Caddick's seven gives England rare triumph

England 362 and 452-9 dec Australia 363 and 226 England win by 225 runs

At the conclusion of an Ashes series the England team are normally invited into the Australian dressing room for a convivial chat about this, that and what has gone on during the last five Test matches. There is naturally the odd drop of alcohol consumed and, by the time you crawl out of the Sydney Cricket Ground several hours later, the world and the problems of English cricket have been put right.

The beer, wine, champagne and bourbon will have tasted that much sweeter for Nasser Hussain and his squad following their emphatic 225-run victory over Australia in the fifth Test, and at least they now could look their opponents in the eye. But it should not allow them to forget the work they need to do if they wish victories like this to be viewed as nothing more than a consolation. Make no mistake, England should enjoy the moment, because any success over this great Australian team is a major achievement. But the fact remains that they lost the Ashes 4-1.

Following this remarkable win, Hussain can travel back to England – after the VB one-day series, which starts again on Thursday when Australia play Sri Lanka – safe in the knowledge that he was not captain of the most unsuccessful side ever to travel "down under".

Australia were never in with a realistic chance of scoring the 452 England set them on Sunday. With the dry pitch misbehaving on a regular basis it was only a matter of time before a ball came along with the batsman's name on it. That these deliveries arrived with such regularity was down to the aggressive nature with which England went for victory.

Leading this charge and taking England to success was the enigmatic figure of Andrew Caddick. In the history of the game there has been no bowler of Caddick's stature – more than 200 Test wickets – with such a marked difference between how he performs in the two innings of a Test match. Of the 234 wickets the Somerset pace man has now taken, the 131 in the first innings of matches cost 37.1 apiece and the 103 in the second 20.8.

In a set of circumstances made for him, Caddick rose to the occasion and took the second best figures of his career, 7 for 94. With the three wickets the 33-year-old bagged in the first innings, Caddick left the SCG with his first 10-wicket haul in Test cricket. However, these figures were not enough to win him the man-of-the-match award, which rightly went to Michael Vaughan for his magnificent innings of 183.

Just how well Vaughan, who scored 633 runs over the five Test matches, has played during the Ashes was emphasised when he won the player of the series award. But it was Caddick who gave England just the start they wanted with the 10th ball of the fifth day. Hussain would have been telling his bowlers before the start of play to be patient on this surface. The odd ball misbehaved when it went through the top and it would be only a matter of time before chances came along. The challenge was to take them when they arrived.

The ball which trapped Andrew Bichel leg-before without adding to his overnight score of 49 did not err. However, the ball two deliveries earlier did, and it is such uncertainty which sows the seeds of doubt in a batsman's mind. Instead of committing himself forward, for fear of being hit between the eyes, the batsman sits on the back foot, thus making him more susceptible to the pitched-up ball which dismissed Bichel.

This brought the Australian captain, Steve Waugh, into bat, an entrance which was greeted by the inevitable standing ovation. This time, however, it was apt because there is a fair chance this was his last innings for Australia on his home ground. It could still be his last as a Test cricketer but the hundred he scored in the first innings may well tempt him to play on.

There was no fairy-tale yesterday, however. Waugh struck his first ball for four but he was beaten, when he had added just two more runs, by the alarming bounce Caddick was at times extracting from the pitch. Waugh managed to play a defensive shot in mid-air but he could only watch helplessly as the ball ricocheted on to his pad and rolled on to his stumps. It dislodged only one bail but the result is the same as sending stumps cart-wheeling. Out.

The applause started again as he departed but, embarrassed by his failure, Waugh ran off to the silence of his dressing room. When the off-spin of Richard Dawson proved too much for the passive Damien Martyn, many of the 20,652 who had turned up felt the game could be over by lunchtime.

Australia now had their last two recognised batsmen at the crease and every England player or supporter was realising that one more wicket could see them to victory. It was Stephen Harmison who produced the ball that sealed Australia's fate and there was very little Martin Love could do about it. The ball was pitched short of a length, it grubbed and hit off-stump halfway up.

With England now into the tail, Adam Gilchrist decided that it was time to play some shots and he struck Harmison for four fours in an over. This assault did not please Hussain, who brought Caddick back into the attack. The change worked as Caddick produced a snorter in his first over to remove Gilchrist, the centurion on the first innings only able to glove the ball to slip. Like too many batsmen in this series he did not want to go, but the umpire Russell Tiffin sent him on his way. Australia were 181 for 8 and the result was inevitable.

Lunch dragged out the tension for another 40 minutes as each England supporter asked another: "Surely they can't blow it now, can they?" But then, nobody expected Australia just to give England the win they so badly wanted, and they did not. Brett Lee smote the ball to all parts of the ground in a whirlwind 46 before Caddick snared him, caught behind.

This brought Australia's last man, Stuart MacGill, to the crease. From his first-ball slog, he had no intention of hanging around and, at 2.08pm, when Caddick clean-bowled him, England achieved the result nobody thought possible three weeks ago. They had beaten Australia.

SYDNEY SCOREBOARD

Final day; England won toss

ENGLAND – First innings 362 (M A Butcher 124, N Hussain 75, A J Stewart 71).

AUSTRALIA – First innings 363 (A C Gilchrist 133, S R Waugh 102; M J Hoggard 4-92).

ENGLAND – Second innings 452 for 9 dec (M P Vaughan 183, Hussain 72).

AUSTRALIA – Second innings (Overnight: 91 for 3)
J L Langer lbw b Caddick 3
M L Hayden lbw b Hoggard 2
A J Bichel lbw b Caddick 49
R T Ponting lbw b Caddick 11
D R Martyn c Stewart b Dawson 21
S R Waugh b Caddick 6
M L Love b Harmison 27
A C Gilchrist c Butcher b Caddick 37
B Lee c Stewart b Caddick 46
J N Gillespie not out 3
S C G MacGill b Caddick 1
Extras (b6 lb8 w3 nb3) 20
Total (245 min, 54 overs) 226

Fall: 1-5 (Langer) 2-5 (Hayden) 3-25 (Ponting) 4-93 (Bichel) 5-99 (Waugh) 6-109 (Martyn) 7-139 (Love) 8-181 (Gilchrist) 9-224 (Lee) 10-226 (MacGill).

Bowling: Hoggard 13-3-35-1 (nb1) (5-0-17-1, 5-3-3-0, 3-0-15-0); Caddick 22-5-94-7 (9-0-55-2, 7-2-12-2, 6-3-27-3); Harmison 9-1-42-1 (nb2 w3) (5-1-13-0. 4-0-29-1); Dawson 10-2-41-1 (1-0-2-0, 7-0-39-1, 2-2-0-0).

Progress: Fourth day: 50: 50min, 10 overs. Close: 91-3 (Bichel 49, Martyn 19) 20 overs. Final day: 100: 129min, 27.4 overs. 150: 185min, 40.4 overs. Lunch: 193-8 (Lee 19, Gillespie 1) 47 overs. 200: 227min, 49.2 overs. Innings closed: 2.08pm.

ENGLAND WON BY 225 RUNS

Umpires: D L Orchard (SA) and R B Tiffin (Zim).

TV replay umpire: S J A Taufel.

Match referee: Wasim Raja.

Man of the match: M P Vaughan.

Man of the series: M P Vaughan.