Aussies face day of infamy

Australian cricket’s day of infamy will arrive on Friday when England complete a likely innings victory to conclude a 3-1 hiding in the Ashes series.

Allrounder Shane Watson has already conceded that the match and the series are gone for the Australians, who will resumed at 7-213, still 151 runs from making England bat again after the tourists piled up 644 in reply to 280.

Australia’s rapid decline has hit the players hard, but they are guilty of committing a host of basic errors as much as England can rejoice in their complete superiority.

How quickly times have changed since the 2006-07 series, won 5-0 by Australia.

“(Australian cricket) is nowhere near the heights it was four years ago,” said Watson.

“There’s no doubt with our performances we’ve showed over the last little while we’ve got to turn it around, and it comes down to the players alone to be able to turn that around.

“There’s no doubt there’ll be an inquest into what’s happened and we’ve got to turn it around.

“We’ve got to do everything we can to do it, because like I said after Melbourne as well, we don’t want to be losing the support we’ve had for such a long time with the Australian fans, we’ve got to play so much better to keep the faith.”

Tickets for the final day went on sale in mid-afternoon at the SCG, but will be refunded after the loss of five wickets in the final session meant admission would be free for the administering of the last rites.