Sweet Sixteen

Yesterday Ricky Ponting’s Australians completed a comprehensive thrashing of India that took their current win streak to 15-0. Today, Tom Brady’s Patriots took their own winning streak to 16-0, equaling the perfect regular season record of the 1972 Miami Dolphins. The Australians take the field again on Tuesday. A second win over India will take them to 16-0, which will equal the current world record for consecutive test match victories held by Steve Waugh’s Australian side. The Patriots, of course, have the playoff games to come, and hope to match the Dolphins by staying undefeated through to the Superbowl. It will be interesting to see which side cracks first.

For the benefit of the uninitiated, test match cricket is a sport in which many matches end in a draw. Winning a test match is a much harder feat than winning an NFL game. On the other hand, Ponting and his team don’t have to worry about salary caps and drafts and all the other tricks that the NFL uses to try to prevent dynasties from developing. As long as Australia keeps breeding top class cricketers they can expect to continue their dominance of the world game.