England collapsed in humiliating fashion on Tuesday to hand the Ashes back to Australia. 

The tourists were bowled out for 68 to lose by an innings and 14 runs, losing six wickets within 80 minutes of the third day restarting. 

Debutant seamer Scott Boland, 32, took remarkable figures of six for seven on his home ground, lapping up the acclaim of the MCG. 

It was all but over for England when Joe Root, their last remaining hope, edged Boland to slip an hour after the restart and slowly dragged himself off the vast MCG arena knowing his dream of leading England to an Ashes series victory was over. 

England never recovered from an electrifying final hour on the second day when they lost four wickets to some intimidating, brutal fast bowling. There was no respite when play resumed with the heart ripped out of the remaining batting with Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow and Root all gone within 13 overs on a sunny Melbourne morning. 

Stokes was bowled through the gate by Mitchell Starc with only 15 added to the overnight score of 31-4, and Bairstow's painful innings lasted 18 balls during which time he looked like he could fall at any time. Four balls after he was dropped by Cameron Green at gully, he was lbw to Scott Boland for five. 

Root continued his one-man vigil, moving past 1,700 runs in the calendar year with a glorious straight drive off Starc, but the dismissal of Bairstow to a very tight umpire's call lbw review rattled the England captain. 

He was also struck in the groin again and with his mind scrambled, played a rare loose shot, edging Boland to David Warner at first slip to give him extraordinary figures of four for five on debut. 

England were 65 for eight, still 17 short of making Australia bat again, when Mark Wood popped a return catch to Boland, who held the ball to the crowd to mark his five-wicket haul off just 19 balls and he had a sixth wicket when Ollie Robinson edged to third slip. 

Anderson was bowled in the next over by Cameron Green as England lost six for 37 on a dreadful morning for English Test cricket.