Heartbreaking moments for top teams in the 21st Century

#3 Australia losing the Ashes at home in 2010

England celebrating after the win at Adelaide.

It's hard to spot a painful moment for the perennial heavyweights of the game like Australia, yet the teak from down under did have a phase of mediocrity following the retirements of a plethora of legends in Glenn Mcgrath, Shane Warne, Justin Langer, Adam Gilchrist to name a few. For a better part of two decades, the Ashes down under between Australia and England rendered the same script with the English already defeated even before the first bowl was bowled. 2010 was different though with the English boasting of a potent batting and an all-around bowling attack coming into the Ashes as real contenders.

Peter Siddle's breathtaking hat-trick offered the beleaguered Aussies hope of the reversing the inevitable. But Alastair Cook and Kevin Pieterson's partnership in the second innings at the Gabba gave a glimpse of what ensued in the succeeding Test matches. Though Australia, thanks to a rampaging Mitchell Johnson on a fast WACA track bounced England out to square the series 1-1 after a thumping in Adelaide, they effectively lost the Ashes in the first session of the Boxing Day Test at the McG, when they were bowled out for a mere 98.

Australia went on to lose the Test by an innings and 157 runs on the fourth morning, one of their heaviest defeats and subsequently lost the series 1-3 after another clinical performance by England at the ScG. That England has gone on to lose nine Test matches out of ten post-2010-11 triumphant series underpins the magnanimity of Ricky Ponting's team's loss in 2010.