Australia

Leg-spin terrors Stuart MacGill and Shane Warne spun Australia to a comprehensive 210-run victory over the World XI in the Super Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Monday. The Australians wrapped up another conclusive triumph following last week’s 3-0 clean sweep of the one-dayers, ending the match just over an hour after lunch on the fourth day of the scheduled six-day Test.

Andrew Flintoff and Muttiah Muralitharan triggered an Australian batting collapse of 5-30 off 17 overs to give the World XI a glimmer of hope for a come-from-behind victory in the Super Test in Sydney on Sunday. Australia were travelling smoothly at 164 for two at lunch, but wickets clattered after the interval.

Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill bamboozled the world all-stars with their tandem leg-spin attack to put Australia in command on the second day of the Super Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Saturday. Warne, introduced after 24 overs, struck three times in the middle session.

Matthew Hayden defied attempts to pension him out of the Australian Test team with a fighting century to lead his country into a strong position after the opening day of the six-day Super Test against the World XI in Sydney on Friday. Hayden’s position has been under threat after a below-par Ashes campaign against England.

Cricket technology intervened to give the World XI two crucial Australian wickets on a history-making opening day of the Super Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday. Michael Clarke became the first batsman given out in Test cricket by the video umpire Darrell Hair midway through the afternoon session to a bat-pad catch off spinner Daniel Vettori for 39.

Pakistan fast-bowler Shoaib Akhtar was on Thursday left out of the World team 12 for the Super Test against Australia starting at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday. World skipper Graeme Smith will finalise his starting team before the start of play in the one-off, six-day Test.

An Australian bank clerk who kept quiet about cash he found in the street was told by a Sydney court on Tuesday he might have got to keep the Aus 000 (R1,3-million) if he had been honest and reported his find to police. Sean Clifford (23) was instead found guilty of ”larceny by finding”.

The advent of male impotency drugs has brought unexpected benefits to the animal kingdom, which no longer needs to sacrifice seals, deer and turtles to make traditional cures for erectile dysfunction. A survey of 256 men who used traditional Chinese medicine to cure their ailments found that when it came to sexual problems, more men were switching to pharmaceutical products.

Eating chillis regularly could help people get a good night’s sleep and keep their hearts healthy, an Australian university study has found. Researchers at the University of Tasmania spent the past 18 months studying the potential health benefits of chillies on a group of 10 volunteers, national radio reported on Monday.

Skipper Graeme Smith has shrugged off the World XI’s inglorious showings in the Super Series one-dayers and has promised to lift the players’ commitment for this week’s Test match with Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The world players were booed by sections of the 30 000 crowd at Melbourne’s Docklands stadium on Sunday after they meekly succumbed to a 156-run loss to the Australians.

Australia rejected on Thursday a plan to let big-game hunters shoot crocodiles in the country’s tropical north, despite calls for a cull after three men were killed by the giant reptiles and a 10-year-old girl was attacked. Saltwater crocodiles, which can grow up to 7m long and weigh more than a tonne, have been protected since the early 1970s.

New franchises Western Force and Central Cheetahs have received home games in the opening round of next season’s expanded Super 14 provincial rugby series, which starts next February. The draw was released on Wednesday by Sanzar, the board representing the South African, New Zealand and Australian rugby unions

The lack of depth in Australian tennis will be put to the test in the opening round of next year’s Davis Cup teams competition in Switzerland. The Australians, 28-time winners of the tournament, have fallen on hard times with only journeyman Wayne Arthurs (97) ranked inside the top-100 to support world number five Lleyton Hewitt.

An Australian man has told how he was almost crushed to death after waking up in a garbage-compactor truck following a night out at the pub. Police said closed-circuit television footage showed three men dumping the retail manager in an industrial bin, which was then emptied into the truck.

Increasing numbers of Australia’s famously macho men are showing surprising metrosexual tendencies, ditching competitive exercise for the meditative calm of yoga. ”We are getting the rugby players, the body builders, the gym junkie guys,” says yoga teacher Duncan Peak, a former parachute officer and first-grade rugby player.

Wallabies centre Stirling Mortlock and prop Bill Young were dropped on Tuesday from the squad to tour Europe in November and told to work on their conditioning. The pair’s exclusion comes after hooker Jeremey Paul was ruled out of the tour earlier this week because of a neck injury and rookie forward Al Kanaar’s three month suspension for stomping on an opponent’s head.