They can dish it out but they can also take it. The Australian media, known for the withering abuse they inflict on battered opponents, has not attempted to hide or make excuses for the ten-wicket walloping yesterday. “Kiwis humiliate generation next”, was the headline on The Age, while the Herald Sun went with “Aussie side in tatters” and Fox Sports said, “Aussies limp to new low”.

The defeat, The Age said, was “one of [Australia’s] darkest days”. It continued: “To ascribe the result to the absence of key players undervalues the efforts of New Zealand and understates Australia’s growing list of problems going into the World Cup. If anything, the humbling defeat should serve notice that improvements are urgently required.” Taking into account the injuries to Brett Lee and Michael Clarke, as well as the “embarrassing” loss to England in the Commonwealth Bank Series final last week, The Australian said that “Australia’s World Cup defence has lurched deeper into crisis . . . if momentum is all-important in one-day cricket, then the world champion is in a tailspin heading to the Caribbean”.

Ricky Ponting was criticised by the newspaper for playing golf in Sydney while Australia struggled and the resting captain came in for abuse on the internet as well. “Wonder how Ricky enjoyed watching that rubbish from the rocking chair?” “Glenn” wrote on the Sydney Morning Herald weblog.

Shane Watson gets most of the anger from fans, however, who feel that Andrew Symonds, the Queensland all-rounder, cannot come back soon enough from his bicep injury. “The selectors’ love affair with Watson, the most overrated underchiever in history, has gone way beyond a joke,” Jack Rodios wrote, while “Paul” added: “This is the worst Australian team since Graham Yallop led the troops.”

How quickly an Ashes whitewash is forgotten.