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Will the rejuvenated Australia beat the deflated Englishmen in the Adelaide Test starting on Thursday to take a commanding 2-0 lead?
One thing you can be sure of in cricket is that you cannot be sure of anything. Just look at the recently concluded Brisbane Test, when the much criticised Australia trounced England with a day to spare.
To prove my point, let me recall two topsy-turvy Adelaide Tests, both involving Australia, in the last 10 years, one occurring in an Ashes series.
When you score 500 plus runs in the first innings of a Test, you can be certain that that team will not lose. Win most likely, draw possibly, but lose? Never ever!
Yet it happened twice in Adelaide Tests three years apart.
In the December 2003 Adelaide Test against India, Australia amassed 556 with Ricky Ponting hitting a masterly 242.
Rather than buckle down under this run mountain, India gave a strong reply. The nemeses of Australia in the 2001 Kolkata Test, Rahul Dravid (233 runs) and VVS Laxman (148), added 303 runs for the fifth wicket and India totalled 523.
A certain draw, commentators proclaimed.
But Australia was bowled out for 196, least fancied medium-pacer Ajit Agarkar taking 6 for 41.
Set 230 to win, India reached the target with four wickets in hand as Dravid stroked an unbeaten 72 to total 305 runs in the match at an amazing average of 305.
Three years later Australia was at the winning end after England had declared at 6 for 551 in the December 2006 Adelaide Test.
Kevin Pietersen will remember that innings as he had scored 158, adding 310 runs for the fourth wicket with Paul Collingwood (206). This set a record for England in an Adelaide Ashes Test.
Not to be outdone, Australia replied with 513, skipper Ponting (142), Michael Hussey (91) and Michael Clarke (124) batting with vengeance.
The cocky Englishmen were spun out for 129 by Shane Warne (4 for 49) and surprise, surprise, Australia won by six wickets.
The Barmy Army was stunned. How can England, after declaring at 6 for 551, lose? Spare a thought for Collingwood and Pietersen.
Gideon Haigh wrote, “Adelaide ’06 deserves to haunt this generation of English cricketers as Headingley ’81 once haunted Australians.”
Alastair Cook, Ian Bell, Pietersen and Jimmy Anderson are remaining from the 2006 haunted Englishmen in Adelaide. Clarke is the only survivor among the triumphant Aussies.
Just as the Australians won the first Test in Brisbane by 381 runs last month, they had demolished England by 277 runs in the first Test in Brisbane in November 2006.
And they went on to whitewash England 5-0.
Will history repeat itself this summer?
It looks possible with Mitchell Johnson becoming a Jeff Thomson-reincarnate in Brisbane last fortnight, putting the fear of God in English bats and Ryan Harris keeping the pressure on a la Dennis Lillee.
Exaggeration? Then listen to this prediction. Nathan Lyon will be like a cat among Cook’s pigeons in the second innings.
Let the mind games begin!