Australia 456 (Martyn 71, Ponting 68, Waugh 53, White 5-127) beat England 185 and 223 (Stewart 66*, Hussain 61) by an innings and 48 runs and lead the series 3-0
Scorecard

On the 11th day, Australia retained the Ashes again. This was their eighth consecutive series win over England, a record that came courtesy of a comprehensive victory by an innings and 48 runs at the WACA.

Just 23 days after Nasser Hussain won the toss and lost the plot at Brisbane, England were bowled out for 223 in the final session at Perth to lose consecutive Ashes Tests by an innings for the first time in 48 years. As in 2001, Australia took an insurmountable 3-0 lead with victories inside four, four and then three days – and just as in 2001, they used only five second-innings wickets in doing so.

For much of the day the match drifted along like the denouement of a bore draw, but a predominantly tranquil canvas was splattered with splodges of mania at the start and the finish. As so often with Australia, those moments were decisive.

Hussain, who was dropped first ball, scrapped hard for 61 before being controversially dismissed, and Alec Stewart made a busy 66 not out, but England never really recovered from another horrible collapse in the first half-hour.

Steve Waugh went for substance over style in the morning, giving the ball to Jason Gillespie ahead of Brett Lee, who had bowled a white-hot spell on the second evening. It was another inspired decision, as Gillespie and the inevitable Glenn McGrath took three wickets for one run in five overs to reduce England to 34 for 4.

The nightwatchman Richard Dawson didn't last long, driving Gillespie to Waugh in the gully in the second over of the morning (33 for 2). Then came the circus act. Michael Vaughan had sold Mark Butcher down the Swannie in the first innings, and with the pressure mounting after 29 scoreless deliveries, Butcher returned the favour. Vaughan forced McGrath into the covers, but was left stranded halfway down when Butcher turned for a second and then sent him back.

The incident was clearly still troubling Butcher as he flailed around his front pad at the next delivery and was lbw for 0 - a carbon-copy of his dismissal in the second innings at Adelaide. Though McGrath deigned to appeal this time, this one was every bit as plumb. Just to put the seal on a appalling couple of minutes, Butcher knocked the stumps with his bat, Chris Broad-style, and can expect a date with the match referee Wasim Raja soon.

It would have been 34 for 5 had Hussain not been dropped off the next ball, a dolly to Shane Warne at first slip as Gillespie jagged one away. Then after the storm, the calm: Hussain and Robert Key regrouped serenely in a fifth-wicket stand of 68 in 35 overs that made a mockery of what had gone before.

Key played an old-fashioned Test innings, showing patience and good judgment outside off – unlike many of his team-mates, he even looked like he was enjoying himself – but after reaching 23 off 106 balls he tried to work McGrath through midwicket and was trapped in front (102 for 5). That was McGrath's 200th Test wicket in Australia – only Dennis Lillee and Warne have more – and he once again led the attack imperiously. Figures of 21-9-24-2 did not flatter him at all.

Stewart moved past Garry Sobers and into the top ten Test runscorers shortly before the break. He added 68 with Hussain, who was given out caught behind off a big Warne leg-break the ball after he was dropped at slip by Damien Martyn (169 for 6). Hussain didn't like the decision – replays showed he scraped his bat along the ground – but he had to go. When Hussain returned to the dressing room, he went over the top on Chris Silverwood's crutches with the sort of challenge that would receive a straight red card in a football match.

Lee was given some hammer by a rampaging Stewart, who has a habit of being the last man standing on the burning deck as the Ashes drift away: he top-scored in the second innings in similar circumstances at Adelaide four years ago and at Headingley in 1993, and at Trent Bridge in 1997 he played probably his best Ashes innings, a shot-a-ball 87.

Craig White (15) has played enough poor shots in this series to last a lifetime, but the cupboard was not yet empty and he was stumped off Warne as a charge and heave connected with nothing except fresh air (208 for 7). White is a broken man with the bat against Australia, so much so that even his usually sound method against spin went to pieces.

Alex Tudor was then forced to retire hurt after a bouncer from Lee followed him and went through the grille of his helmet. It looked serious for a while, but Tudor was conscious as he was stretchered off. Lee bounced Steve Harmison two balls later and was booed for his troubles. In the next over he decided to pitch it up and scattered Harmison's stumps with a full-toss.

In 2001 Australia regained the Ashes courtesy of an Andy Caddick no-ball; this time there was a moment of confusion as the crowd waited to see if Silverwood would bat. He didn't, and it summed up the series that England were all out despite only losing eight wickets. The ending may have verged on a damp squib, but it cannot dilute another emphatic triumph for one of the finest sides ever to play the game.

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Rob Smyth is assistant editor of Wisden.com.

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