CRICKET/Australia v India, third Test:Australia's players were still coming to terms with their shock loss to India in the third Test, but scoffed at suggestions their dominance of the world game was drawing to an end.
India won the match by 72 runs with a day to spare on Saturday to hand the Australians their first Test defeat in nearly two-and-a-half years and their first loss on home soil since 2003.
The loss also shattered Australia's attempt to set a record for consecutive Test wins after they had won 16 in a row, including the first two of this series against India.
Fast bowler Stuart Clark, who made his Test debut when Australia's 16-match winning streak began against South Africa in Cape Town in March 2006, said all the players were hurt by the defeat.
"Anytime you lose anything, whether it's game of cricket or a game of tiddlywinks, it's disappointing," Clark said yesterday. "This loss hurts as much as any other loss, obviously there would have been a nice record at the end of this, but losing's losing. It's a horrible feeling.
"It doesn't matter whether it's a one-dayer or Twenty20 or Test cricket, it's not a great feeling and it drives a lot of us to make sure it doesn't happen again."
Australia are still in a rebuilding process after Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Justin Langer and Damien Martyn retired last season, and for most of the current team it was the first time they had experienced defeat in a Test.
Local media said the result was another sign that Australia's grip on world cricket was loosening after a few cracks had emerged in a side that have dominated for the past decade.
They lost the Ashes to England in 2005, although they regained them at home the following season, and despite their long sequence of wins, they have struggled to fill the void left by the retirements of Warne and McGrath.
Australia lead the four-match series 2-1 ahead of the final Test in Adelaide which starts on Thursday.
But India's victory was a major triumph for their quietly spoken captain Anil Kumble. The 37-year-old is in the twilight of his career but is playing some of the best cricket of his life at an age where many of his contemporaries have hung up their bat.
During the match, he joined Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne as the only bowlers to take more than 600 test wickets and enhanced his reputation as a leader.
Kumble led his team to a series win over Pakistan and emerged with a reputation of a statesman after the bitter ending to the Sydney test. He let his feelings known about the onfield behaviour of Australia's players when he said only one team had played the match in the right spirit."I have definitely learned that in all this, it's important to just be calm and ensure you take the right decisions," he said. "Ultimately the game is bigger than anyone else and if you base your decisions on the game then you'll never go wrong."
The pressure of captaining India has sometimes been a burden that some of the country's top players have struggled to cope with but Kumble said he was relishing the role after his unexpected promotion.
"It's been really special," he said. "Having the challenge of beating Pakistan at home, which had not happened for about 25 years, and then coming on this challenging tour of Australia and all that has happened in the past couple of weeks.
"I've really enjoyed it and I've had some tremendous support from all the team."
Indian selectors have dropped experienced batsman Saurav Ganguly for next month's triangular series in Australia, which also includes Sri Lanka.
Rahul Dravid was also left out as selectors opted for youth in a 16-man squad, with left-handed batsman Suresh Raina earning a recall after a year out of the team following some fine domestic performances.
Meanwhile, in South Africa yesterday, JP Duminy scored a career-best 79 not out to guide the Proteas to a six-wicket victory over West Indies in the first game of their five-match one-day series. South Africa won with 12 balls to spare after scoring 176 for four in reply to West Indies' total of 175. Rain reduced the match to 36 overs a side.
Seamer Shaun Pollock led South Africa's efficient bowling performance with a return of 1-19 from seven overs as West Indies, who were put into bat, were dismissed with a ball remaining in their innings.
South Africa-West Indies scoreboard in SPORTS ROUND-UP
Scoreboard
Overnight: India 330 (R Dravid 93, S Tendulkar 71; M Johnson 4-86) and 294 (VVS Laxman 79; S Clark 4-61). Australia 212 (A Symonds 66, A Gilchrist 55; RP Singh 4-68) and 65-2.
Australia Second Innings
R Ponting c Dravid b I Sharma 45
M Hussey lbw b R P Singh 46
M Clarke st Dhoni b Kumble 81
A Symonds lbw b Kumble 12
A Gilchrist b Sehwag 15
B Lee c Laxman b Sehwag 0
M Johnson not out 50
S Clark c Dhoni b Pathan 32
S Tait b R P Singh 4
Extras (lb6 w8 nb10)24
Total (86.5 overs) 340
Fall of wickets: 1-21, 2-43, 3-117, 4-159, 5-177, 6-227, 7-229, 8-253, 9-326.
Bowling: RP Singh 21.5-4-95-2, Pathan 16-2-54-3, Sharma 17-0-63-1, Kumble 24-2-98-2, Sehwag 8-1-24-2.
India beat Australia by 72 runs
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