I was just about to congratulate Andrew Symonds for being the first non-white person to score a Test century for Australia in men's cricket. Of course, he's the second... one Jason Gillespie beat him to the punch by eight months.

Still, it's testimony to the conservative, imperial institution that Australian cricket has been over the past century and a half. It's getting better - very, very slowly.

Notwithstanding all of the passive support from Rudi Koertzen, the 279-run partnership between Symonds and Matty Hayden is yet another highlight of this disappointingly one-sided series. I haven't looked deeply into this yet, but I am wondering if this is the biggest Test partnership by two batsmen from Queensland.

And yes I know Roy's a Birmingham lad, but he wasn't exactly Midwinter'd by the Aussies, was he?

Speaking of the greatest act of player poaching in cricket history brings me to today's Midwinter-Midwinter votes - Matthew Hayden 3 pts; Andrew Symonds 2 pts; Andrew Flintoff 1 pt.

Coming up tomorrow: are we watching Warnie's last knock on his native sod?