[Tait's] third ball thwacked into AB de Villier’s midriff. Doubled over in pain, de Villiers’ bat crashed into the stumps. As he crumpled to the ground in agony, the Australians clustered next to his quivering body, high fiving and celebrating. I think I may have seen Cameron White kick de Villiers in the ribs a few times while noone was looking. It was a moment that would’ve brought a tear to Jeff Thomson’s eye.

For me the highlight was the Victorian keeper Adam Croswaithe running up to the stumps for the sole purpose of clapping the bowler right in front of the batsmen. The bowler returns to his runup without so much as checking the fallen batsmen for a pulse. Actually, the slo-mo Chewbacca sounds are pretty cool too.

At least Hartley had the forethought to keel over away from his stumps. Good boy.

3 Fast Men

Can’t wait to try it, and at $15 per bottle am pretty happy to have snagged 3 of the three-packs.

Each pack contains:
1 x ‘Rodney Hogg’ 2004 Australian Shiraz; Aromas of lifted spices, cloves and berry fruits. The palate is silky smooth displaying plummy characters, soft tannins and a long finish
1 x ‘Dennis Lillee’ 2004 Australian Cabernet Sauvingnon ; a powerful wine with ripe fruit, intense colour and flavour. Aromas of cassis and eucalypt follow through to chocolate and mint on the palate. A well structured wine supported by fine tannins
1 x ‘Jeff Thomson’ 2004 Australian Merlot ; A velvety wine with sweet fruit, jammy berry flavours and subtle oak character. A full-bodied style which is drinking well now, but will develop further complexity with medium term cellaring.

These wines are vintaged, bottled and packaged by five star winery Cathcart ridge estate in Victoria’s Grampians region. All three wines have a cellaring potential of ten years plus.

Ponting lying down on the job

The beginning and end of era’s are notoriously hard to define without the benefit of hindsight, as a changing of the guard can happen over many seasons. For a new era to emerge, one team will have to step up to consistently beat all others, both home and away.

To put the claims that India have achieved this into perspective, here’s a quote from pommy blogger King Cricket.

After winning successive Test series against West Indies, South Africa, South Africa again, Bangladesh, England, Sri Lanka, India and West Indies, Australia finally lost away to India and are now ABSOLUTELY SHOCKING at cricket.

India’s recent run of losing a series against Australia, drawing one against South Africa, losing one against Sri Lanka before winning this one, hints that they are now perhaps the new supreme power in world cricket.

As for Australia’s “decline” it’s worth noting that they’ve never been overly impressive in India ; even in the “era of Baggy Green dominance” they only won a single series! The overall series ledger shows Australia with 3 wins (1956, 1969 and 2004) to India’s 5 (1979, 1996 [1 test series], 1998, 2001, and 2008), with 3 Drawn (1959/60, 1964 and 1986 [1 Test Tied]).

I guess my point is that while the Aussie team has obviously weakened through the retirement of some legends, it’s too early to say if there is another team ready to claim a decade as their own. Australia losing in India is nothing new, and losing there again isn’t all that remarkeable.

India played well and full credit too them, but to be the world power that their population demands they’ll have to cope with some big name retirements, and improve their away record vastly. In Dhoni they have the best captain in world cricket, and Ishant Sharma is a real talent who I hope stays fit and hairy.

India, Australia, South Africa, England and Sri Lanka all have strong Test sides at the moment, and are all capable of beating each other on their day. It’s going to be an interesting period in Test Cricket and I can’t wait.

Reference: Australia in India.

• grief
• severe pain

I don’t see maiden test wicket on the list, even if it is the great Sachin Tendulkar.

If you want to go all snag then stay in bloody Melbourne with the other nancy Victorians. Can you imagine had Lillie or Thomson started bawling after making a breakthrough? I think not.