Saturday 26 February 2011

Beware of Australia

Well if anybody thinks otherwise about the declining Australian side without hard hitting Gilchrist and Symonds or the Glenn McGrath who was known for his line and length, one has to think again after looking at yesterday's match between Australia and New Zealand where Australia literally thrashed their Tasmanian rivals first by bowling them all out for 206 from 45 overs and then bundling up the innings in just 34 overs with over six runs an over. Looking at Mitchell Johnson being awarded the man of the match, the pitch can be though as a batsman's paradise restricting whom is indeed praiseworthy.

Australia might not be the team what they were four years ago but, there is still some fuel left in the Aussie tank with the likes of Brad Haddin and Shane Watson who is equally destructible as some Symonds and Mitchell Johnson who can be lest compared with some Damien Fleming or Brett Lee who are decent bowlers though no belonging to the club of Glenn McGrath. This was the third time in succession that Australia beat New Zealand in world cups starting from 2003 when they defended 212 and won by 96 runs from at one stage being at 84/7.

Thanks to some splendid fast bowling from Shane Bond who rattled Australia's top and middle order and Brett Lee & Michael Beaven who did the same to New Zealand and put up a solid 100+ run partnership respectively to see Australia go undefeated yet again. And then in 2007, when the world was fresh from Australia thrashing 0-3 loss in the then recently concluded Chappel-Hadlee series when may be the Aussies were experimenting just couple of weeks before the world cup 2007. However, things were totally different in the world cup when the margin of victory for the Aussies was a whooping 215 runs.

Yesterday as well, it was as though New Zealand was of no match for Australia and seemed like Australia were facing some Bangladesh or West Indies. Scorecard suggests that the only half century in the New Zealand innings came from the number 8 batsman bowler Nathan McCullum who played 76 balls which was the only reason why New Zealand raced past 200. Or else, may be the match would have got over in just 25 overs. No Aussie bowler bowled his full quota of 10 overs and Johnson was about to bowl and unfortunately the Kiwi batsmen were not interested in playing anymore.

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