AUSTRALIA VS. AUSTRALIA

Friday: Australia beat Pakistan by 135 runs at Perth to go 4-0 up in the series. Saturday: Australia U-19 beat Pakistan U-19 at Lincoln to lift the Cricket World U-19 Cup Champions title. Sunday: Will Australia again manage to beat Pakistan at Perth to complete a whitewash?

As I had predicted in a previous blog, the U-19 match was a far better contest than the senior one. I think I should put it differently. The U-19 match was atleast a contest, the match at Perth was far from it. No one realistically expected Pakistan to beat Australia in either in Tests or ODIs. I would have thought that this situation will allow them to play a lot more freely and we could have had an exciting series.

In the end, I am forced to conclude just one thing: I should stop making predictions about anything involving Pakistan cricket. Even Nostradamus wouldn't have gotten them right.

All said and done, I have to congratulate Australia's U-19 team as well as Pakistan's U-19 team for their fine performance in the World Cup. Australia's situation scares me. Australia is winning matches consistently by playing a second- or even a third-string bowling attack. And now, their juniors have proven that when their time arrives, they'll be worthy successors.

Are we going to have an end to the era of Aussie domination? Or is it likely to continue even longer? At this rate, Australia can easily field two squads in the next World Cup and end up having a Final match between each other. Then, the cricket rankings will say that the No. 1 ODI team in the world is Australia (1st String), No. 2 is Australia (2nd String), followed by the rest of the cricketing world.