The Pommie Baiter - Part 8

That should silence the Dad's Army jibes, at least

until Thursday week when the sides breeze into Perth to shame the Fremantle Doctor. Tired and jaded. Not the ageing Aussies but me.

If it was draining for the men out in the middle, spare a thought for those watching at home. You might have had the luxury of home comforts - yet it was anything but.

Read more:

The Pommie Baiter - Part 1

The Pommie Baiter - Part 2

The Pommie Baiter - Part 3

The Pommie Baiter - Part 4

The Pommie Baiter - Part 5

The Pommie Baiter - Part 6

The Pommie Baiter - Part 7

Not until very late in the afternoon - the English missus had long given up the ghost and was snoring away on the couch - could think you were watching something special.

You try your best not to gloat... but stuff it,

we've earned the right. Now it's done and dusted you want to invite a few Poms around to savour it again and again, telling them you were always confident that Punter's boys would come through and England would fold like a pack of old cards.

You sensed from the moment Andrew Strauss was unlucky to be adjudged caught out off Warney, that something was in the wind, but dared not get too confident. Those who poked fun and tormented Warney with jibes about being washed up after he failed to land a blow in the first innings, were silenced as good as an assassin's gun.

Of all the Test matches I have seen, I can't

recall Australia suffocating the opposition to such an extent. Gordon Brown must have been salivating at the economy. It was like a cat toying with a mouse before tiring of it all and moving in for the kill.

It was ruthless Australia at their very best and, if Punter was outsmarted by Vaughany last year, then he got his own back by outmanoeuvring Freddy with a clinical efficiency that ended up embarrassing the tourists.

As good an all-rounder Freddy is, he can't carry an attack that contains two players - Giles and Anderson - who have hardly played in recent times due to injury and Harmy, who just simply isn't good enough to lace to the boots of too many fast bowlers, is no reliable match-winner, no matter how much the English keep talking him up.

For an Aussie fan this is as good as it gets.

Forget finally winning a series in India. Most would shovel shit for a week to see the Poms take a battering on their front porch. If Warne was exceptional, what about Lee, who gave Harmy a few lessons on how to get back into form when things are not going right? No fuss, just get on with it.

And to think that the Aussies dished out the grief to the Poms with Pigeon taking a back seat until late in the proceedings.

Punter says it was up there with his very best

victories and you could see how much this series

meant to him from the first ball he faced at the

Gabba.

Michael Hussey showed again the errors of the selectors for not bringing him on to the

international stage well before they did. To think that they went for Katich before him is laughable.

And Fletch, my son, what have you done? Everyone told you Panesar would have been a better bet than Giles, but no way were you going to budge.

The difference in class between Giles and Warney on a final day-turning wicket was there for all to see. In racing terms Warney had past the post and Giles hadn't even reached Swinley Bottom.

It must have been some night on the tiles in Adelaide for Punter. It is doubtful whether a victory has been sweeter for Australia's skipper and man of the match.

It wasn't just the Poms he proved wrong, but some of the home supporters, including the media who were only too happy to join the queue to pension his players off.