Wednesday 13 October 2010

Australia prop up the ICC test league

India has completed a 2-0 whitewash of Australia – if you can call 2-0 a whitewash. Do all the people on the planet who think two test series are a good idea happen to work for cricket boards? The first test was quite even and, really, Australia should have won. India, chasing 216 was 124-8 before Laxman, Sharma and Ojha turned it around. The second match was fairly even until half way through the Australian second innings at which point they subsided from 126-2 to 223 all out.

Amazingly the loss to India means that Australia are ranked 5th in the world – behind England. 5th! How the mighty have fallen. What does this tell us about the upcoming Ashes series? No much. England is going to struggle to take wickets on flat tracks. Australia’s mediocrity will be lifted by being at home. Hopefully it will be a close series – hopefully the closeness will hide the dearth of talent on show.