Three wake-up calls, one nail-biter

Rotation, rotation, rotation, whispered the Australians. Defeat, defeat, defeat, read the scorecards. For once, the big plan wasn't working.

Not only was there not a single Australian man left in the Australian Open tennis championship, but the world champions went three straight games without a victory in their own VB series; never before has a side losing its first three games gone onto win. Despite Steve Waugh's wise words - "any side we put on the pitch, we believe we can win" - the batting line-up malfunctioned, catches were dropped - even by Ricky Ponting and Mark Waugh, Glenn McGrath was suspended for a match for dissent, and they seemed unable to build up a partnership of any length before someone fell prey to the curse of yes-no-sorry.

What was worse, they were losing against their cousins from across the water - the New Zealanders who had embarrassed them in the Test series - and to the South Africans, who were supposedly running scared after their 3-0 thrashing in the Tests.

The Waughs woke each morning to see newspapers running 'Waugh Watch', collating their collective runs over previous years and their collective failures this year. David Hookes announced that Steve Waugh, who has spent almost a year of his life playing one-day internationals, was the worst player in the side and should be dropped. Others declared that Mark Waugh should be put out to pasture, as four different opening partnerships in four games failed to ignite. There was tension between the selectors and Steve Waugh and John Buchanan - with Waugh and Buchanan favouring rotation and chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns favouring picking the strongest side.

Meanwhile the New Zealanders, unheralded and without superstars, were calling everyone's bluff. Stephen Fleming, with the calm assurance he carries everywhere, directed his young team to conjure wins out of nothing, from beating Australia in the very first match to overhauling South Africa in a nail-biter at Brisbane, thanks to one of the great up-and-over one-day centuries from Chris Cairns. A Cairns who, when Fleming was injured, won the next match - his first as captain - with ease. Shane Bond, Luke Perry lookalike James Franklin, and Daniel Vettori (who had marriage proposals flagged up at Hobart) bowled their hearts out. Meanwhile, Craig McMillan tormented Shane Warne by taking a square-leg guard and sweeping him for four while the balding Chris Harris flayed runs, took wickets with his dibbly-dobblies and threw himself into gymnastic catches.

The South Africans were fired up by Shaun Pollock who dismissed Adam Gilchrist with his first ball of the series and, pumping his fists like an over-fuelled steam-engine, tried to re-enthuse his demoralised team. Allan Donald was either out of sorts or injured, but the performances of Makhaya Ntini, who bowled with venom and targeted both Steve Waugh and Fleming like a malicious puppeteer, had even Richie Benaud purring. South Africa seemed to be finding strength from their supremacy in the one-day game until Jonty Rhodes jinxed them with a "we're the best in the world" statement before the double-header on the second weekend in which they lost both matches.

The saddest thing on view was Lance Klusener, whose sparkle has blown away in the wind. Once able to dispatch missiles with a heave of those tree-trunk arms, he now walks out with his head bowed, able only to push singles. Also on trial was the MCG crowd, notorious for its love affair with alcohol and knuckle-sandwiches. Fighting broke out during the first game and a man was hospitalised. As a result, a highly ineffective ban was imposed on the Mexican wave, and the future of the ground as a one-day venue was said to be under threat. Australia eventually won a game, against South Africa, thanks to a classy century from Damien Martyn - at last in the right place in the batting order at No. 4. The next day, Australia swept the board at the Golden Globes. Like the 1999 World Cup, they may just be taking a long time to warm up.