Well at last, the Royal Challengers Bangalore have to end their IPL journey only with a runners-up tag which would be the case for the second time. Previously, two years back in South Africa, they had the same fate with the Deccan Chargers grabbing the trophy from them. The game was one of its kind with the Chennai Superkings having their second title and the Royal Challengers Bangalore having their second runners-up tag as mentioned above. Whatsoever, one thing that the RCB needs to be satisfied with is that they will play the Champions League T20 for the third time.
No other team from the IPL has been able to make it though the Chennai Superkings were the contestants in the inaugural edition in 2008 along with Rajasthan Royals, the Champions League tournament was not carried on with Pakistan hosting the tournament and owing to security concerns there. Since 2009 the RCB have been making it there which stands apart from any other team in the IPL. Coming to the game, it was well understood that the Royal Challengers are without a right hand in case Gayle fails with the bat needless to be said. This was the fourth match between the two teams in this IPL.
Out of the four games, three have been won by Chennai Superkings and one by Royal Challengers Bangalore. Thanks to Chris Gayle's unbeaten 75 from 50 balls that ensured a 6 wicket win at Bangalore. In those four games, Chris Gayle has featured in three of them where his scores are 75* fro 50 balls at Bangalore, 8 from 9 balls at Mumbai and 0 from 3 balls yesterday at Chennai. The match turned all critics wrong with the home team winning the match which has been otherwise in games involving Delhi Daredevils and Kolkata Knightriders to a large extent.
A total of 205 on the board desperately needed a lot of fireworks from Chris Gayle which unfortunately didn't happen. I can just correlate this to Sachin Tendulkat getting out in the very first over in the finals of the 2003 world cup at South Africa against Australia when the target to be achieved was a whooping 360. Sachin Tendulkar scored just 4 off 4 balls giving a catch to Glenn McGrath. The CSKs required just Hussey and Murali Vijay to tame the RCB who scored 63 and 95 respectively. Or else, Raina, Dhoni and Morkel were failures. The man of the series has no disputes whatsoever.
Showing posts with label Mike Hussey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mike Hussey. Show all posts
Sunday, 29 May 2011
Thursday, 19 May 2011
Too much for Kochi
Well despite coming so close to the target of 152, the Kochi Tuskers Kerala eventually lost their plot towards the end when they fell 11 runs short of a tie and 12 runs short of a victory. Whatever, victory and losses happen in the game of cricket. But, looking at the Kochi Tuskers Kerala, the way they batted was too pathetic. There have been many instances where a total of 151 has been defended and many instances where the same total of 151 has been chased with little effort. Yesterday, Kochi had enough wickets in hand to overcome the total.
But, all that they needed was some quick timing of the ball which never seemed to be the case whatsoever. They never got the scoreboard ticking, meaning neither did the Kochi Tuskers lose wickets at regular intervals nor did they put up a big partnership enough for them to taste a victory. Looking at these, one can confirm that the pitch was a tough one for batsmen of the mindset of a T20 game. Runs never came loosely and batsmen had to work hard to score even in singles and doubles. Only batsmen with enormous can be expected to do miracles.
But, this was no international match where the best players are picked from the lot to represent their nation. Notable scores from the Chennai Superkings include Mike Hussey who scored 32 runs no matter the number of balls he took in scoring those runs. And then there was Wriddhiman Saha who was instrumental in setting up a total for his team that eventually went on to become a winning total. It was strange to see that Muttiah Muralitharan went wicketless in this game and was the only bowler to do so from the Kochi team. Likewise, there was more juice from the batsmen of Kochi Tuskers Kerala.
There was a batsman in Brad Hodge who score the only half century of the match and that too he did it quickly by not consuming too many deliveries. However, if not for Brendon McCullum, no other batting performances in the Kochi team can be of a highlight. One has to applaud Brad Hodge for fighting for the Kochi Tuskers till the end when they ran out of overs. Hodge remained unbeaten till the end of the innings. One mistake that can be realized from the Kochi Tuskers was that Vinay Kumar should should have been sent in before Jadhav who was a better batsman.
