16 years, Since Australia lost a home series
10 years, Since Australia have lost a test at the G.
38 years, Since SA won a series against Australia.
Never, number of times SA have beaten Aus in a series home or away since being reinstated.
2, number of times Ricky Ponting has done the unthinkable as Captain, lost the ashes and now surrendered the home fort.
10-13, number of former Australian cricketers who will have their digs at Ponting and the current Aussie team
Infinity, the number of times Jrod will want the Aussie team lined up and spanked by the bat of god Sehwag.
At least 2 or 3, the number of papers who will want Ponting stripped of the captaincy.
3-5, number of excuses Ricky will come up at the press conference.
Gazillion, number of blogs that will have a field day writing about how Australia lost and how crap they are.
11, the number of South Africans who would have created History on this day.
-Aus lost a home series in 92 to the WI, the year SA came back. So maybe its fitting that they are the first team to beat them at home since.
At the end of the day Australia will remain # 1 even after this loss. Two questions came to my mind.
Australia will be 12 points ahead of other teams even after losing this series, does it give them enough time to regroup and retain their #1 position.
Now that South Africa has beaten Australia in Australia, has it belittled India’s victory against them? Does it prove that Australia are sitting ducks right now during this transition phase?
Love the conclusion!
I’m betting on an underestimation on the number of Ponting excuses…!
wasim, give credit to India for showing the way. If not for Bucknor, India would have won a series in 2003-04 in Aus and drawn a series in Aus in 2007-08. The Sydney test marked the beginning of the end for Oz. As I said my friends that time, great teams dont dissolve overnight – they first smash everyone, then towards the end, someone comes in and holds them to a draw, then good luck and bad umpiring saves them for some time and then the sucker punch – if SL or India had gone to Australias this year, they would have won, too. Especialyl with Splendid, SL would have walked over them and Ponting wouldnt have got a century or a 50. Unfortunate that the scheduling of FTP meant that SA took the credit
[…] terribly politely; the epoch-breaking implications of this series have barely been touched on. Damith talks about it, but quietly through statistics. His prediction: “Gazillion, number of blogs […]