India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

The clouds of despair have engulfed Australian cricket in the wake of defeat in the Adelaide Test, so much so, that cricket pundits are of the view that on evidence of performance currently shown, Ricky Ponting's side would even find it hard to beat Bangladesh. A Sydney Morning Herald report has said that while there is some hope that Australia can win the series, the idea of Ricky Ponting and his demoralised battlers halting the English juggernaut "is like putting a toothpick on the tracks in the hope of derailing a speeding bullet train." "The final two days at Adelaide, we were assured, was when we would find out what this Australian team was made of. The results are not yet back from the lab, but it seems to be some sort of gooey, soft-centred material that melts rapidly when heat is applied, is easily removed from flat surfaces, does not bounce or spin and which stinks to high heaven," says the SMH report. It further says that Australia should not be disappointed by their dismal performance in Adelaide, but should be chastened, humiliated and utterly sick to the stomach, not merely "because their ineptitude means the closest they will get to holding the Ashes is on a sightseeing tour at Lord's, but because they allowed the Barmy Army to complete the most chilling invasion of Australian soil since Japanese bombs rained down on Darwin." According to the SMH, Australians will now spending their time and energy on the "savage second-guessing of the selectors, our black humour and, for English friends, our overflowing message banks."

On current form, Aussies would be lucky to beat even Bangladesh: SMH