Australia’s Decade Long Dominance in World Cricket Fading Away?

There has been a growing concern in world cricket that Australia’s dominance over the world is fading away day by day. After the loss in the test series in India, Australia has recently lost the first test against South Africa in the ongoing home test series. The 6-wicket defeat in Perth is seen as a threat to Australia’s dominance decade long dominance in the cricket world. South Africa posted an excellent 6-wicket victory in the Perth test, successfully chasing the second highest fourth innings target of 414 run in test cricket.

The most important thing is that South African batsmen did not have to struggle to chase down the big total thanks to centuries from Captain Graeme Smith and AB de Villiers. Australian veteran pacer Brett Lee has been criticized for being failed to make his impact felt in the match, while fellow pacer Mitchell Johnson took 11 wickets in which 8 were taken in the first innings for 61. Andrew Hilditch, chairman of selection panel, thinks Brett Lee is very close to be back to his test and to do that he needs to bowl at 140-145 (km/h).

Man of the match AB de Villiers was full of praise about debutant JP Duminy, with whom he shared a 111-run unbeaten stand for the fifth wicket, in the post-match press conference. Captain Smith expressed his pride for both AB de Villiers and JP Duminy, who was not out on 50. The second test kicks off from 26 December in Melbourne. South Africa knows it very well that a victory in Melbourne would ensure their first ever test series win in Australia and it would also take them closer to the top spot in the test ranking. South Africa can replace Australia from the top of the test ranking by winning all the matches in the series.

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(This entry was originally published on Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008)