But, all that they needed was some quick timing of the ball which never seemed to be the case whatsoever. They never got the scoreboard ticking, meaning neither did the Kochi Tuskers lose wickets at regular intervals nor did they put up a big partnership enough for them to taste a victory. Looking at these, one can confirm that the pitch was a tough one for batsmen of the mindset of a T20 game. Runs never came loosely and batsmen had to work hard to score even in singles and doubles. Only batsmen with enormous can be expected to do miracles.
But, this was no international match where the best players are picked from the lot to represent their nation. Notable scores from the Chennai Superkings include Mike Hussey who scored 32 runs no matter the number of balls he took in scoring those runs. And then there was Wriddhiman Saha who was instrumental in setting up a total for his team that eventually went on to become a winning total. It was strange to see that Muttiah Muralitharan went wicketless in this game and was the only bowler to do so from the Kochi team. Likewise, there was more juice from the batsmen of Kochi Tuskers Kerala.
There was a batsman in Brad Hodge who score the only half century of the match and that too he did it quickly by not consuming too many deliveries. However, if not for Brendon McCullum, no other batting performances in the Kochi team can be of a highlight. One has to applaud Brad Hodge for fighting for the Kochi Tuskers till the end when they ran out of overs. Hodge remained unbeaten till the end of the innings. One mistake that can be realized from the Kochi Tuskers was that Vinay Kumar should should have been sent in before Jadhav who was a better batsman.
Tuesday, 10 May 2011
When the entire team stands up
Well if anyone still needs a clear definition of a team work in cricket, I wish they have to go through the game between the Chennai Superkings and Rajasthan Royals played yesterday at Jaipur. As it has happened in most of the occasions, yesterday was no different when the home team got humiliated by the visiting team. Recently it happened to the Kings XI Punjab when they fell short by 85 runs against RCB led by Chris Gayle (in terms of batting). Yesterday was a similar fate for Rajasthan when they had the same fate as that of Punjab against the RCB.
Starting from the Chennai Superkings' innings, the scorecard suggests that four out of the five batsmen who took to the crease made their presence felt when Mike Hussey, Murlai Vijay, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Suresh Raina contributed towards their team by scoring in almost equal amounts. One can sense equal contribution from the blades of the aforementioned batsmen with Murali Vijay topping the chart with 53 to his credit. There should have been four men of the match whose contribution as a whole was instrumental in Chennai Superking's victory. But, as an injustice, only Murali Vijay was awarded the man of the match.
If Murali Vijay was the top scorer of the game, then in terms of strike rate he falls to the fourth position. Murali Vijay's strike rate of 132.5 is exceeded by Mike Hussey (strike rate of 153.33), Raina (SR of 159.25) and Dhoni (215.28). However, one thing that needs to be appreciated is the way the Chennai Superkings played as a team. One cannot understand the reason behind the Rajasthan captain Shane Warne opting for Shane Watson who gave away runs at 11.75 runs an over when Ashok Menaria got to bowl just 2 overs which was equal to the run rate conceded by Warne.
Coming back to the man of the match debate, Suresh Raina was instrumental first in playing a handy 43 runs from the bat and on the other hand got two wickets off the only two deliveries he bowled. Similarly, Doug Bollinger returned with figures of 3/22 from his allotted 4 overs who stood a chance better than Murali Vijay to receive the man of the match award. However, in the Rajasthan side the problem happened to be lack of even small partnerships with them losing wickets at regular intervals. If not for Ajinkya Rahane, no other batsmen stood to the Chennai's challenge whatsoever.
