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All too easy for India

This was a match between two teams journeying in different directions. After a disastrous World Cup, India have revamped their one-day line-up to such an extent that they've pushed Australia to the wire in three games in the CB Series, winning one. Sri Lanka, runners-up in the Caribbean less than a year ago, have been shockingly poor, lasting the full 50 overs only in one game.

Yuvraj and the imaginary slump

Cricketing fame is a fickle beast. Two months ago, after a dazzling one-day century against Australia and a captivating Test hundred against Pakistan - not to mention those Twenty20 high jinks in South Africa - Yuvraj Singh was poised to take over the mantle from India's old guard. The tour of Australia was seen as the ideal place for the coronation, the crucible in which Yuvraj could prove that his time had truly come. Reality though bit very differently.

Last exit for an adopted hero

In all the great westerns, the hero rides off into the sunset, mission accomplished, and it was altogether fitting that Adam Gilchrist left Australian's western-most cricketing outpost a winner. That he scored a century was an additional bonus for a WACA crowd that was slow to take him to their hearts when he made the switch from New South Wales well over a decade ago.

Old master and old tricks

In South Africa last September, India proved themselves to be adept practitioners of T20 cricket, but in a rain-reduced game at the Manuka Oval in Canberra, it was one of the old pioneers of slash-and-burn batsmanship that put paid to their chances. Even as India endeavour to fashion a young side ahead of the next World Cup, Sanath Jayasuriya proved that there's still place for experience at the highest level.

The magic of Murali, the rice and dal man

As the day's play progressed, with Chaminda Vaas and Dilhara Fernando doing the early damage, you wondered when his moment would come. With Muttiah Muralitharan and Tests at home in Kandy, it's always been a matter of when, rather than if. It was almost inevitable therefore that the match would be decided by two moments of mesmerising spin bowling from a man who was once again the difference between two closely-matched sides.

Lone Rangers not enough

Another Asian tour of Australia, and another misadventure. Sri Lanka have never won a Test there, and Pakistan have to look back to the days when alternative music was king for their last triumph. It isn't very hard to explain why Australia keep winning either. Their superiority in all departments of the game was telling, and Muttiah Muralitharan's Bradmanesque bowling average (100) tells you all you need to know about how they dominated this series.

Have Australia done England a favour?

This was supposed to be the season when cricket's playing field evened out, with the retirements of Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne bringing Australia back into the fold. But after seven days at Brisbane and Hobart, the chasm between those in baggy green and the rest is as yawning as ever, with Sri Lanka in real danger of heading home on the back of two defeats by an innings.

This was to be the tour where Muttiah Muralitharan broke Shane Warne's record in his rival's backyard. Instead, he has toiled 96 overs for three wickets - still five short of Warne - that have cost him 103.33 apiece. His compatriots have fared little better.

Murali makes it a contest

Much has been made of Muttiah Muralitharan's dismal record in Australia - three wickets at 116. Most of those critics don't bother to mention that the two Tests he played were almost 12 years ago, an indictment of an international schedule that panders shamelessly to the so-called big teams. His one-day appearances in Australia during that period have been coloured by as much controversy as the Boxing Day Test of 1995, when Darrell Hair called him for throwing, and the crowds at most venues have scarcely distinguished themselves with their boorish heckling and no-ball calls.

The Gabba Gambit

Australia's tactics over the past decade haven't exactly been subtle. Soften up touring teams - usually underprepared - with a fast pitch in Brisbane, and then apply the finishing touches in front of the raucous hordes at the MCG. If that doesn't work, there's always the WACA in Perth, though the pitch there now bears little resemblance to the greased-lightning one on which Roy Fredericks smashed 169 (145 balls) against the fearsome pace of Lillee and Thomson.