England regain Ashes with huge win

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England 332 and 373 for 9 dec beat Australia 160 and 348 (Hussey 121, Ponting 66, Swann 4-120) by 197 runs Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Andrew Flintoff celebrates his run out of Ricky Ponting that sparked England's march to the Ashes © PA Photos

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Players/Officials: Andrew Flintoff | Steve Harmison | Michael Hussey | Graeme Swann

Matches: England v Australia at The Oval

Series/Tournaments: Australia tour of England and Scotland

Teams: Australia | England

England have regained the Ashes with a crushing 197-run victory amid jubilant scenes at The Oval. Steve Harmison went through the lower order with three wickets, including the scalps of Peter Siddle and Stuart Clark in consecutive balls as the full house was finally able to release hours, days and months of emotion. Graeme Swann, who had broken a frustrating stand between the outstanding Mike Hussey and energetic Brad Haddin, then had the joy of claiming the final wicket when Hussey's valiant 121 was ended with a catch to short leg. Suddenly cricketers were sprinting everywhere, led by an ecstatic Andrew Strauss who has enjoyed a wonderful time as captain and batsman. The series has defied expectation at every turn, but few gave England a prayer after their trouncing at Headingley. That they have bounced back in such convincing style makes this one of their most astonishing successes.

More to follow

Australia 160 and 265 for 5 (Hussey 77*, Haddin 10*) need 281 more runs to beat England 332 and 373 for 9 dec (Trott 119, Strauss 75, Swann 63, North 4-98)

Andrew Flintoff produced one last moment of show-stealing brilliance as England's cricketers prepared to celebrate the recapturing of the Ashes, after winning a battle of wills on the fourth afternoon of an excruciatingly absorbing Test match. By tea Australia had slipped from a threatening 217 for 2 to 265 for 5 in their final innings, the key moment coming when Flintoff ran out Ricky Ponting for 66 with a spectacular direct hit from mid-on.

Flintoff, now in his final Test, has not been the tub-thumping batsman of old in this series, while his bowling - though thunderous at Lord's - has faded cruelly as the concerns about his right knee have mounted. But as a presence, and as a man who can make things happen on a cricket field, his spell has scarcely diminished. In a moment that is sure to be replayed for years on end, he gathered a firm clip from Mike Hussey, steadied himself as Ponting hesitated fatally, then unleashed a fast, flat, unerring swing of the arm that plucked out the off stump with Ponting a foot short.

Though the decision went to a replay, Flintoff was in no doubt. He raised his arms in his now-habitual Kodak pose, and waited to be enveloped by his jubilant team-mates. It was a moment eerily reminiscent of Gary Pratt's series-turning shy at Trent Bridge in 2005, when Ponting once again was the fall guy, and it uncorked the tensions in the crowd as surely as the champagne will be uncorked in England's dressing-room sometime in the next 24 hours. An unnerving stand of 127 had been broken, and with it went Australia's collective will.

Five balls later, their batsman of the series, Michael Clarke ran himself out for a duck after a clip off the pads ricocheted to Andrew Strauss at leg slip, and Australia struggled to recover their poise. Hussey was badly dropped by Paul Collingwood at slip on 55 off Graeme Swann, but in Swann's next over, Marcus North dragged his back foot out of the crease as he swung at a big ripper, and Matt Prior, having gathered well high to his left, flicked off the bails almost as an afterthought. Their target of 546 had become a distant figment of their imagination, and their only remaining incentive was to grind out the final four sessions of the series.

England's progress had not seemed so inevitable for the two-and-a-half hours that Ponting and Hussey had been together. After overcoming the loss of both openers in the space of four balls in the first half-hour of the day, the pair played with calm aplomb on a still-untrustworthy surface, to neuter the threat posed by Swann and Stuart Broad, England's likeliest source of breakthroughs, and force Strauss to rotate his options, with Steve Harmison finally being called upon for a spell, having sent down just nine overs so far in the match.

After the ease with which Australia's openers had pushed along at four runs an over on the third evening of the match, England's day of destiny dawned with more than just a frisson of anxiety in the air. But Swann claimed the initial breakthrough at the end of his second over, tweaking a succession of sharply spinning offbreaks past Simon Katich's edge, before nailing him plumb lbw with the arm-ball.

Swann bounced for joy in the middle of the pitch as a massive roar of relief and ecstasy erupted from the stands, but almost immediately the fervour morphed into a respectful standing ovation for the incoming Ponting, in his 136th Test and almost certainly his last in England after four memorable Ashes tours.

Before he had faced a delivery, however, England had struck again, as Broad this time hurried Shane Watson on off stump and beat the inside-edge of his defensive prod. Watson did not seem best amused at the decision, but replays suggested there was nothing wrong with the appeal at all. For all of Watson's impressive form in five innings at the top of Australia's order, it was nevertheless the fourth time this series he had fallen in such a manner. Food for thought as he works on his new career as an opener.

At 90 for 2 and with a jittery Hussey at the crease, England swarmed onto the offensive, with Swann camping four men around the bat at all times and at one stage sending down 28 dot balls in a row as Hussey prodded and smothered with desperate determination. At the other end, Ponting's eagerness to play the pull was tempered by his wariness of the vagaries of the wicket, although whenever he was tempted, he executed the stroke with the mastery that has made it his calling-card for the past decade.

In the first over after lunch, Ponting laced a first-ball full-toss from Broad through the covers for four, then tickled Swann around the corner to bring up a battling and brilliant half-century from 76 deliveries. Broad subsequently received a warning for running on the pitch to deepen the crowd's growing concerns, who had just seen Collingwood at slip parry a rare Ponting edge with his left boot. But then up popped Flintoff, and the whole scenario changed.

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