- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Australia crashed to its heaviest defeat in a decade as the aura of invincibility truly departed the Goliath of world cricket. They still deserve that term, though. After all, one loss does not make a team bad and doesn’t erase years of complete dominance.
But this is a team that is sliding down the summit of world cricket, with doubts over their ability and support highlighted by the much publicised on-field spat between captain Ricky Ponting and his strike bowler Brett Lee.
Whatever the faults of Ponting, Lee was out of order to be so obvious as to question the decisions of his commander-in-chief.
But before we turn back to Australia, credit must be given to the Indians, who in the second Test looked every part the best side in the world, playing a hybrid of cricket that the might of the baggy green has so successfully employed in recent years.
The 320 run victory over Australia was their largest victory in terms of runs in their Test history. It was also the heaviest defeat they have inflicted on Australia in 31 years, and was the baggy greens’ worst loss since losing to the West Indies in 1991 in Barbados – a time when Australia was beginning its climb to world supremacy.
India has been a thorn in Australia’s side since the turn of the century, although the number one ranked team has been consistent in their reign over world cricket.
But this is a team seemingly bereft of ideas.
In the past, if Australia did suffer a rare loss, they would come back with furious vengeance. The fury was there in Mohali, but all it did was made Australia look like a frustrated team.
Not even the classic audacity of Steve Waugh’s Australians would have played with such gay abandon.
No bowler able to keep consistent lines, and Lee’s weakness without a bouncing pitch was shocking.
The batsmen were unwilling to patiently build an innings (surely the 37 year old Matthew Hayden has played his last series).
The match was all but won by the end of the second day. And for the first time in a long time, few expected a characteristic Australian fight back.
As Ricky Ponting said, the Australians were outplayed in every single aspect of the game.
Even in their last series lost to England in the famous 2005 Ashes, and before that in India 2001, they still fought tooth and nail. B
ut this team does not have the legends or iron will of previous operations, and we could well be privy to the end of the greatest era of cricketing rule in history.
The match was summed up by Dhoni, who pointed out the scoreboard to Rahul Dravid when Australia was 22 after 13 overs.
“I’ve never seen anything like that – look at the board, we won’t see that again,” Dhoni stated.
Unfortunately for Australia, we saw it the whole five days. Barring a miraculous turnaround, we will likely see it a lot more in the future.
Build your own fantasy cricket team and put it to the test with Draftstars daily fantasy competitions. Pick your match, pick your team and watch the points roll in to take out cash prizes on each match. What are you really gambling with? Set a deposit limit.