The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the equal oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877. In 1882 a crucial match was played between Australia and England at the Oval during the fourth innings of which Fred Spofforth took 7 wickets for 44 runs and prevented England to reach the target of 85 runs. During the 1980s many key players retired and the performance of the team was commonplace. Later under Allan Border as the captain the team restructured. The most successful period for Australia was the 1990s and the modern era during which they were unbeaten in the Ashes series and completed a hat-trick of winning the World cups.

While playing against India the 2001 series was lost by Australia by a score of 2-1. In 2003-04 India toured Australia the series was drawn 1-1 and Australia was very close to a win as they had scored a national record of 705 however failed to enforce a follow-on. Later in the same year Australia under the captaincy of Adam Gilchrist were triumphant in India by a score of 2-1 for the first time in 35 years.

In the 2005 Ashes tour to England, Australia lost test series to the England national team for the first time since 1986-87. The International Cricket Council (ICC) gave permission for a three match one day series and one Test match in 2005 which would be contested between an internationally chosen Rest of the World XI and the top ranked Test and one-day international team. In April 2005 the top ranked country in both versions of the game was Australia. During this match the play of the World team was not very impressive however from the Australian side Gilchrist made seven dismissals and scored 94 in the first innings, Hayden scored 87 and 111 and Stuart McGill took 9 wickets. Eventually the Australian team won the six day Test match and the one day international series by 3-0.

Australia dominated the 2007 Cricket World Cup, remaining unbeaten through the tournament. They dominated with the bat and ball. Remarkably they lost just 42 wickets in 11 matches, while claiming 104 out of 110 of their opponents. The best batsman for the tournament was Matthew Hayden, getting three centuries and 659 runs at an average of 73.

Major achievements

Australia's highest total in a One Day International innings is 434-4 scored off 50 overs against South Africa at Johannesburg on the 12th of March 2006.
In 2007 Australia became the only team to win the World Cup 4 times and the first team in history to win it 3 times in a row.