And it can be argued that, once Anil Kumble and his Frontiersmen came calling, just the possibility of defeat became too difficult for him and his team to handle.

In Sydney, the trouble — not just for Indians in a partisan manner, but anyone out to enjoy a good five days of cricket — was not that Australia won because of umpiring errors. It was that they became defensive about those errors, errors not of their own making. Australia too obviously wanted to be rightful winners of that match — they had no plan B in mind.

That is what showed when Ponting, the winning man, became rude and indignant at a post-match press conference. It showed when their keeper, Adam Gilchrist, the man who famously walked in the 2003 World Cup, gave a humourless defence of his appeals — unsubstantial appeals that come naturally to other wicketkeepers, but have not usually to him.

That defensiveness is comforting. It hints to those of us who have respected Australian cricket that they knew they had gone too far in Sydney, on and off the field. It also makes sense — in a way that we may never be able to prove — that Kumble bowled an unplayable one when he decided to drop charges against Brad Hogg for abusive behaviour.

Because could that act of sportsmanship and the win today bring back to us at Perth an Australia we once knew? An Australian team that’s tough but still knows that cricket is, in the end, still a game? A game that is there sometimes for the losing. Who would have thought India would compel Ponting to say, “We haven’t been good enough.”

... contd.