes the Barmy Army were as generous to Jane as they were to Cook. If the sea of pink was anything to go by, it was as good a day for charity as it was for Cook.

For the record (and there were so many records in this series) Sydney was Melbourne plus a few more runs. England won by an innings and 83 runs and racked up their biggest total of 644 all out. Australia's figures are a lesson in mediocrity and don't even deserve a mention. Looking back at the five tests only Perth gives any justification to the natural pessimism of the England fan and looks more of an anomaly, a statistical freak, than a cause for concern or analysis. It really is their turn to suffer. Clarke took over the reigns from the injured Ponting and if this was the first days of the rest of his (captaincy) life then Clarke has an extremely hard slog ahead of him. In defeat at least he was gracious enough to admit to being outplayed in all departments and talked of the lessons the Australians needed to learn from England. As true as they are, those last words still sound like a fairy tale until you remind yourself of the scorecards and the one-sided dominance commanded by England in these Ashes.

Anderson continued his dominance. Haddin continued to get in the pictures.

If you substitute Prior for Collingwood (more of him soon) the England top six all had good (Strauss) to brilliant (Cook) series. Anderson led the attack with mastery and confidence that brought him 24 wickets in 5 tests and was well supported by every single bowler who bowled with him. Tremlett, Finn and Bresnan shared tests and wickets and Swann bowled more overs than anyone (though only six more than the excellent Anderson), holding down his end tightly and taking his share of wickets too. That the Aussies were so scared of Swann as to prepare their pitches with the idea of muting him should also not be underestimated in the effect it had on the series. For the result was to hand control over to a seam bowler in his pomp. Catch 22 indeed.

Collingwood removes Hussey with his final ball in Test cricket.

Nobody catches better than England right now. In particular, nobody catches better than Paul Collingwood. Ask Ponting. And in one of those kind of ironies that sport, and particularly cricket, feasts upon it was Collingwood the bowler who made his mark in his retirement test, taking a vital wicket with his final ever ball. No-one will ever care Colly only made 80+ runs in these Ashes. Everyone will remember his catches off Ponting and the inside edge onto stumps he induced from Mike Hussey with his final ball in Sydney. In defeat Collingwood would have been in for the harshest criticism of all, as it was he left a hero and even led out the team on the final morning. Wonderful thing, winning. Wonderful thing, perspective.

Beer's gone and the game's up for Australia