Australian media hail greatest win, lambast England

SYDNEY, Dec 6 (Reuters) Australian media today hailed their team's extraordinary victory in the second Ashes test and lambasted England for their shocking last-day collapse.

''Best Ever'', screamed the backpage headline in the Sydney Daily Telegraph, describing the six-wicket win by Ricky Ponting's team as the greatest in Australian cricket history.

''In a single afternoon, the mighty Australian cricket machine not only crushed England's hopes of winning the second test yesterday -- they buried their dreams of winning the Ashes,'' Robert Craddock wrote in the paper.

With the match apparently heading for a certain draw after four days, England collapsed to 129 all out and Australia romped to a victory target of 168 to take a 2-0 lead in the series as they bid to win back the Ashes.

''Take That Poms,'' was the headline on the front page of the same paper, while the Sydney Morning Herald said simply: ''How could it be? England falls apart.'' Herald columnist Peter Roebuck praised the contribution of the experienced Australian players, particularly bowlers Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, who were described as ''Dad's Army'' in an English tabloid newspaper before the series.

''Against all the odds, against all prediction, Ricky Ponting's side had secured a great victory,'' Roebuck wrote.

''So much for Dad's Army. The victory owed most to the sides's supposedly fading champions. Seldom have two ageing masters raged as strongly against the dying of their light as did Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath in England's second innings.'' The Australian's Mike Coward pulled no punches in his description of England's collapse on the final day in a column under the headline: ''Holders of urn exposed as impostors in ultimate arena''.

''England's ineptitude was staggering,'' Coward wrote. ''Its cricket yesterday was as uneducated as it was unedifying and its defeat among the most humiliating in the annals of the game.'' REUTERS DH BST1036