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Waugh all but finished

Despite our outstanding cricket and emphatic victory in the first match of the finals series, for me the moment that best indicated that we are at present an extremely powerful and successful team came when we were forced to announce that Damien Fleming would not be in our starting eleven for the match.

Flem has been an integral member of our Test and one-day sides over the past 12 months, best remembered by fans, perhaps, for his coolness under extraordinary pressure in the recent World Cup semi-final against South Africa. However, for us, we have been most grateful for his valuable and successful performances, day after day. And he will continue, I'm sure, in that role for many seasons to come. But right at the moment, with our all-rounders bowling so well and Brett Lee in such dynamic form, Flem was the unlucky guy to miss out when we picked our side to face Pakistan at the MCG. And given that we went so well in Melbourne, unless the SCG for game two is a greentop, it will be difficult now for us to change the team to fit him in.

I have been asked if I am happy with the way the team is playing at the moment, and the answer is happy, yes. But fully satisfied? Never. We want every team we're playing against to not want to face us. Our ambition is to keep improving, to the point that we have an aura of invincibility about us, similar to what the West Indies carried through the 1980s and Bradman's famous Australian side must have worn against England in the late forties.

While we thought Pakistan might have been revved up to try to get some revenge for their loss to us in the World Cup final, we came into the finals treating this series as a completely new event. Still, it was impossible afterwards not to ponder the similarities between this first final and the game at Lord's back on June 20.

Once again, Wasim Akram won the toss and sent us in. Once again, our new ball bowlers were superb, crashing through the Pakistan top order. Our fielding was top class on both occasions. Pakistan again set us a modest total, which we handled relatively comfortably. As has been their custom throughout this one-day tournament, the tourists' late order batted very well, with Moin Khan at the forefront again. This just reminded us that, whatever the scoreboard might say, Pakistan are never completely beaten.

Glenn McGrath, newly crowned with the inaugural Allan Border medal as the best Australian cricketer of the year, was magnificent, producing one of the finest opening spells I've seen in international cricket. Ironically, two weeks earlier the same Pakistani batting line-up was smashing him all over the park, but here he was fantastic. I heard afterwards that Wasim Akram reckoned Glenn must be one of the best three bowlers of the past 10 years. High praise, indeed, when you think about all the great performers of the decade - Wasim, of course, included. But who am I to disagree with the Pakistan captain's verdict?

For us, there was much to be satisfied. Brett Lee was very quick, justifying his selection, while Shane Warne was excellent, too, demonstrating conclusively that he is completely over his recent injury by producing a clever spell. And Ricky Ponting and Michael Bevan batted very well and very sensibly, defusing a potentially tricky situation when we lost Adam Gilchrist and Mark Waugh for just 27.

Now we are just one win away from completing what would have to be the most decisively successful season by an Australian team in recent years. We are extremely proud about the way we are playing, but remain fully aware that if we ease off even a fraction, then Pakistan are capable of coming back and ruining our summer.

Gameplan

Steve Waugh