Australia Crushed..

When was the last time you heard that line ..?

Not in recent memory I bet, and yet, it is very true. Australians were mauled by the Kiwis during their first encounter in the ongoing Chappell-Hadlee Trophy, 2007 (BTW the Chappells include our very own Guru Greg). And to make it worse, this was Australia's first ever defeat by this margin (10 wickets).

Current Australian team has dominated the world cricket scene like no one else (not even the mighty Windies in the 80's). Australian cricket team, has been playing well along the last two decades - winning the 1987 world cup, since recovering from the retirement of the irreplaceable trio of Rod Marsh, Dennis Lillee and Greg Chappell after the 1984, Sidney test.



But nothing matches their unparalleled rise under the indomitable Steve Waugh. And Ponting has not done too bad either! With two successive World cup titles under their belt (1999 and 2003) - Australia seemed insurmountable.

Their rise was matched with the subsequent decline of other teams. Pakistan after Imran, England after Stewart and South Africa after Cronje have never looked the same again. Even with the brilliance of Lara, Windies could never really match their predecessors and India have always been a "Star-Studded Paper Tiger" in the 90's. SriLanka was probably the only aberration, when the sparkling willows of Jayasuriya and De'Silva won them the World Cup in 1996. Frankly, SA had been their only competitor for the better part of 90's but unfortunately they managed to stumble at the last post!

In this context, the Ashes series of 2005 was a landmark and probably the best thing to have happened to World Cricket. Although Aussies regained the Ashes this time demolishing England by a whopping margin of 5-0, the pommies beat them in the best-of-three finals of CB series.



But their crushing defeat against the Kiwis as well as the retirement of Warne, McGrath, Langer and Martyn has put their status as the No. 1 team under threat as they risk losing to the Proteas who are on a resurgence now.

Is this the beginning of end of the Aussie dominance of the world cricket. Will a new Champion emerge out of this World Cup? Only time will tell.


Updated 19 Feb,2007 --##--

And Australia did manage to lose their no 1 ranking to South Africa. They have slipped to the second place after being beaten by New Zealand in the second match of the Chappell-Hadlee trophy to NewZealand. And what a win it was for New Zealand, shaking off the disappointment of not reaching the finals of CB series, they chased down a total of 336 and that too in 49 overs! Kudos to them.. World cricket is suddenly getting alive !

Updated 20 Feb,2007 --##-

Well its a dream.. New Zealand have white washed Australia 3-0 in the ongoing Chappell-Hadlee series. They chased an incredible 346 for victory. This is getting better and better!