November 1993: Nelson Mandela ratified South Africa’s first democratic constitution, John Major and John Smith were arguing across the Commons floor and Norwich City gloriously dumped Bayern Munich out of the UEFA Cup. It was also the last time Australia had to bounce back from a home Test-series defeat. Now, 16 years later, Australia will be attempting to do so again. It’s been a long time.

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Daniel Vettori’s batting heroics – the poor bloke has just made 99 against Pakistan in Dunedin – are a sign of the times. It’s true that Vettori is exceptional even by the standards of the 21st-century lower-order batsman: that innings made him the highest-grossing No.8 in Test history, with 2,018 runs, including three hundreds, at the luxuriant average of almost 44. But the very fact that we are no longer able to refer to these one-time whipping-boys as the “tail” without being ticked off by an indignant coach tells its own story.

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