After two years of meticulous planning about how to bowl in English conditions, Australia's quicks came up trumps to end 18 years of hurt.
Sunday's tense victory over England at Old Trafford gave the tourists an unassailable 2-1 Ashes lead to retain the urn for the first time on English soil since 2001.
Josh Hazlewood's dismissal of the stubborn Craig Overton, who faced 105 balls for just 21 runs, sparked delirious scenes from the Australia players after the the hosts' brave resistance was broken 45 minutes before the close of play.
While the prolific Steve Smith was deservedly named man of the match, the performances of Pat Cummins and Hazlewood - with 13 wickets between them - had as much to do with the 185-run victory.
After trying and failing to blow England away on previous tours with pace, Australia coach Justin Langer went back to the drawing board and formulated a plan that required discipline and patience from the bowlers to squeeze the scoring of the opposition batsmen.
The decision to send an A squad to England a month before the Ashes campaign got underway to acclimatise to conditions and the Dukes ball also proved crucial in achieving success.
As did allowing the likes Peter Siddle and James Pattinson to play the first half of the County Cricket season.
A horses for courses approach to selection came in for some criticism in the first Test at Edgbaston when Siddle and Pattinson were preferred to Mitchell Starc and Hazlewood.
However, the decision was vindicated as Australia won comprehensively at a ground where they hadn't tasted success in any form of cricket since 2001.
Hazlewood returned to the side at Lord's for the second Test and cemented his place in the XI by starring with the new ball against England's top order.
However, it is Cummins who has been the one constant throughout the series and he showed just why he's the world's top-ranked bowler in Manchester with 48 largely outstanding overs.
Australia skipper Tim Paine hailed Cummins and Hazlewood's performances and admitted he was blessed to have them in his side.
"They run in fast, bowl as hard as they can and for me that is a real weapon to have," Paine said.
"Fast bowling is a very difficult thing to do and those guys have an unbelievable amount of skill and toughness and a huge amount of fitness.
"I am not sure there are a heap of bowlers going around that would get through the workload that our guys are and maintain pace and skill like those two do.
"Pat is No,1 in the world and rightly so and Josh has been right up there as well. We're lucky to have them."
Cummins, beset by injuries early in his career, is now a 26-year-old physically imposing athlete capable of bowling high-quality long spells where his pace rarely drops below 150 km/h.
The Sydneysider bowled the decisive over of the match late on day four when he dismissed Rory Burns and Joe Root with successive deliveries early in England's second innings.
Before lunch on the final day he dismissed Jason Roy and Ben Stokes for his 23rd and 24th scalps of the series leaving the hosts with a mountain to climb to save the match.
Australian Associated Press
