The tourists must now regroup ahead of the next leg of their campaign in Nottingham next week and recover from a match the team - and, in particular, captain Michael Clarke - will want to quickly forget.

The woes of Clarke, in terrible form and criticised by some for batting first here, continued in the field on Friday, dropping a relatively simple catch at second slip he would ordinarily swallow. His friend Shane Warne's explanation on the Sky TV commentary that the captain had been thinking about making a bowling change when he put it down was even harder to take.

The spill let hometown hero Ian Bell (65 not out) off the hook on 20 and from there, having apparently re-gathered the touch that had abandoned him earlier in the series with a second 50 of the match, he and Joe Root (38 not out) were able to guide England in a straightforward pursuit.

"Sit down ... if you're 2-1 down," was the cry from the jubilant home crowd as Bell and Root finished the Australians off just before a delayed tea interval, Mitchell Johnson even losing his run-up as the masses inevitably targeted.

England's most vocal spectators had been noticeably more subdued in the morning. There had been nervousness around Edgbaston with the hosts in a commanding position but those who follow them unable to shake a feeling that their team might somehow conjure a way to blow this. The inevitable bad news about James Anderson, ruled out of the final day of the third Ashes Test and the fourth Test with a side strain, only added to the anxiety.

So did Peter Nevill (59) and Mitchell Starc (58), who in Australia's largest partnership of the match, ensured England's most vocal home crowd were kept decidedly quiet for much of the first session.

That pair, with capable support from Starc's colleagues deep in the Australian tail, at least by stretching the second-innings total to 265 gave Clarke's team something to defend, which as most of Australia's specialist batsmen floundered on the previous afternoon, slumping to 5-92, didn't look likely. On the best batting day of the match, however, England had few problems wrapping up a comprehensive win.

The only hiccups came with captain Alastair Cook (7) losing his off stump to a superb, curving delivery from Starc and his opening partner Adam Lyth (12) falling lbw to Josh Hazlewood.

The defeat was Australia's 12th in 19 matches away from home since 2013 (with five won and two drawn), ramming home their perennial troubles with winning consistently in foreign conditions.

While Australia will have to consider making changes for the fourth Test at Trent Bridge, which starts on Thursday, it is also the final time Lyth is likely to be seen in this series, having scored only 72 runs at an average of 12 over the course of three matches.

Asked about the form of the Australian middle order, Clarke said: "The form at No.4 certainly concerns me. We've been playing with 10 players. I've got to find a way to turn that around."

While most of the Australian batsmen failed Clarke said his bowlers were also below par.

"We didn't execute at all (in England's first innings)," he said. "We had perfect bowling conditions, overcast, a little bit of rain around and we just couldn't hit the areas consistently.

"It's another kick up the backside. There's no doubt about it. We showed at Lord's how we can play and I made it very clear after that game that it was only one Test. We have to perform like that if we want to win over here.

"It's no coincidence it's been really hard to have success in England. You need to play like that every Test match if you want to win and we need to turn things around and just keep believing. It was only a few days ago that we played some wonderful cricket. So we know we've got it in us. We just have to turn up and be ready in Nottingham."

The absence of Anderson at Trent Bridge next week will be a major blow for England, and in turn a boost for Australia.

"It is cruel," Cook said. "We were celebrating his 33rd birthday yesterday. It actually shows time is getting on. He's had a remarkable run of fitness which is down to his hard work behind the scenes and unfortunately it's caught up with him a bit. He's devastated because he wants to play a further part in this series."