South Africa clinch a historic series victory over Australia, their first ever in the country. These really are stirring scenes to take in. The South Africans embrace and their emotions are palpable. After years of failure, they have beaten Australia. Smith is down in the middle, uprooting the stumps and waving to the crowd. How proud he must feel right this moment.
The smattering of a crowd cheers, the South African fans wave their flags. Look at Kallis and Boucher, who have been playing for over ten years and haven't had a chance to experience this moment. Steyn, Harris, Duminy and the younger lot walk around the boundary to shake hands with the fans. This is South Africa's 11th win this year, while Australia have won two of their last eight.
This is South Africa's tenth unbeaten series on the trot. Full marks to them. Smith has been central to South Africa's success this year with some aggressive captaincy and 1652 runs. South Africa can claim top ranking from Ricky Ponting's side if the tourists sweep the series 3-0 with victory in Sydney.
On the flip side, Ponting becomes the first Australian captain in 16 years to preside over a series defeat on home soil.Australia have not lost a home series since going down 2-1 to West Indies in 1992-93.
South Africa clinch a historic series victory over Australia, their first ever in the country. These really are stirring scenes to take in. The South Africans embrace and their emotions are palpable. After years of failure, they have beaten Australia. Smith is down in the middle, uprooting the stumps and waving to the crowd. How proud he must feel right this moment.
The smattering of a crowd cheers, the South African fans wave their flags. Look at Kallis and Boucher, who have been playing for over ten years and haven't had a chance to experience this moment. Steyn, Harris, Duminy and the younger lot walk around the boundary to shake hands with the fans. This is South Africa's 11th win this year, while Australia have won two of their last eight.
This is South Africa's tenth unbeaten series on the trot. Full marks to them. Smith has been central to South Africa's success this year with some aggressive captaincy and 1652 runs. South Africa can claim top ranking from Ricky Ponting's side if the tourists sweep the series 3-0 with victory in Sydney.
On the flip side, Ponting becomes the first Australian captain in 16 years to preside over a series defeat on home soil.Australia have not lost a home series since going down 2-1 to West Indies in 1992-93.
Re: SOUTH AFRICA WIN
by IndiaRocks on Dec 30, 2008 08:52 AM
How often have we seen Australia suffer demoralising back-to-back defeats? They've won two of their last Tests. The end of an era? Australia have been hit by injuries and slumps and the injury epidemic - Andrew Symonds has a knee problem and Shane Watson will be out for up to six months with back stress fractures - will ensure there are significant changes for Sydney. Australia only took 25 wickets in four innings and had very little chance to put pressure on the batsmen despite bowling on a wearing fifth day pitch.
I strongly feel that cricket would be muck more interesting with Aussies becoming a much weaker team. I strongly agree that with the likes of Shane Warne, Glen McGrath, Adam Gilchirst they were the true champions. Indians were also very strong on cards with the likes of Sachin, Saurav, Dravid, Laxman in the team, but failed to be consistant (Or raise the level of their games to beat the world's best). India has definitely improved their games over the past couple of years. But If Aussies were still the same team which it was 2 years ago, we would have had a real tough challenge in the last series. If India hadn't got into all those controversies and had played their normal game with bat and ball, we could have managed to come back with a series vistory in Australia. But to be frank, I didn't enjoy the win against Aussies as they are much weaker team. I would have loved to see Sehwag, Gambir taking Glen McGrath and Jason Gillespie's attack apart. I really hope India can make it to the top with Aussie's current form and stay there for a while and give other teams a tough time like what Aussies did for the past decade or so...
Re: Decline of an Era?
by umesh desai on Dec 30, 2008 08:10 AM
but india should learn from aussie mistakes we shold breed one or two oung guns along with fab-3 each game.
Re: Re: Decline of an Era?
by srikanth padmakumar on Dec 30, 2008 10:53 AM
That's true. And I am really happy to see that the Team Management and BCCI for the first time is talking and making sense. They are not dumping any of the bowlers who cud be a potential match winner on a given day... Look at the way they are handling Senior Pros like Sachin, Bhajji, Zaheer Khan, Dhoni, Yuvraj and Freshers like Ishant, Gambhir etc. They are striking a balance and is willing to give enough chances to the players when they go out of form to come back. One thing that might change the future of Indian cricket is the selector's willingness to send the senior players also back to drawing board to get their basics right. I understand that Sachin was given a priority considering the amount of sentiments the nation has for him. Initially I though Greg Chappel is taking India in the right path. But he didn want the Senior pros in the team which would have resulted in a less experienced team which could have gone either ways.. But the blend of youth and experience is getting Team India the results no matter whether it's in Test matches or One dayers.
Australians are no where near what they were. I remember a statement made by the Aussie vice-captain Michael Clarke after the retirement of McGrath, Warne, Langer, and Martin; that Australia can no more afford to win consistently in all forms of the game, as some of the greatest players of the game are leaving the scene. All Aussie players agreed to it. But Indians didn't. They still consider the Australians are as powerful as before, and considers the victory against them as the greatest. Now South Africans are making he most of a really depleted Australian attack. All great teams of the past have suffered the same fate, and this is for sure to continue in the future. But one gets the feeling that Australia, unlike the West Indies will come out of this testing period sooner than later.
Re: Michael Clarke was right.
by vijay M on Dec 30, 2008 01:52 AM
Wow...you really think you can get away with whatever you write here, dont you ? I can clearly remember Harbhajan saying this pretty in much every interview he gave before and during the test series against Australia in India. Also Zaheer said this many times during press conferences. Rest of the team probably knew they were playing against a weaker Aussie side but didnt say anything about it. They just let their performance do the talking and won the series 2-0, a first against any Aussie team for India. You people dont let up any opportunity to bash Indian team, do you ? Jealous, perhaps ?
Re: Re: Michael Clarke was right.
by Basker Mathrubootham on Dec 30, 2008 05:30 AM
India defeated Australia 2-0 ina 6 test series in 1979. The team was led by Kim Hughes. India won in Kanpur and Bombay. This is the second time India has won 2-0.
This downfall of Australia will prolong.It was all started by India when the toured down under.Then the Aussies toured India,where India won convincingly.Then came the South Africans who have shown they are a side to reckon with.Their bowling attack can be compared to the likes of Westindies in the early 80's.They are a very formidable side.India and SAF are the only sides that can challenge Australia's supremacy.It would be a great contest when Australia's tours England for next year's Ashes.But I feel they might miss Haydos.
