Fifth Ashes Test - Day Four Thoughts

A late blog tonight, sorry readers. I am also writing slightly under the influence of some cracking Ginger liquer. So any spelling mistakes are to be edited later.

Whatever fantastical notion existed that Australia would save this test has been blasted out of the waters by today's pitiful capitulation at the SCG.

There is little point in recounting scores or statistics; I'm sure that better blogs out there can do all that with ease. You yourself probably have already gotten loaded overboard with numbers and figures. Therefore, tonight's rant is based on perception and emotion.

Never before in all my years of watching cricket (the first series I remember is 1990-91) can I recall such a shocking, disspirited and abject performance from the clowns proporting to represent Australia.

Only the most optimistic and unbalanced supporters expected to see Australia making England bat again in this match. Instead we saw a performance akin to a clown's sideshow car - one toot and the wheels fell off.

It began - as it did in Melbourne - with an abysmal runout between Hughes and Watson, both of whom should never open for Australia again.

Kwajaha and Clarke did what they could, while Hussey's form deserted him at the worst possible time, as did Brad Haddin's. The Gabba feels like so long ago now.

Johnson came and went in a matter of minutes, while Steve Smith and Peter Siddle are left holding the fort. With Hilfenhaus and Beer to come, the test should end before lunch tomorrow, maybe even within the first hour.

Needless to say, 2010/11 has been Australia's cricketing annus horribilus.

There will be many different reports and inquiries in the months to come. I expect that we may even get a few different angles in various books which may be published in the near future. Ponting's Captain Diary could be very interesting to read, if it is written in an honest manner.

None of this really matters though, because the door has well and truly been slammed on Australia's dominance at test level.

Until 2005, the team carried an aura of invincibility through the successive captaincies of Border, Taylor and Waugh. Since then, we have lost series to all of the countries which matter - England, India and South Africa - while one could objectively say that Sri Lanka and Pakistan, and even New Zealand, could be a challenge for our current test team.

Hey, why not throw Zimbabwe in there. Or Afghanistan?

Thank goodness that the NRL is starting up again soon. Although I cannot rule out wrapping myself
In the flag once the World Cup on the subcontinent starts in a month or two.