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LONDON, Monday (AFP) England's cricketers may not officially have given up their hopes of wresting back the Ashes from Australia but as far as the British press is concerned the series is already over.

Australia's commanding victory by an innings and 51 runs at Adelaide on Sunday put them 2-0 up in the best of five match series and, just as in the first Test, they won with more than a day to spare.

England have not won an Ashes campaign since 1986-87 and with an eighth successive series defeat looming the tabloid Sun's headline Monday was typically stark: "What's the most useless thing in sport? A ticket to the fifth day of an England Test."

The Sun reported how British bookmakers William Hill had made Australia a miserly 5-4 on to complete a 5-0 whitewash.

This has only been achieved once before in Ashes contests when Australia won all five Tests back in 1920-21.

Meanwhile the Sun's arch-rival, the Daily Mirror, said "only the biggest flurry of counter-punching since the Rumble in the Jungle" would prevent Australia retaining the Ashes at the third Test in Perth starting on Friday.

'The Rumble in the Jungle' was the name given to the 1974 bout in Kinshasa, Zaire, where boxing great Muhammad Ali regained the world heavyweight title from fellow American George Foreman despite taking heavy punishment early on.

Elsewhere, the Daily Mail speculated about how long captain Nasser Hussain might continue to lead the team.

"Professionally these are painful times ... a crushing Ashes defeat and early exit from (next year's) World Cup would surely guarantee the end of the Hussain era."

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