England won the series comfortably 4-1, with Hammond almost doubling the total amount of runs scored by Australian Jack Ryder lying behind him. It remains one of the strongest performances by an English team in Australia.
Alastair 'the chef' Cook (136 not out) is in danger of outgunning one of England's greats, having made 438 runs in three innings. He has scored with an air of confidence far beyond his years, refusing to give the host's any glimmer of hope as England began to turn the screw against a misfiring bowling attack.
Ryan Harris, a replacement for the out-of-sorts Mitchell Johnson, was the only man who made the tourists work for their runs, conceding only 51 runs in 19 overs. Doug Bollinger, Peter Siddle and Shane Watson felt the brunt of England's top-order, consistently failing to find a good line and length.
The less said about Xavier Doherty the better; the Tasmanian living up to his first-class bowling average of 48.10 with a series of short deliveries that offered the batsmen enough time to have played the shot twice. But we must praise the brutal display by Andy Flower's team, Jonathan Trott (78) riding his luck but retaining his good form, before Kevin Pietersen (85 not out) finally arrived at the crease after waiting a total of 574 minutes with his pads on following the unbroken 329 partnership between Cook and Trott at the Gabba.
Cook produced a scintillating combination of drives and cuts that England batting coach Graham Gooch will be swooning over. Form such as this defines a series, and when you realise that Hammond was 25 when he put the Baggy Green to the sword on the 1928-29 tour, Cook, of the same age, now has an opportunity to match if not better him.
Now 72 runs ahead with eight wickets in hand, England have Ricky Ponting's men in the palm of their hand. To top it off, Essex-man Cook overtook Nasser Hussain at the top of the charts for an Englishman unbeaten at the crease by a mere 60 seconds, reaching 1,022 minutes at the close of play.
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