STATS HIGHLIGHTS
Follow UsThe fans at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart were treated to an absolute masterclass from the bowling unit of the home side as Australia registered a comprehensive 146-run win in the fifth Ashes Test match to clinch the series 4-0.
While the margin of the win may seem massive, the fact is that England were cruising along at 68 without any loss of wickets in pursuit of 271 runs.
Despite losing Rory Burns for 26 at the stroke of tea, for the first time in this edition of the Ashes, the match was evenly poised at the tea interval on day three of the final Test.
However, what followed later is something the England team management and the fans would want to erase from their memory as the visiting side lost ten wickets for 56 runs to suffer a crushing 146-run defeat. With a thumping win, the Aussies have won all of their day and night encounters and have a win percentage of 100.
With England scalping three wickets in the final hour of play on day two, the onus of the batting unit relied heavily on Steve Smith. The right-handed batter endured a quiet run by his standards in this series, and today was no different.
The 32-year old struggled with his timing in his 62-ball stay at the wicket and scrapped through to score 27 runs to help Australia swell the lead.
En route to this knock, Smith became the fifth-highest run-scorer in the Ashes with 3044 runs in 56 innings, surpassing David Grower's 3037 runs. Don Bradman is on top of the list with 5028 runs in 63 innings, followed by Jack Hobbs of England with 3636 runs in 71 innings.
After weathering the initial storm and recording a special milestone, Smith was caught on the fine-leg boundary for the first time in his Test career as he tried to hook Mark Wood.
The right-arm pacer made optimum use of the short-pitched deliveries and derailed the middle-order of the Aussie side to scalp his third five-wicket haul in the longest format and his first in the Ashes. 
The 32-year old returned with figures of six for 37 in the second innings, making him the only bowler to scalp six wickets in an innings of a day and night Ashes Test. Earlier in the series, Jhye Richardson picked up five wickets for 42 runs at the Adelaide Oval, which is the second-best bowling figure in a pink-ball Test.
With the wicket conducive for swing bowling, Wood was well supported by his senior pro, Stuart Broad, in the morning session. The duo wreaked havoc with their nagging line and length to help England bundle out Australia 155 runs in the second innings and give the Three Lions a chance to redeem themselves and end the tour with a win. 
En route to his three-wicket haul, Broad joined an elite list of players to become the fourth-highest wicket-taker in the oldest rivalry, surpassing Dennis Lillee's record of 128 wickets.
The 35-year old is the leading wicket-taker for England and the only player from England to feature in the top five wicket-takers of the Ashes.
With 195 wickets in 72 innings, Shane Warne is on top of the list, followed by Glenn McGrath's 157 wickets in 60 innings.
In pursuit of 271 runs and a chance to create history, the visiting side started the run chase in a commanding fashion as Zak Crawley and Burns survived the initial jitters to help England stitch their first fifty-run partnership in the series.
The duo added 68 runs for the first wicket, the highest by a pair in the series, to lay a solid foundation for the visiting side. However, with the wicket of the southpaw at the stroke of tea and Dawid Malan dismissed cheaply yet again, it was down on the shoulder of skipper Joe Root to shoulder the responsibility of the side and help them inch closer to the target.
While the right-handed batter failed to bail his side out of a challenging situation and was dismissed for 11, Root etched his name in the record books to become the only England player to amass 5000 Test runs as the skipper of the side. Alastair Cook is second on the list with 4844 runs in 111 innings at the helm.
