The history boys

Strauss's England were congratulated
 after a thumping win. Picture: Getty

Melbourne, Victoria

Sydney? We'll cross that harbour bridge when we get to it.

At around 1153 on Wednesday morning, Matthew Prior dived to his left to take a low catch off the inside edge of Australia's last batsman Ben Hilfenhaus and trigger scenes of wild celebration at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

After 24 long years, after pummellings and whitewashes, hubris and humiliation, noses in dirt and tails between legs, England have retained the Ashes.

First, the bare details. They won this fourth Test by an innings and 157 runs, with five and a half sessions to spare, to take a 2-1 series lead with just the final Test to come.

Now for the full picture. And oh, what a picture it was.

In bright sunshine, under perfect blue skies, this was a sight for England supporters to savour and store for as long as they care about cricket.

The MCG is the spiritual home of Australian sport, a sacred oval of concrete and grass that has hosted Olympic Games, Grand Finals and Test match triumphs for decade after dominant decade.

On Wednesday it was transformed into a little slice of British paradise - the stands almost entirely occupied by an invading army of beaming, barmy fans, the air full of celebratory songs, the lucky thousands inside alternating between furiously waving flags of St George and pinching themselves pink with giddy disbelief.

The hard work had been done on the preceding three days. This was the wrap party, and everyone wanted to be on the dancefloor when the sprinklers started.

An hour before the start there were queues at the ticket booths on the concourse outside. Half an hour in, Mitchell Johnson already back in the hutch, they were still handing over Aus $30 apiece and racing through the glass doors to the stands.

Billy Cooper led the choruses on his bugle - Blake's Jerusalem, Slade's Merry Christmas Everybody, the theme to Jim'll Fix It and that rather rude one about Johnson's bowling which is accompanied by hand gestures you wouldn't really want your mother to see.

The brief resistance of Brad Haddin and Peter Siddle was as likely to interrupt the festivities as the cloudless sky above was to start snowing.

So far have things gone England's way in this match that when Haddin launched Graeme Swann way over long on for a six deep into the happy hordes, a hungover member of the Barmy Army stuck up his arm up and caught it one-handed.

When the end came, the roar from the stands told you before umpire Tony Hill's raised finger. England's individual players disappeared into an amorphous huddle of jumping, whooping white.

All around, the chant echoed out: "They're coming home, they're coming home, they're coming, Ashes coming home..."

Before this series Australia had not lost by an innings on home soil for nearly 18 years. Now it has happened twice in a month. Records are tumbling every which way you look.

"England have been exceptional," says Michael Vaughan, skipper when England won back the Ashes for the first time in 16 years in 2005 and now an expert summariser for the BBC's Test Match Special.

"They just haven't allowed Australia to play. It's not rocket science to say that this Australian side aren't as good as they were, but England are a very good team.

"This is a miles bigger achievement than winning the Ashes at home in 2009, because beating Australia down here is so hard. Even against this Australian side.

"Had they got to 200 on that first day, the story might have been different. If Ricky Ponting had won the toss it might have been different. England have played really well and they deserve everything that comes their way.

"England have got really good players, some really solid characters. There is a great attitude in the camp; there isn't one person who needs managing in that team. They manage themselves.

"Ian Bell has matured, James Anderson has matured. And there's probably only Collingwood and Strauss who won't be here in four years time. The Aussies better get used to this, because it isn't going to get any better for them."

The last time England retained the Ashes in Australia, way back in 1986, they did so with another Middlesex skipper - Mike Gatting - at the helm, on this same ground and on almost exactly the same date. They also went on to lose the final Test in Sydney.

On that occasion the Ashes were already won. Here they are not. Once the sore heads clear after this win, will Strauss and his men reflect that the job is really only partially done?

"England are going to get a lot of praise over the next four or five days," says Vaughan.

"Can they produce their form in Sydney after getting that praise, when Australia are right in the dirt? That's the challenge for this team.

"In 1998 England came to Australia with a side that was pretty good. They won here in Melbourne and went to Sydney with a chance to square the series, and they should have won in Sydney. If England had drawn that series, against that Australian side, it would have been an incredible performance.

"You look at this series, and 2-2 would be a failure. England are a better unit. They now have to win in Sydney to leave a really sweet taste in the mouth.

"OK, our first objective was to retain the Ashes. But in terms of what this team is aiming to do - being the number one team in the world - I think they have to win the series over here.

"The gulf in class between the two teams is big that an England 3-1 victory would be about right. 2-2 would be a travesty. That is where we have to get better as an England team: winning after winning. We saw after Adelaide that we struggled, but after being beaten at the Waca we produced the win here.

"There's something special about Sydney. It's a wonderful atmosphere, and I just hope England can produce a win. It deserves that kind of end to a really good Ashes series. Go to Sydney, win, and then have a big party."

Two hours after the ground had finally emptied, with only a few groundsman and cleaners left in the place, a stocky figure in grass-stained whites could be seen walking across the outfield to the tired-looking pitch, pushing an out-fashioned pram as he chatted away.

It was England number three Jonathan Trott, showing his young baby the spot where Dad had hit his match-winning 168 not out. If for once he resisted the temptation to re-scratch his mark on the crease, he also fought the urge to steal a little hunk of turf for family posterity.

It must have been a close call. "This will live in my memory, and in the memories of all the players," his captain Andrew Strauss had said a little earlier. "What a great ground this is, and what an amazing place to come and retain the Ashes."

On only four occasions since the second world war had an England team left Australia in possession of the urn. A little more history has just been added to the cricketing chronicles.