Michael Hussey is utterly depressed and so are his team! In the absence of Ricky Ponting, he has led the Australians to their first series whitewash in a very long. Personally, I don't remember having witnessed the Aussies  whitewashed by any team before.

Australia scored 300-plus runs twice yet were well and truly beaten by a confident New Zealand team. In the last of the three-match Chappell-Hadlee Trophy series, Hussey and Co posted a mammoth total of 346 for five, mainly due to the herculean effort of Matthew Hayden, who remained unbeaten on 181, the highest score by an Australian in ODIs.

Hussey would have been confident of a face-saving victory when New Zealand were 41 for four. Never in his wildest dreams would he have thought that he would be captaining the losing side at that juncture. Well, according to legend "Man proposes and God disposes" - and the disposal came in the form of three brilliant knocks by Peter Fulton, Brendan McCullum and Craig McMillan, who scored 51, 117 and 86 respectively.

From those early reverses, New Zealand went on to smash the Aussie bowlers to all corners of the ground as they made 350 for nine. In the very last over the required seven runs to win. Nathan Bracken bowled the last over and McCullum struck a superb six and four to seal the match in favour of the Kiwis with three balls to spare.

And there is more bad news for Australia. In accumulating his fabulous 181, Hayden broke his big toe and wll require more scans before it is decided whether or not he will be fit for the World Cup next month. "I am having scans on Monday and then, hopefully, I will be in a clearer position," the 35-year-old said.

But don't be too quick to write off Australia in the World Cup. The services of Brett Lee, Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and Andrew Symonds were missing in this Trans-Tasman Series. In the World Cup three of these players, and perhaps Symonds, will be back, so the results could be different. This double series loss for Australia is good for world cricket and now every team believe they have a chance to win.