Australia crush England again

Australia crushed England by an innings on Sunday to win the second Ashes test and take a 2-0 lead in the five-match series after the tourists collapsed to 159 all out at tea on the fourth day.

Needing to score 210 to force the home team to bat a second time, England lost by an innings and 51 runs after starting the day on 36 for three at the Adelaide Oval.

Alec Stewart made a defiant 57 to become only the fourth Englishman to hit 8,000 test runs after Glenn McGrath took a spectacular outfield catch to remove first innings centurion Michael Vaughan and trigger another familiar batting collapse.

McGrath mopped up the tail to finish with four for 41 and leg-spinner Shane Warne captured three wickets as England lost their last six batsmen for just 45 runs after three rain delays offered the hope that bad weather might save them.

Australia also won the first test in Brisbane inside four days and now need one more victory to claim a record eighth successive Ashes series. The third test in Perth starts on Friday.

Left with no real prospect of winning, England's best chance was to try and salvage a draw by batting until the arrival of thunderstorms which were forecast to hit the Adelaide Oval late in the afternoon.

Light rain did delay the resumption of play after lunch and there were another two short stoppages in the next two hours which forced the players off the field for a total of 47 minutes.

But the intermittent showers did not last long enough to save England from another heavy defeat.

McGRATH CATCH

Resuming at 36 for three, England could not have made a worse start when Robert Key fell for one in the third over of the day, pulling a short-pitched delivery from paceman Andy Bichel straight to Darren Lehmann at mid-wicket.

Stewart and Vaughan steadied the innings with a 74-run partnership before Vaughan was brilliantly caught on the boundary by McGrath.

The Yorkshire opener was on 41 when he swept Warne to deep backward square where McGrath dived full-length to take the catch after sprinting 20 metres.

Stewart, the oldest player in the match, signalled his intentions to attack from the outset when he flicked the first ball he faced from Bichel off his pads to the boundary.

The 39-year-old belted another five fours to race to his 41st test half-century, off just 67 balls in 81 minutes, and silence his critics after his two ducks in Brisbane.

Stewart passed another significant personal milestone when he reached 52. He became only the fourth Englishman to score 8,000 test runs, joining Graham Gooch (8,900), David Gower (8,231) and Geoff Boycott (8,114).

He eventually fell for 57, trapped leg before wicket by Warne, after all-rounder Craig White was dismissed by McGrath for five the ball before.

McGrath clean bowled Matthew Hoggard for one and Warne got rid of Steve Harmison for a duck with a ball that straightened and hit him on the pads as England lost four wickets for four runs to slump to 134 for 9.

Australia's hopes of a quick kill were thwarted by the third rain delay, then a bold last-wicket stand between Richard Dawson and Andy Caddick.

The pair put on 25 in 28 minutes until Dawson edged McGrath to wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist for 19 to wrap up the England innings in less than 60 overs.

Mail Cricket Editor