Starting from the Chennai Superkings' innings, the scorecard suggests that four out of the five batsmen who took to the crease made their presence felt when Mike Hussey, Murlai Vijay, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Suresh Raina contributed towards their team by scoring in almost equal amounts. One can sense equal contribution from the blades of the aforementioned batsmen with Murali Vijay topping the chart with 53 to his credit. There should have been four men of the match whose contribution as a whole was instrumental in Chennai Superking's victory. But, as an injustice, only Murali Vijay was awarded the man of the match.
If Murali Vijay was the top scorer of the game, then in terms of strike rate he falls to the fourth position. Murali Vijay's strike rate of 132.5 is exceeded by Mike Hussey (strike rate of 153.33), Raina (SR of 159.25) and Dhoni (215.28). However, one thing that needs to be appreciated is the way the Chennai Superkings played as a team. One cannot understand the reason behind the Rajasthan captain Shane Warne opting for Shane Watson who gave away runs at 11.75 runs an over when Ashok Menaria got to bowl just 2 overs which was equal to the run rate conceded by Warne.
Coming back to the man of the match debate, Suresh Raina was instrumental first in playing a handy 43 runs from the bat and on the other hand got two wickets off the only two deliveries he bowled. Similarly, Doug Bollinger returned with figures of 3/22 from his allotted 4 overs who stood a chance better than Murali Vijay to receive the man of the match award. However, in the Rajasthan side the problem happened to be lack of even small partnerships with them losing wickets at regular intervals. If not for Ajinkya Rahane, no other batsmen stood to the Chennai's challenge whatsoever.
Thursday, 5 May 2011
Chennai flawless..Rajasthan clueless
10 boundaries from a batsmen who has long been terminated from playing the shortest version of the game happened to be a savor to his team when his knock saved a lot of face for his team which would otherwise been making rounds for all the bad reasons. Rahul Dravid scored an individual score of 67 runs at a strike rate of 129.41 from 51 balls which saw the total boost to 147 which would have otherwise been just 80. The Rajasthan innings saw just three batsmen scoring double figure scores. All these were scored by international batsmen with experience.
The names include Shane Watson, Rahul Dravid and Ross Taylor who are all big names in international cricket. Johan Botha could have just added a bit to the score which actually didn't happen. Only Shane Warne can answer why he himself didn't take on to the crease to blow some bowlers with his decade long experience in international cricket which has seen him play some handy innings for Australia when the situation demanded it from him. It is fascinating to see none of the batsmen from the Rajasthan Royals' side being able to clear the ropes even once. No sixes!
However, Rahul Dravid from Rajasthan Royals' side can walk with his head held high with him being the highest boundary hitter in the contest with him being able to cross the ropes on 10 occasions. Rahul Dravid also falls into the category with the highest number of boundaries and sixes put together with Mike Hussey's tally of 8 fours and one six falling short of it by 1 hit. One has to appreciate the accuracy with which the bowlers of both teams bowled with there being just 5 extra deliveries. Four of them were bowled by Rajasthan Royals and one from Chennai Superkings.
On the other hand, the Chennai innings had absolutely no trouble at all in chasing down the total of 148 with batsmen like Mike Hussey, Suresh Raina and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Of course, Morkel, Murali Vijay and Badrinath also form a handy set. But, if at all anyone can comment about the Chenai Superkings' innings, they might have to just dispute with the scorecard which showed them lose just two wickets en route to their successful run chase. The run chase would have been successful even had the Rajasthan Royals scored a total of over 180. Eventually, a fourth straight win would have excited Dhoni needless to be said.
The names include Shane Watson, Rahul Dravid and Ross Taylor who are all big names in international cricket. Johan Botha could have just added a bit to the score which actually didn't happen. Only Shane Warne can answer why he himself didn't take on to the crease to blow some bowlers with his decade long experience in international cricket which has seen him play some handy innings for Australia when the situation demanded it from him. It is fascinating to see none of the batsmen from the Rajasthan Royals' side being able to clear the ropes even once. No sixes!
