I thought this summer would be a disaster with Australia playing the West Indies and Pakistan but luckily we just aren’t good enough to crush anyone any more. Thank God McGrath, Warne, Hayden, Langer, Lee and Gilchrist have all disappeared in the last 3 years.
Didn’t Australia just win a match against the odds?
Yeah against Pakistan who haven’t beaten us for over a decade. A few years ago we would have just boringly rolled over them. Now it goes down to the wire.
The boxing day match was a bit of a roll over wasn’t it?
Yes it was and the good Aussie sides of years ago would have proceeded to crush Pakistan 3-0 in the series but we can’t now. The “demoralized” Pakistani’s would have won this test if we had swapped keepers with them.
The same happened against the Windies. We looked far too good for them after the first innings of the first Test but ended up just winning it and then playing for a draw in the next Test.
The thing is these are two poor teams. Pakistan were lucky to draw their series with New Zealand (saved by rain) and the Windies have lost to everyone.
Personally I like it. I was getting very bored with Test cricket up to about 2005. The only good series Australia were involved in were the series with India. Then England won the ashes and it all started to be fun again.
Are we actually hearing* real* Australians here?
This is not the delight in brutal, crushing supremacy that we in England have come to know and hate (but secretly really, really wish we could boast as well). Don’t start thinking you’ve suddenly become crap.
This will not do. When we have the next ashes series we want you to be brilliant but suspect. Just enough so that we feel good about retaining them.
Sure, we have faded back to the pack but the rest of the world aren’t exactly dominating either, are they? I thought South Africa would replace us at the top of the heap but then we won the series in SA last year. The Indians didn’t crush us in our last series. The poms just squeaked in against us in the Ashes.
But you’re right - it’s more fun to watch when it’s competitive.
I dunno. Ponting wins the toss on a rain-delayed day one. The covers have been on all morning. Cloud cover and humidity indicate lots of swing. Green pitch indicates lots of unpredictable bounce.
Australia crumbles, which given the circumstances is no real surprise. Ponting made a huge mistake.
Fast forward 3.5 days. Australia wins by 30 something runs.
I’m having a hard time considering that mediocre.
Can I be the lone desenting voice that says I enjoyed watching Warne & McGrath take apart a batting line up.
Loved every minute of Hayden batting the way he wanted. Enjoyed the Langer Hayden man cuddles 
Waiting with bated breath for Gilly to come to the crease to see how many sixes he was going to belt today.
I miss those days.
Despite what anyone claims Australia is still a good team by any stretch of the imagination, but we have simply come back to the field with the other teams who are also good (India, SA & England).
I’m actually pretty hopeful about the most recent win, that it might show the boys we can win, even from dire circumstances. I’m sure part of the aura about the early 2000’s team was their total and honest belief that they would win any given game at any given time.
I’m with you, Greedy. Seeing the best of the best plying their art for your team is a fantastic feeling.
The downside of the recent win at the SGC is Ponting will now put us in to bat first under any circumstances whatsoever, which is just wrong. the fact he squeaked out of it doesn’t mean it was the right decision, Pakistan threw the game away more or less, it was theirs for the winning on the morning of the 4th day.
OK, time to admit that I too have enjoyed the last few years of dominance. My defence is that I lived through the very lean years when we couldn’t beat anyone. These included the Kim Hughes crying incident amongst many other forgetable times.
Having my formative years dominated by humiliation to the Australian team, I feel I deserve a couple of decades of our team humiliating the crap out of anyone and everyone.
As an aside, as someone who could bowl genuine leg-spinners, I wish I could have been a teenager in Warne’s time, rather than my teen hero Dennis Lillee’s time. I couldn’t bowl pace to save my life, and no coach in my cultural and sporting backwater would look twice at a spinner.
Well I was born in the 50s. My best mate and I both bowled spin (he was a leggie) and we never got to bowl. One time we went on an inter-school visit to play lots of sports. In the cricket match we were playing the other team got to 0-110 before we got to bowl. We bowled spin from both ends. They were all out for 121.
Next game we didn’t get to bowl.
Ponting has made some awful decisions as captain and in this Test it was no different.
Regarding the original point, I take solace in that in no more than 5 years I can only see Mitch Johnson still being in the side.