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Sun, 20th Jan 2008  Perth:"Indians break streak again", "Golden run ends at hands of swinger kings" - ran the headlines in today's Australian newspapers after India's shock win over the home side in the Perth Test yesterday.
The Daily Telegraph doffed its hat at the Indians, while ruing the end of Australia's golden run. It said the Perth defeat was a hint that Australia couldn't take its pole position for granted. "Welcome to the future, Australian cricket fans. Welcome to a world where your team will remain among the best sides in the world but will have to work like drover's dogs to subdue their closest rivals, particularly away from home," it said.
"We have seen the end of a golden era and will have to get used to the occasional silver and bronze medal against teams ready to answer our best sledges. The fortress was attacked in Sydney and the barricades finally fell in Perth," the report read.
"The most challenging era of Ricky Ponting's captaincy starts this morning," it said, adding the team was yet to fill the void created by the retirement of a bunch of star players.
"The post Warne-McGrath adjustment that had to happen has finally kicked in. We have learned that Phil Jaques is not Justin Langer, that Shaun Tait is not yet Jason Gillespie, that Shane Warne is irreplaceable and that if you take Matthew Hayden out of the team it hurts everywhere."
The daily heaped praise on Kumble and his team. "Even as Australia despairs, world cricket is rejoicing at the discovery of a team who not only do not fear Australia but actually fancy their chances against them. No praise is high enough for an India side whose entire pace attack is younger than Tait," the newspaper said.
"Australia is being threatened by a new breed of Indian, whose confidence was embodied by a gesture from young quick Irfan Pathan yesterday, when he held his hand up to his ear to the crowd after taking the ninth wicket," the report added.
'The Age shared the sentiment and sensed a hint of decline for the hosts in the defeat. "Australia's winning streak has been stopped, and its invincibility - and that of its skipper - a bit shaken," it said.
"Suddenly, Ricky Ponting's Midas touch has become a thick outside edge. Suddenly, he has become a little susceptible in all his cricketing endeavours. Suddenly, the game has become to him as Ishant Sharma was yesterday, unexpectedly vexatious and in the end, too much," it said.
"Somehow, three Indian quicks who are all younger than Australia's youngest and had never set foot in Perth previously, exploited the local conditions better than the Australians. This as much as the result will exercise Australian minds; it hints at decline," the report said.
A nostalgic Sydney Morning Herald recalled how at the same WACA ground, he hosts had reclaimed the Ashes last summer. "A golden run has ended. For the second time, India halted an Australian Test winning sequence at 16 games. While superior batting proved the key in Kolkata in 2001, it was the Indians' mastery of swing bowling that proved the major difference in Perth..." it rued.
However, there was a section of media which struggled to digest the defeat and reacted with dented pride and hurt ego as it sought to pick holes in the visitors' emphatic win.  | 
