Day five at the Adelaide Oval

Former England player Mike Gatting has fond memories on his travels to Australia, not least the 2-1 win they claimed over Allan Border's side during the 1986-87 tour. The burly England skipper, infamously known for being Shane Warne's first Test victim, is the latest England captain to have left Australia with the little urn.

Andrew Strauss is in danger of repeating this feat following their demolition of an Australian side devoid of organisation, incisiveness and confidence as they suffered their heaviest defeat to England since 'Gatters' career highlight 24 years ago.

It took less than an hour-and-a-half for England to banish the memories of Adelaide in 2006, Graeme Swann (5-91) claiming his tenth five-wicket haul in 25 Tests by bowling Peter Siddle (6) through the gate. It is England's biggest victory over Australia since Bill Lawry's side capitulated to lose by an innings and 81 runs at Sydney in 1965.

Now many fans would have been waiting for the inevitable England collapse that is standard procedure on every Ashes tour in recent times, but for some reason or another this team has some fight in it. Ranked fourth in the world Test rankings, the chasm in class that was on show underlined England's vast improvements in all departments.

You simply could not take anything away from England, it was the perfect game. With the benefit of hindsight, waking up to an England collapse on an Ashes Tour Down Under was almost a formality, so much so that anything other than a heavy beating would make any supporter choke on their toast.

Stuart Broad suffering a severe abdominal injury was the only downside to this scintillating performance. It will leave the 24-old-old unable to take any further part on the tour.

In their last two innings England have scored 1,137 runs for the loss of only six wickets, that in itself tells the story of how the Baggy green's bowling attack lacked depth, precision, consistency, I could go on but for the life of me I will run out of superlatives.

Pure and simply they looked ordinary, maybe that is because we have been exposed to the dazzling performances of Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Matthew Hayden, and many more who gave every nation they came up against a schooling in cricket. We were almost expecting a continuing trend that failed to materialise, and this has brought Cricket Australia back to earth.

To follow on from such national heroes was always going to be difficult for Australia's new front-line attack, but fans all across the country will be turning in dismay, waiting and hoping that order can be restored. Shane Watson averaging 48, and Michael Hussey averaging 113.3 are the only two players who have shown real fight for the hosts' in this series.

England's top four now have top scores of 110 (Strauss), 235 not out (Cook), 135 not out (Trott) and 227 (Pietersen), a statistic that will leave England fans happily dumbfounded. So 1-0 it is, and with Perth next I think England can afford plenty of optimism.