Cricket..

What a great series - well, if you are an Australian cricket fan anyway. We comprehensively thrashed the world XI again - It seems to me that the old adage: A champion team will always beat a team of champions rings true - certainly when that champion team has just got back from a series defeat in the Ashes.

Gilly was back to his best with the bat, the loss (dropping) of Hayden hasn't hurt too much - I thought Martyn was on thin ice after his first match duck, but he came back to put together a 50-odd and 30-odd last night. It looks like Mike Hussey is going to be a player, very much in the mould of a Bevan, he's a nudger/accumulator, and accelerates when the time is right - He and Watson got us from 5/150 odd, up to 294 by the end of the innings. It seemed to be just too much for the World XI, who really struggled to get partnerships going - Brett Lee was fiery and hostile from the opening, removing Gayle in the first over. That set the tone for the fielding innings, and Glenn McGrath was metrononic as always. I was really impressed with Pidg's "Pitch Map", which basically has all of this deliveries landing in the same area. Brilliant bowling.

Here's hoping that this Friday's "Super Test" can be just as good a match. If it comes close to any of the Ashes test matches, then we will all be satisfied with the concept.