The Ashes 2013/14 series - Australia reclaim the urn after series win in Perth

Australia have won the Ashes

Australia finally won the Ashes back from England after a gap of 6 years after they defeated England by 150 runs at Perth in the 3rd Test today, taking an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the series.

Requiring 5 wickets on Day 5 at Perth to go ahead 3-0 in the series and get the urn back down under, Australia wrapped up the series and got their hands on the trophy after lunch and registered a famous victory.

At 251/5, England’s only chance hope lay in Ben Stokes, their first centurion of the series so far, and he added 45 today with Matt Prior before the English wicketkeeper edged one behind on a Mitchell Johnson delivery.

Stokes continued to deny Australia a quick victory as he plundered some more runs in the first session as England grabbed 81 runs in that period with just the loss of one wicket.

However, things changed in the post-lunch session as Nathan Lyon got the inside edge of the danger man Stokes which was well held by Brad Haddin behind the stumps. The Australian glovesman had been brilliant so far and he again showed his skills when he managed to hold on to a sharp chance to dismiss Stokes.

Lyon soon added another wicket to his tally as Graeme Swann failed to keep a sharp one down from the his Australian counterpart and lobbed an easy catch to short leg.

Stuart Broad, England’s best bowler, crowd’s favourite target and the injured man, came out to bat and looked to be moving quite freely. Mitchell Johnson continued his hostility from the other end and it was Tim Bresnan who fell next when his mistimed push off Johnson was caught quite brilliantly by Chris Rogers at mid-off.

An over later, Mitchell Johnson, quite aptly, won Australia the series and the urn when a short one popped off James Anderson‘s bat and was caught by Bailey.

Mad celebrations ensued as the eleven men on the ground, the support staff in the pavilion and countless fans in the stadium and off it jumped in joy at having finally retained that tricky old urn which had eluded them for the past 6 years.

Steven Smith, who made 111 in the first innings, was named the Man of the Match.