The hosts suffer the ignominy of their first innings defeat at home since their capitulation to the West Indies at Perth in 1993 and, to be brutally honest, it's hard to see them bouncing back to win two of the next three games to reclaim the urn. Stranger things have happened, of course, but Australia will need something truly inspirational.
Andrew Strauss's decision to bat on on the fourth morning is vindicated by the eventual result - the 69 runs added tallying nicely with the victory by an innings and 71. England will be slighted dented by the loss of Broad, but they've got the likes of Chris Tremlett, Ajmal Shahzad and Tim Bresnan as back-up. Tremlett, in particular, could be a real handful at the WACA, while Shahzad has the ability to reverse the old ball.
Man of the match - KP Pietersen (England)
Captain's take after match -
Ricky Ponting - "We got off to a shambolic start to the Test match, and it was always going to be hard to fight back from there,". "We needed to make a big score in the first innings and 245 was never going to be enough. We also put down a few crucial catches in the field. It's just those little things which are literally slipping through our hands at the moment, you can't give good players second and third chances. We've got to go away and do some soul-searching. England have kept us under real pressure, and we've got to find a way to cope with that."
Andrew Strauss - "You're always thinking back to what happened here four years ago and asking 'could Australia find a way to get back into this game?' but we were pretty clinical out there. A lot of boxes ticked in this game,". "When you're confident things start happening for you as a matter of course, you don't have to push it," he says of England's dramatic start to this Test with the ball.
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