The decade in Australian Cricket

It's been an eventful decade for Australian Cricket.

I've selected an eleven, a "team" if you will, of the most memorable moments in Australian Cricket during the noughties.

1. McGrath's hat-trick

Also including a first ball dismissal of Brian Lara for his 300th Test wicket, McGrath snared Jimmy Adams with a softer-than-melted-ice-cream dismissal for his hat trick. This played part of an incredble 5-0 whitewash of the West Indies in the last full-length Frank Worrell Trophy series to be played in Australia.

The West Indies would the first two Tests by an innings despite Australia not scoring 400 in either match, and eventually the West Indies would manage only three innings scores of over 200.

2. Laxman and Dravid bat and bat and bat and bat...

Australia had won 16 Tests in a row when they went to Calcutta to extend their streak and finally win a series on Indian soil. After securing a massive 274 run lead on the first innings, Steve Waugh's confidence got the better of him and he enforced the follow-on before lunch on day 3.

VVS Laxman was joined by Rahul Dravid shortly before tea on Day 3, India still in arrears by 42 runs, and looking at the possibility of a humiliating defeat. They batted out day 3, all of day 4 and into day 5, putting on 376 for the fifth wicket, and leaving India in a position of dominance. India would win the Test Match, the Third Test and the series, and Steve Waugh would never play another Test Series in India again.

3. Steve Waugh's 100 - New Years, 2003

Steve Waugh was under incredible pressure to keep his spot in the Australian side when the Aussies and England travelled to the SCG for the last Ashes Test of the summer. He had been replaced as ODI captain eleven months before, seen his brother's international career ended before The Ashes, and had struggled through a summer topped off by a gruelling and laborious knock in Melbourne while suffering from severe pain in his mouth.

And so he came out and raced to a good score on the second day of the Fifth Test, and with time running out in the day, Waugh hit Richard Dawson to the extra cover boundary with the last ball of the day to record a career-saving hundred.

What everyone forgets is that Waugh was out in the first over the next morning, and Australia lost the match.

4. Symonds and Ponting bookend a remarkable World Cup

At the start of the 2003 World Cup, things were falling apart for the Aussies. A concerted media campaign to replace an out-of-form Andrew Symonds in the Cup squad with Steve Waugh had failed. Darren Lehmann had racially villified his Sri Lankan opponents in the Tri-Series in Australia, and had been suspended. Michael Bevan was recovering from an injury, and promising youngster Shane Watson had been ruled out with stress fractures in his back.

But the bombshell that would come with Shane Warne, playing in his last ODI tournament, being banned for taking a prohibited diuretic, right before the opening game of the tournament for the Aussies.

The Australians, playing a Pakistan team led by Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar, were in early trouble before the maligned Andrew Symonds played one of the greatest ODI innings ever, scoring 145 and setting the tone for a tournament where the Australians would remain unvanquished.

In the final against India, captain Ricky Ponting made his own nominee for the greatest ODI knock of all time with 140, as he hit India's attack all around Wanderers Stadium.

5. The Greatest Test of All Time

McGrath rolls his ankle before the match. Ponting wins the toss and bowls. England makes 407 in less than 80 overs. Australia collapse from 3/194 to 308 all out. Warne bowls Strauss with one of the best balls ever bowled. He takes 6/46 to restore Australia's chances. Australia need 282 for victory.

Australia collapse to 7/137. Warne joins Michael Clarke. They put on 38 before Harmison bowls Clarke. Lee comes out to bat to start day 4. There will be no day 5. Warne and Lee put on 45. Warne treads on his wicket, leaving Australia 62 runs short of victory with one wicket in hand. Kasprowicz joins Lee. They edge closer. Three runs short of victory, Flintoff bowls one short down the leg side. Kasprowicz gloves the ball. Jones dives to his left. He holds the catch. Flintoff consoles Lee. England win by 2 runs.

6. Gilchrist's 100 in Perth v England

To see this innings was to see Gilchrist, his powers beginning to deteriorate, at his punishing best. He lofted Monty Panasar into the stands at the WACA three times in the one over, each six longer and deeper into the crowd than the last. He falls agonisingly short to the quickest hundred in Test history when Matthew Hoggard decides to play spoiler and send one so wide Gilchrist could hardly reach it.

Gilchrist's 100 help decisively swing the Test Match to the Aussies, and when Warne clean bowls Monty Panasar two days later, The Ashes were back in Australia's grasp.

7. Warne's 700th Wicket

Just a few days later on one of those cold, wintry days you can only get in Melbourne in December, Shane Keith Warne, at his spiritual home, the Melbourne Cricket Ground, clean bowled Andrew Strauss to claim his 700th Test wicket, on Boxing Day no less. Warne was the first cricketer to take 700 Test wickets. He would play only one more test, as Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer all retired after the final Ashes Test.

8. Another World Cup Triumph

The 2007 World Cup was, on almost any measure, an unmitigated disaster. Despite a schedule designed to ensure the eight best teams in the world made the Super Eights, Pakistan and India were beaten by Ireland and Bangladesh respectively and knocked out of the tournament. Pakistan's coach Bob Woolmer died within 24 hours of the shock loss to the Irish. And, of course, the debacle of the final finishing in almost total darkness.

However, for the second straight World Cup, the Aussies didn't lose a game, extending their unbeaten run at World Cups to 28 matches. And Adam Gilchrist played one final incredible innings, hitting Sri Lanka to every corner of the park.

9. Ugliness in Sydney

The turning point of Australian dominance in World Cricket was almost the most unseemly event in the game this decade. Harbhajan Singh, long a tormenter of the Australian side, allegedly repeated an ethnic slur at Andrew Symonds, and this was heard by his good mate Matthew Hayden. Singh is reported, but the controversy boils over when coupled with numerous dubious umpiring decisions, overall hostility between the two teams, and a knife-edge Australian victory which doubles as the 16th victory in a record-equalling streak.

Suddenly, the Australian Cricket Team are villians, and cricket becomes the latest frontline in the culture wars, as it is suggested that our cricketers are reflections of nearly all that is bad about our racist, petulant society.

India, not satisfied that some is being chided for petulance, threaten to end the series and go home if Singh does not have his suspension for his racial abuse overturned. Eventually, a mealy-mouthed alternative is devised that sees Singh fined for regular, garden-variety abuse.

From this point on, the Australian Cricket Team is never the same. They are quiet on the field, and over the next 20 months, lose Test Series to India, South Africa and England.

10. Sharma/Ponting

Despite the furore in Sydney, the most enthralling, must-watch session of cricket for the decade occurs in Perth in the Third Test, when Ishant Sharma, the 19 year old Indian quick, battles with Ricky Ponting for one incredible hour of Test Cricket at its absolute best.

That Ponting survived for that long is a testament to the champion that he is, but eventually Sharma claimed Ponting caught behind, and India go on to win in Perth for the first time ever.

11. Another Ashes Failure in England

The decade ended on a poor note for Australia, as they lose an Ashes Series they absolutely dominate statistically.

Pundits blame the selectors for not playing Nathan Hauritz at the Oval as the pitch turns square, but Hauritz is hardly Ashley Mallett. The most overlooked facet of the series is that Australia were one session lost to rain in Cardiff away from a squared series and retaining The Ashes. The Australian also show a propensity for spectacular batting collapses that will plague them into the new Australian summer.