The Australians might have made England work hard second time around on Saturday, but the gulf between the two sides is growing all the time and now borders on the unbridgeable.
Everything in life and sport stems from the top, and Ricky Ponting's failings as captain have played a big part in his team's inability to stem the England tide.
Saturday's outburst following his run out came from a build-up of frustration after several days at Old Trafford and Nottingham where too many of his players - especially the bowlers - have under-performed because of the constant pressure under which they have been every day in the series since Lord's.
Yet still they battle on in ways which can only be admired, particularly Brett Lee who has fought all the way with bat and ball. His innings of 47 from 44 balls was nothing short of stupendous.
He has never flinched from a battering of body which he knows is coming, in particular from Andrew Flintoff. They are like two bareknuckle prize-fighters, ready to stand toe-to-toe until one drops. Only neither has yet.
Flintoff greeted him on Saturday with a blow to the body and another one on the arm guard. Both men smiled, although Lee's grin was just a touch forced as the pain globules raced through his body. Then came his response, although not against Flintoff but Steve Harmison and Simon Jones instead.
Lee is a natural shotmaker who has a good eye and an athlete's coordination. As he showed with two astonishing pulled sixes off Harmison which were among the hugest ever seen on the ground, and certainly were bigger than this correspondent has ever seen around the world in over 230 Tests.
Both strokes were a mixture of pull and hoick on the up to balls only marginally short of a length. The barriers cleared could be measured in distance thus. Seventy yards to the boundary ropes plus five more to the hoardings; then, still going up, the ball cleared 30 yards of a membership stand, at the back of which is a 20-foot high building.
Behind that is a ten-yard wide walkway around the ground and then, the final hurdle, a 12-foot wall beyond which is Hound road. The carry was at least 130 yards and deserved more than six!
His last-wicket partnership with Shaun Tait was worth 43 of which the No 11 scored three. It topped off a morning in which Australia raced from 99 for five to 218 all out - 119 runs in 19 overs.
England's hero was Simon Jones who took four of the five wickets to fall, and yet again obliged with a wicket in his first over - he has done this at least four times in this series.
Simon Katich and Adam Gilchrist decided to throw the bat and had crashed 58 off the first ten overs, including 31 in two overs off Matthew Hoggard.
Jones ran one across Katich who cut it straight to Andrew Strauss to bring in Shane Warne who promptly set up a Jones hat-trick by lobbing a catch off the leading edge to Ian Bell in the covers.
Lee survived that, before the catch of the series, the year and, arguably, the 21 century so far was taken by Strauss to dismiss Gilchrist off - who else but his bowling nemesis, Flintoff.
Gilchrist edged fast and wide of Strauss who flung himself full length and took a left-handed blinder. Terrific to reach it - and even better to hold on as he crashed to the ground.
Jones bowled Mike Kasprowicz with a beauty - an outswinging yorker which hit off stump from a flight path of middle - and it would have done any top order batsman in the game.
The score then was 175 for nine and a lead of 300 made the follow-on a formality. Except for the last wicket pair who spoiled the mathematics, thanks to Lee and his ability to organise the strike so well that Tait only faced nine balls in five overs worth 43.
It just likeTwenty20 cricket - plus a bit, but the Australian second innings was different - as it had to be with a deficit of 259. They were made to follow for the first time since Karachi in 1988, since when they have played 191 Tests.
None of this side have ever known what it is like to follow-on, but they buckled down properly, and each of the four wickets they lost had to be earned - or rather three of them did with the Ponting run-out providing one of the biggest talking points of the series.
Matthew Hayden's dismal series continued when he sliced to Ashley Giles off Flintoff, before Justin Langer was dropped by Strauss at slip off the same bowler.
Langer and Ponting took the score to 129 before Giles fiddled the opener out, well caught at short leg by Ian Bell. The Aussie captain showed what he can do at Old Trafford when he gets in and he was the key wicket to get.
It came in an unexpected way when Damien Martyn called him for a tight run and he was thrown out by substitute Gary Pratt from Durham. Ponting had complained earlier in the series of England's over-use of such a specialist 12th man, particularly after bowlers have finished a long spell.
He mouthed a few things in the middle while waiting for the referral and, so it seems, let fly a few more volleys as walked off - all aimed at the England balcony 20 yards away and audible to dozens of spectators.
This time he was riding the wrong horse, because Jones was not resting - he was in hospital having a scan on an injured right ankle.
The offending Martyn knows that the golden rule for a batsman who has pushed his partner over the cliff, is to stay out in the middle for as long as possible, but this time he edged a good outswinger to Jones, and at 161 for four, an innings defeat becokoned.
Michael Clarke and Simon Katich had other ideas however and saw the remaining 20 overs out, but only thanks to Jones the keeper. As at Old Trafford, he fluffed the simplest of stumping chances offered by Clarke off the unlucky Giles.
The score was then 212 and was to cost his side over two hours in the field.
