Well done England

So proud of England. Against all odds, they thoroughly dominated Australia. Two Test wins inside three days with Australia clinging on just to avoid being humiliated inside two days.

With no Jimmy Anderson, England's bowlers stepped up and took complete control of this match by rolling out Australia for a pitiful 60. Broad's spell on Thursday morning was as good as it gets.

Ian Bell equals Ian Botham's record for most Ashes wins by an Englishman. Cooky deserves a lot of praise after a rough 12 months. His captaincy was spot on and he lead from the top with his batting.

Special mention to Joe Root who was the backbone of the England team and now takes his rightful place as the number 1 ranked batsman in the world.

Congrats Pommies on a job well done

Brilliant execution of TEST cricket strategy ...

nice to see Cook's resurgence : Form is Temporary , Class is Permanent ! 

                                        http://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/274327ede4b8ebfbedeef8dec1fe6fc0b074b15e/0_177_3688_2214/master/3688.jpg?w=620&q=85&auto=format&sharp=10&s=8a45a6524b56310d71e54d2191a174ec

Check out the Fly By Planes 

                 

WAGS :  Click on pic to enlarge

                       

A few stats I dug up from this Ashes series:

1059: The Trent Bridge Test lasted only 1059 balls (or 176.3 overs), making it the shortest Ashes Test since 1950 and the sixth shortest of all time (excluding draws), though four of those came in the 19th century.

4: Number of away Ashes Australia have now lost in a row; this is the longest such sequence for them since 1896-97 when they had lost the first-six Ashes series consecutively.

7: Ashes Tests lost by Michael Clarke - the most by any Australian as a captain. Overall, only three other captains have lost more Ashes Tests than Clarke. Archie McLaren lost 11 Ashes Tests, Mike Atherton lost nine and Johnny Douglas lost eight Ashes matches.

5: Number of times two England bowlers have taken six-wicket hauls (or better) in an Ashes Test including Stuart Broad and Stokes in this match. This is the second time in this series that two England bowlers have taken such hauls in a match. At Edgbaston, James Anderson and Steven Finn had taken six-wicket hauls.

4: England the 4th team to have 4 different bowlers take a six-for in the same series (after Australia in 1909, 1946-47, and 1997 Ashes).

53: England did it all with a team of players whose surnames collectively had only 53 letters; fewer than any other team in Test history.

Ahh that last stat..I suddenly got reminded of lankan players 
Does anyone beat them all..I remember Welegedra's Surname extending to 51,still falling short by 2 :'(

Does anyone better the record of 53 letters as Surname ?
sri lankans are the world champions of long names

Against what odds has England dominated Australia? The English has always been good at home where the conditions suit their swing bowlers. I am not in the least bit surprised at the showing of the English bowlers at home.

The betting odds had Australia as massive favourites. Australia were 4/11 odds on favourites to win the Ashes with England heavy underdogs at 7/2. I don't know any pundits or ex-players that predicted England to win the series, and many were talking about a 5-0 whitewashing.

The England team coming into the Ashes had all kinds of question marks, was Lyth a Test match opener, was Bell finished as a Test match batsman, could Ballance fix the major technical flaws that the New Zealand quicks exposed, was Moeen a Test match spinner, could Anderson, Broad and Wood remain fit throughout the grueling schedule.

As it turned out, the answer to almost all of these questions was no and yet England still won the Ashes.

Lets also not forget that earlier in the summer you gleefully predicted that England wouldn't win a game against New Zealand and stood no chance against Australia.