With the departure of Ponting, the Aussie’s quickly crumbled, and a previously subdued England finally started to believe that — this time — they would not grasp defeat from the jaws of victory. That they would in fact, win.

Is England a better side? Statistically speaking, not really. With the exception of the leading run scorer, Andrew Strauss, six of the top seven batsmen with the most runs were Australians. The English team only scored two centuries, while the Australian’s scored eight. Again, with the bowling, the top three bowlers with the most wickets, were Australian’s and eight of the ten biggest batting partnerships were by the Australian team.

On paper, Australia looked like the better team. They have some very good players, who one could imagine, will turn into very good and consistent crickets over the next few years. But England were none the less, prevalent, despite their timid middle order and general inconsistency with the bat and ball. They will no double feel a little lucky to have one this one, given the debilitating injuries to two of their best players.

Australia’s biggest problem is the perception that they should still be a great team. Nevermind the fact that some of Australia’s best ever players have retired in recent years. The likes of Shane Warne, Glen McGrath, Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Steve Waugh, Justin Langer, Jason Gillespie and Damien Martyn can’t easily be replaced. Australia aren’t a great team anymore, they are simply a good team — and good teams don’t win 16 consecutive Test matches. Good teams are vincible.

This series defeat will hit Ponting and the Australia team hard, since they most likely think that they were the better team, but calls for Ponting to resign as Captain are reactionary and absurd. It’d be like a tired and fading marathon runner shooing themselves in the foot, in the hope that it would give them an extra burst of energy to get to the finish line. It just doesn’t make sense. He is still Australia’s best batsmen and most experienced player and using him as a scapegoat would just illustrate the Australian cricket teams decline from great to good.

The key for Australia is to realize that they are no longer invincible and that when they lose, it isn’t simply an aberration, soon to be brutally rectified with a crushing return to form in the following match, it’s a sign that maybe some batsmen or bowlers aren’t performing as well as they should and that more of a horses for courses approach needs to be taken since Australia no longer has a well rounded bowling attack that can bowl unchanged in any conditions, no matter how green or dusty.

They’re just looking for some else to blame…

They didn’t technically lose of course, no, it was a draw, but they will feel like they’ve lost, and England, as they sit in their dressing rooms patting themselves on the back, will feel like they’ve won.

Such is Cricket. When you’re on-top for the whole game and then it finishes in a draw, it’s almost more deflating than if you had’ve lost outright by 500 runs. Losing when you should have fun, isn’t fun.

The unfortunate thing for England is this. Although they might feel like they’ve won this game, they haven’t got buckley’s to show for it in the way of individual performances. As a team they might well feel like they’ve one, but as individuals, they were all losers in this game, and are in very poor shape going into the next Test.

England should bring in Steve Harmison for the next game. Apart from Flintoff their bowling is about as intimidating as a decapitated rubber duck. With Flintoff at one end and Harmison at the other,  it’ll give the Aussies something to think about.

Starting the 4th day with little hope of winning, but a good chance of getting a draw and some much needed momentum going into the 2nd Test at Lord’s,  England quickly made it clear that they weren’t much interested in doing anything other than sulking in the field and waiting for the rain to come and save them from the onslaught.

Opening the bowling with Anderson and Broad was a peculiar decision, given that the new ball wasn’t too far off and the pitch was a spinners paradise — which is handy, since you’ve got two full-time spinners in your team, for the specific purpose of bowling them on this dusty pitch… but never-mind, details, details.

To say that England’s performance on the 4th day was lacklustre, is an understatement. One got the feeling that they’d rather be at home, eating ice cream, and playing on their XBOX, rather than playing Test cricket. If only they weren’t International Cricketers, they could have taken their ball and gone home. But alas, they are International Cricketers, so we had to witness two sessions of fully grown men, sulking like School children — who’ve just been told off for stealing a cookie — wishing that the rain would just bloody well hurry up and arrive already.

England: it’s time to stop sulking, drink some concrete, and harden the f**k up.