However, Rahul Dravid from Rajasthan Royals' side can walk with his head held high with him being the highest boundary hitter in the contest with him being able to cross the ropes on 10 occasions. Rahul Dravid also falls into the category with the highest number of boundaries and sixes put together with Mike Hussey's tally of 8 fours and one six falling short of it by 1 hit. One has to appreciate the accuracy with which the bowlers of both teams bowled with there being just 5 extra deliveries. Four of them were bowled by Rajasthan Royals and one from Chennai Superkings.
On the other hand, the Chennai innings had absolutely no trouble at all in chasing down the total of 148 with batsmen like Mike Hussey, Suresh Raina and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Of course, Morkel, Murali Vijay and Badrinath also form a handy set. But, if at all anyone can comment about the Chenai Superkings' innings, they might have to just dispute with the scorecard which showed them lose just two wickets en route to their successful run chase. The run chase would have been successful even had the Rajasthan Royals scored a total of over 180. Eventually, a fourth straight win would have excited Dhoni needless to be said.
Tuesday, 26 April 2011
A mixture of batting and bowling
This match should go down as one of the best game this year's IPL has ever witnessed whatsoever. Just imagine a team piling up runs at a rate of just under 7.5 runs an over and is able to defend the same successfully and that too by a decent margin and doesn't bowl the opposition all out like it happens most of the time in limited overs game. This was what the Chennai Super Kings were found doing last night with the Pune Warriors being at the receiving end. Neither did the Pune Warriors lose all their ten wickets nor did they end on the winning side.
The only way thought of to be to defend a total of 142 in a T20 game is to bowl the opposition with restricting them to a lesser total would be out of question. And, as a rare chance that happens, the match would be a close encounter unlike what happened in yesterday's encounter between the Chennai Super Kings and the Pune Warriors. The entire match saw only one batsman scoring a half century with Australia's Mike Hussey being the hero of the match. Of course, a batsman from a team scoring 142 can hardly be expected to score a half century.
Making it still worse, a team with a total of 117 runs towards the end of the innings can have a batsman scoring a half century only in dreams and dreams rarely come true. One can take look at the bowling chart of both the teams playing with both the teams resorting to 6 bowlers, two of whom who bowl 2 overs and the remaining bowlers bowling their full quota of 4 overs each. One can forgive the Deccan Chargers in last night's game against Mumbai Indians but not the Pune Warriors in yesterday's game. A team with the likes of Yuvraj Singh and co should put up a decent performance.
The Pune Warriors were gifted with players like Jesse Ryder, Manish Pandey, Robin Uttappa, Yuvraj Singh etc who can do a lot with the at and on the other hand, they do not have the bowlers who can tackle the opposition batsmen. This is evident with the scorecard showing Rohith Sharma and Alfonso Thomas bowling four overs when Rohith Sharma can be expected to entertain the fans with the bat. Likewise, if not for Mike Hussey, no one really stood up to the occasion for the Chennai Superkings. One can imagine had there been no Mike Hussey what would or might have happened to the Chennai Super Kings.
The only way thought of to be to defend a total of 142 in a T20 game is to bowl the opposition with restricting them to a lesser total would be out of question. And, as a rare chance that happens, the match would be a close encounter unlike what happened in yesterday's encounter between the Chennai Super Kings and the Pune Warriors. The entire match saw only one batsman scoring a half century with Australia's Mike Hussey being the hero of the match. Of course, a batsman from a team scoring 142 can hardly be expected to score a half century.
Making it still worse, a team with a total of 117 runs towards the end of the innings can have a batsman scoring a half century only in dreams and dreams rarely come true. One can take look at the bowling chart of both the teams playing with both the teams resorting to 6 bowlers, two of whom who bowl 2 overs and the remaining bowlers bowling their full quota of 4 overs each. One can forgive the Deccan Chargers in last night's game against Mumbai Indians but not the Pune Warriors in yesterday's game. A team with the likes of Yuvraj Singh and co should put up a decent performance.
