England's worst-ever international tour ended with a crippling 12th defeat at the hands of Australia in Sydney last night, as fallen Test batsman George Bailey went on a rampage in the final Twenty20 at ANZ Stadium.
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Australia smashed 13 sixes on its way to 6-195, before England once again capitulated meekly to lose by 84 runs, bowled out for 111 in the 18th over in front of 48,762 fans in Sydney.
Bailey (49 not out off 20) was the only Australian player dropped after the Ashes, but the T20 skipper still had the last laugh over England in what remained a comical campaign, right to the bitter end.
England's 101 days of misery has featured only the third Ashes whitewash in history, a 1-4 thumping in the one-dayers, and now a 3-0 clean sweep in the T20s.
In between the losses, the international careers of spinner Graeme Swann and coach Andy Flower have been ended, and it could also be curtains for Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior, Jonathan Trott and as far as captaincy is concerned, Alastair Cook.
In 2006-07, when England was also swept 5-0 in the Test series, it lost 11 international matches on tour _ but they've been eclipsed by this bumbling touring party, which started the summer as overwhelming favourite.
The embarrassment continued last night, with three dropped catches, two botched run-outs some shameful dismissals and fast bowler Jade Dernbach _ verbally sprayed by Australian opener Cameron White in Melbourne _ recording the worst figures ever (1-141 from 11 overs) in a bilateral T20 series.
Bailey was overlooked for the Test tour of South Africa, but he showed why he'll be the key man in Australia's World Twenty20 campaign in Bangladesh in March _ smashing 26 runs off the final over bowled by Dernbach (0-49) to put the home side in supreme control.
In-form openers White (41 off 37) and Aaron Finch (30 off 21) and Ben Cutting (29 off 16), promoted to No.4, also set the foundation for the highest total set at ANZ this summer.
England managed to make Homebush's usual occupants, the hapless Sydney Thunder, look a million bucks, with the softest of surrenders _ the tourists clearly focused more on their early-morning flight home today.
The only exception was captain Stuart Broad (3-30), who has fought bravely since day one.
Nathan Coulter-Nile, James Muirhead and Glenn Maxwell took two wickets each for Australia before the tour fittingly ended with Dernbach run out in clueless fashion.
