All's well when it ends this well!

Ricky Ponting's Team Australia's unbreakable run that lasted over 24 months has ended. Finally some would say. And how, is I am pretty sure is the popular sentiment.

This India-Australia series so far, has been a great leveller of sorts. If Sydney Test was a moral victory for India, the Perth 'Pathaaka' like a TV Channel (and don't we all love those chaps' penchant for sensationalising every passing moment in time that they call news), was a victory for the game of cricket.

Beginning with the days of the bearded ol' egg, through the years when a certain Australian made runners out of cricket fielders, to the days of that Gentle Giant from the Caribbean, cricket has been one of aggression between the bat and the ball. Never between the ones who hold one of these.

But over the years, in the name of a bit of a chat, or any other thing one would want to call it, the interaction between the players have been taking up more newsprint than the one between the, like I said earlier, bat and ball. Things like family lineage, wives' loyalties being questioned rather rudely, children's eatables landing up on the pitch, momentarily forgetting the basics of what constitutes a catch, and even imagining oneself to be a batsman, captain and for God's sake, an umpire as well in one match. Tchah!

I think some gentlemen (yeah, yeah) from certain teams (yeah, yeah you know which ones they are), thought no end of themselves. Till this end arrived. Through a famous victory for the Indian team. And a satisfying one for the game of cricket on this day at Perth, Australia. An end which to every right-minded cricket follower fell into place pretty well. With one full day of cricket to spare.

While the Indians I am sure are congratulating fellow team members, I would be surprised if Headmaster Ricky Ponting is not giving a dressing down, spanking or even having a 'bit of a chat' with the supposedly world's best winners and undoubtedly the world's worst losers.

So, till Adelaide, it's 'better luck next time Ricky'. Make that Ricky Panting, or Ricky Ranting, or even Ricky Panting who possibly is now Ranting. But surely, no longer raving.