Ruthless England Finish Off Australia

England finally ended 24 years of hurt as they won an Ashes series on Australian soil for the first time since 1987.

Although the Ashes were already retained in Melbourne in the previous test, England were desperate to complete a series win in Australia, which for any team is rare. Not many teams can boast walking away from Australia with a 3-1 series win, a convincing score in any test series. Although not as convincing as the 5-0 drubbing by Australia in 2006/7, the victory will be one of revenge for the humiliation suffered 4 years before.

It was clear from the start, in the warm up matches, that England came to Australia with one aim, to win. They won 2 of the 3 warm up games before Brisbane, with the top order batsmen looking in excellent touch, which shows the amount of preparation that was put in before the series. England were focused and took those warm up matches as if they were the real thing, which didn't happen in 2006/7 and look what happened.

The phrase 'Fail to prepare, prepare to fail' comes to mind when looking at how England prepared for the 2006/7 series and there failure to prepare properly meant they ended up failing. This time round however, England prepared the best way possible, with no stone left unturned and look at the result, a convincing series win. England's preparation and organisation under coach Andy Flower and captain Andrew Strauss reflects how the team performs on the pitch. After taking over properly in 2009 after the abysmal series in the West Indies, England have been unbeaten in test series under the two Andy's. Including convincing wins over the West Indies and Bangladesh (which are to be expected) at home, a tightly contested drawn series against, then number 1 team South Africa, in South Africa at the start of 2010 along with now two consecutive Ashes series wins.

This is arguably one of the best years or so English cricket has seen, certainly in the last 20 years. The fore mentioned draw in South Africa and the 2009 Ashes win were successful enough, but to add to that the World Twenty20 title and an emphatic series win in Australia speaks volumes for the quality and strength of English cricket at the moment. With a massive one day series against the Australian's and the World Cup coming up, maybe this is just the start of the new England revolution.