The Pune Warriors were gifted with players like Jesse Ryder, Manish Pandey, Robin Uttappa, Yuvraj Singh etc who can do a lot with the at and on the other hand, they do not have the bowlers who can tackle the opposition batsmen. This is evident with the scorecard showing Rohith Sharma and Alfonso Thomas bowling four overs when Rohith Sharma can be expected to entertain the fans with the bat. Likewise, if not for Mike Hussey, no one really stood up to the occasion for the Chennai Superkings. One can imagine had there been no Mike Hussey what would or might have happened to the Chennai Super Kings.
Sunday, 17 April 2011
Royal Challengers still need to learn
Well one need not curse the Royal Challengers' loss to the Chennai Super Kings with the result already being well known by all followers of the tournament. This should not mean that the Royal Challengers are short of talent when it comes to facing strong teams but, the problem lies in the team that they have chosen with Chris Gayle missing out on the occasion. Looking at the scorecard, it is quite evident that as a team, the Royal Challengers lack a lot in them. They had no good partnerships with the big one being 42 run partnership between Mayank and Kohli.
God known why someone like Mayank Agarwal is still there at the top opening the innings for the Royal Challengers with his score yesterday reading 7 runs from 13 balls with a lucky hit to the fence. One has to wonder what was the lad doing with already two batsmen departing from the crease? This time as well, like last time, the top scores and notable ones include 65 runs from A B deVilliars and 35 from Virat Kohli. This contributed for 100 runs out of 62 for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Similarly, for the CSKs, Mike Hussey scored 83 runs out of 183.
A total of 183 can hardly be chased down by any team let alone the Royal Challengers Bangalore. One can look out for the fondness of the number 7 for the Royal Challengers Bangalore with three of their batsmen scoring 14 and one getting out on 7. Luckily, the Royal Challengers Bangalore didn't lose all their ten wickets and cross the 150 run mark despite such a lack of team work from their batsmen. The bowlers too reflected the batsmen with the ball being handed over to Virat Kohli who can get hit for a six the way he can hit one.
The highlight of the game was the 83 runs scored by Mike Hussey without which, the Chennai Super Kings could not even think of a respectable total let alone winning the game. One might not consider this as a remarkable innings with a century already being scored in this tournament by Paul Valthaty. As a supporting role, Murali Vijay, Suresh Raina and Dhoin played a significant innings with all of them scoring in heir twenties. The highlight of the Chennai Super Kings was that Anirudh was put down the order after a series of mishaps. But, the Bangalore team needs a lot to work out.
God known why someone like Mayank Agarwal is still there at the top opening the innings for the Royal Challengers with his score yesterday reading 7 runs from 13 balls with a lucky hit to the fence. One has to wonder what was the lad doing with already two batsmen departing from the crease? This time as well, like last time, the top scores and notable ones include 65 runs from A B deVilliars and 35 from Virat Kohli. This contributed for 100 runs out of 62 for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Similarly, for the CSKs, Mike Hussey scored 83 runs out of 183.
A total of 183 can hardly be chased down by any team let alone the Royal Challengers Bangalore. One can look out for the fondness of the number 7 for the Royal Challengers Bangalore with three of their batsmen scoring 14 and one getting out on 7. Luckily, the Royal Challengers Bangalore didn't lose all their ten wickets and cross the 150 run mark despite such a lack of team work from their batsmen. The bowlers too reflected the batsmen with the ball being handed over to Virat Kohli who can get hit for a six the way he can hit one.
The highlight of the game was the 83 runs scored by Mike Hussey without which, the Chennai Super Kings could not even think of a respectable total let alone winning the game. One might not consider this as a remarkable innings with a century already being scored in this tournament by Paul Valthaty. As a supporting role, Murali Vijay, Suresh Raina and Dhoin played a significant innings with all of them scoring in heir twenties. The highlight of the Chennai Super Kings was that Anirudh was put down the order after a series of mishaps. But, the Bangalore team needs a lot to work out.
