Tide has turned in Ashes rivalry

Since Allan Border's Australians recaptured the Ashes in 1989, completing an emphatic 4-0 series win with a crushing innings and 180 runs victory at Trent Bridge, England have more often than not played second fiddle in cricket's greatest rivalry.

The euphoria created by Michael Vaughan's men wresting the coveted urn back at home in 2005 - one of the greatest series of all - proved a false dawn.

It was followed by the most embarrassing of failures when the ensuing series on Australian soil, in 2007, went emphatically in favour of Ricky Ponting's men who won all five Tests.

But after regaining the Ashes again in England in 2009, there was not the sort of trepidation you would expect from Andrew Strauss's men - and the English media - ahead of the latest trip to Australia, given what happened four year earlier.

That confidence proved well-placed as Strauss's disciplined outfit made history by recording three victories by batting only once.

Indeed, the England captain now finds himself in the same dominating position that Border was in two decades ago, with the arch-enemy in disarray.

In Strauss and Alastair Cook, England have what could be the one of the best opening partnerships in Tests, supported by a rock-solid top order, led by Jonathan Trott who averaged 89. Graeme Swann, James Anderson and a plethora of pacemen show that the bowling attack is in fine health as well.

Australia have come to the end of a fabulous era, and the evidence suggests it is now England's turn for a period of dominance over their oldest rivals.