Saturday, 15 May 2010
Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat
Yesterday's game between Australia and Pakistan in the second semi-finals of the T20 world cup was something different than reading some freeta's blog when a total of 191 was not only chased down successfully by the Aussies but also ended with the winning runs being scored in the form of a six. Aussies nevertheless were at one stage reeling at 105/5 from 12.3 over with their top five batsmen heading back towards the dressing room. Still, Mike Hussey had different things in mind when the wickets tumbling at the other end never seemed to bother him and he continued to sail with ease.In yesterday's match, Mike Hussey was a T20 version of Michael Beaven who is famous for Australia's wins in the semi-finals of the 1996 and 1999 world cups. Whatsoever, no one can ever blame the Pakistani batsmen or their bowlers for their loss. The Pakistani batsmen got everything right with all of their top order batsmen barring Afridi contributing with the bat. And, a total of 191 on the board speaks for itself. Despite the score ticking for Pakistan, Dirk Nannes got an over maiden which was a highlight of Aussie bowling. It was just impossible for part time bowler to stop the flow of runs.
After the top bowlers namely Johnson, Nannes and Tait finished their spells, Clarke had no option but to toss the ball to Watson, Smith and David Hussey who added fuel to the Pakistani fire. The Aussies needless to be said kept on losing wickets at regular intervals with the scoreboard at one stage reading 105/5 as mentioned with Australia needing 87 runs from 45 balls at a rate of 2.00 runs every ball on an average. Though it has not happened for Australia in the past, this time the Aussie batsmen have been flawless with their approach to the T20 game.
Aussies have been unbeaten in this world cup when no one expected them to do so. Aussies have dominated the other two formats of the game for nearly decades which need not be cited specially but they had a problem with T20 format which forced Ponting to call it a day. With the T20 being the shortest version of the game, one has to give hats-off to Mike Hussey for bringing back Australia into the game. There is little time left in T20 game unlike in ODIs and tests. Hussey's innings gives rise to a new saying "Fast and steady wins the race".
Thursday, 6 May 2010
What can you say about Australia?
Well Australia's performance against Bangladesh in yesterday's match of the world T20 was very much below par compared to what was expected out of them and against the opposition they were facing. Australia's score against Bangladesh at Bridgetown was 141 which was too less for reasons mentioned above. The total should have been a minimum of 180. But, one can hardly criticize the Aussies for having won their major battle against Pakistan earlier this week at Gros Islet by 34 runs. There should have been a thrashing by Australia and not just a formal reply. A total of 141 was something which even Bangladesh would have chased.Bangladesh has a history of chasing down a total in excess of 160 against West Indies in the inaugural edition of the world T20 in 2007. Anyways, coming to the match, a thorough look at the scorecard suggests that the notable score from Australia happened to be from a number 7 batsman in Mike Hussey who scored 47. One can guess that the pitch favored the bowlers where batting was definitely a challenge and then, there were the likes of David Warner, Shane Watson, Brad Haddin and Michael Clarke who could have done much with the bat. But, all that they could do was not score above 16 runs.
The second highest score from the Australian innings was from Warner and Clarke who scored 16. Rest of the batsmen who made it to the crease got out scoring single digit scores. The Bangladesh captain - Shakib Al Hasan did not try more than 5 bowlers when he got all of them bowl their complete quota. As said above, the pitch never seemed to give any room to the batsmen, as a result of which the Bangladeshi innings saw two wickets fall with a score of 4 on the board with their openers getting out for a duck and the third batsman getting out for a score which was the next best thing to a duck.
But, though Bangladesh lost the game eventually, their team effort was better than that of Australia. There were four players who scored above ten and two of them above 20 unlike Australia where only Hussey scored above 20. Nannes had a ball when he had four wickets and was the most successful bowler of the match. But, with no prizes for bowlers in that game, the obvious choice for the man of the match award was none other than Mike Hussey who stood there at the crease with 6 batsmen leaving him single. With this, Australia for the 1st time have won both matches in the pool stage.
Saturday, 13 February 2010
Whom did rain rescue?
Well leading cricket websites suggest that rain spoils West Indies' fortune when the 3rd one day international was called off due to rain at Sydney. Is it that rain played a spoilsport when West Indies were above to lose the third one day match also against Australia? West Indies, in the past two one dayers have not even managed to cross the 200 run mark and suffered humiliating defeats like never before. It is a pity that West Indies are playing Australia, when in case their caliber is taken into consideration have to play some non test playing nation or atleast Bangladesh.
Australia no doubt put up a modest of totals when they were restricted to just 225 on board by the West Indies' bowlers (which may be the case, no guarantee). The story could also be that the Australian batsmen might have taken the West Indian bowlers lightly and as a result paid a partly price by scoring the lowest total in the tournament against the West Indies. It was only Ravi Rampaul who could be the highlight of the day when he returned with figures of 4/61 from his quota of 10 overs. The other side of the coin also suggesting that Ravi went in for over 6.0 runs an over compared to the overall run rate of just above 4.0 an over.
On the other hand, it would be worth highlighting the bowling performance of Dwayne Smith who returned with figures of 3/45 from 10 overs at a run rate of 4.5 an over. May be that his experience also counted to his performance to some extent. As batsmen kept on collapsing on one side the incoming batsmen were more cautious and were found playing their innings more seriously compared to their batting counterparts. It was the tail end batsman in Ryan Harris who hit the lone six of the Australian innings and returned with a strike rate of 233 which was more than 2 runs a ball.
And when it comes to the West Indies batting, it was fascinating to see the entire 6 runs that was on the board towards the West Indies side was scored by extras alone. West Indies, moreover were set a target of 151 runs from 24 overs which was more than 6 runs an over as compared to the run rate of just above 4 an over had the match not been interrupted. West Indies had faced Australia some three years back in the then VB series which was a tri series involving Pakistan as the third team. West Indies had reduced Australia to 41/5 in the league match which was abandoned due to rain. But, this time rain ruined Australia's chances of whitewashing the West Indies.
Australia no doubt put up a modest of totals when they were restricted to just 225 on board by the West Indies' bowlers (which may be the case, no guarantee). The story could also be that the Australian batsmen might have taken the West Indian bowlers lightly and as a result paid a partly price by scoring the lowest total in the tournament against the West Indies. It was only Ravi Rampaul who could be the highlight of the day when he returned with figures of 4/61 from his quota of 10 overs. The other side of the coin also suggesting that Ravi went in for over 6.0 runs an over compared to the overall run rate of just above 4.0 an over.
On the other hand, it would be worth highlighting the bowling performance of Dwayne Smith who returned with figures of 3/45 from 10 overs at a run rate of 4.5 an over. May be that his experience also counted to his performance to some extent. As batsmen kept on collapsing on one side the incoming batsmen were more cautious and were found playing their innings more seriously compared to their batting counterparts. It was the tail end batsman in Ryan Harris who hit the lone six of the Australian innings and returned with a strike rate of 233 which was more than 2 runs a ball.
And when it comes to the West Indies batting, it was fascinating to see the entire 6 runs that was on the board towards the West Indies side was scored by extras alone. West Indies, moreover were set a target of 151 runs from 24 overs which was more than 6 runs an over as compared to the run rate of just above 4 an over had the match not been interrupted. West Indies had faced Australia some three years back in the then VB series which was a tri series involving Pakistan as the third team. West Indies had reduced Australia to 41/5 in the league match which was abandoned due to rain. But, this time rain ruined Australia's chances of whitewashing the West Indies.
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