Australia

Australia’s bowling strategy could decide Ashes

India’s inability at handling pace has often been criticised by the media, but in the last couple of ODIs between England and Australia, the hosts were given a nice, little lesson on the nuances of fast bowling by the Aussies. So much so, that the so-called second string pace attack from Australia stung England hard enough to win both the games for their side.

Not often do you find bowlers get the Man of the Match award for their performances in a game, but to have two successive matches being decided by good bowling is a rarity. In the fourth match of the series, it was Ryan Harris’ return to fitness – he would become unfit again after the fifth match – and form that meant that the English side could not even get close to the Australian target.

Then, in the fifth ODI, Tait sent down enough number of thunderbolts at the English opposition to warrant a start of a new, “Bring Tait for Tests” campaign. Tait turned down any hopes that the Australian contingent had of getting him in for the Ashes.

Tait has been impressive in the series, and one keeps questioning the wisdom of the Australian selectors in keeping him out. Just as one would, in disallowing David Warner a place in the ODI squad – if not the playing eleven. But, one gets the sense that the Australian selectors suffer from a very rigid mindset and the problems emanating from it have shown them in bad light on more than the odd occasion. Oval 2009 and the non-selection of a specialist spinner was one such instance.

This brings me to talk of the Ashes, later this year, where the English team will be up against some really raw pace and that one can have no doubt about. It may not be Tait, but even the likes of Mitchell Johnson and Peter Siddle can dish it out to the batsmen. What the Aussies will need to be careful about is to not have an attack which remains one-dimensional in nature; Siddle and Johnson are both, hit-the-deck bowlers, while the likes of Hilfenhaus and Bollinger can get the ball to swing around, while Harris gets it to move off the seam.

Horses for courses may be Australia’s best bet in that series. Get in four bowlers in the squad, and look to play the best three based on the conditions of the pitch.

The Australian coach has also spoken of Steve Smith – that adds the necessary zing to the bowling. But, to me, as things currently stand, playing Smith may just be playing into the English hands. It must be remembered that England may not have played Shane Warne well for all those years, but comparing Warne and Smith is like baking a cake and a brick. Nathan Hauritz’s consistency may work better for the Aussies.

England’s ODI win puts question-marks over Aussie Ashes preparation

England lead 3-0.

And some of those fans would have so wished that this was the score-line in their Germany game at the World Cup. Given that the side was hammered away in South Africa, their series win against their biggest rivals of all times, Australia, in the ODI series, couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time. The nation-wide mourning has been stalled thanks to that.

In the third game between the two sides, Australia had gone into the match in full cognizance of the fact that a loss would end their series hopes. And yet, the side batted like novices. A 130/2 in the 27th over should have probably resulted in a 280 plus total with the Batting Powerplay still in hand. Instead, a deteriorating batting line-up coupled with the insuperable Graeme Swann’s continuing good form saw the side collapse in a fashion that one is so used to seeing the Aussie oppositions do over the years.

But those were the years of Shane Warne and Glen McGrath. And of Mathew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist. One needs to keep coming back to the glorious years because of the expectations that they have set from the rest of the Australian players, that it looks almost depressing to see Aussies being thrashed by the English side. Thrashed is the word. Probably even whipped.

At the start of the series, one always knew that the Australian bowling will be its weak link. Ryan Harris’ injury before the second ODI put a spanner in any of the works that the side would have thought of having with its second string attack.

But what has been a big surprise is the batting. Apart from a struggling Michael Clarke’s 80 in the first ODI, the rest of them have looked pedestrian. Even Clarke seems to be going through a period where the struggle with the bat – and with his inner demons – is so palpable that the bowlers almost rejoice at seeing him come out to bat. Currently, the word ‘acceleration’ means nothing more than a term in mechanics to Clarke. He starts off slowly, shows signs that he wants to score the runs in the middle, but has failed miserably in his efforts to pick up the pace.

This is where the Aussies face a conundrum. They cannot push Clarke down the order because of his obvious aversion to score quickly, but given his inability to start off well, the innings run-rate comes to a grinding halt at the start as well.

The other obvious issue that the tourists have had is with their captain’s batting form. His averages in the last one year paint a moderate picture as compared to his career statistics. In Test matches, despite a double century against Pakistan, he averages only 46 in the leading 12 months, and in this year 2010, he averages 36 in the ODIs. While the second figure is not as bad as one would have thought, one needs to also look at the fact that the opposition was West Indies and Pakistan, both of whom lost almost all their games on the tour.

Till about six months ago, Australia looked to have got into a spree where they won almost all their games, and the regaining of Ashes did not seem too distant a dream. Not any more. Not, by any stretch of imagination and given that the English side now possesses two much improved spinners in their line-up as well, one gets the sense that the 2010 version of the Ashes could get really exciting. Can Ponting gee his boys up enough to not allow him to become the only Australian captain to lose the Ashes thrice?

Hope Australia-England revives interest in cricket

by Suneer Chowdhary

Despite the most obvious  Football fever around the world, eight of the ten Test playing nations are involved in international series and that means that one or the other cricket match is on at any given time.

At the time of writing, the Asia Cup has already seen five games played, and three of them have been one-sided enough to afford the winners a bonus point each. Bangladesh has been at the receiving end of all the three defeats, and huge ones at that, and in their coach’s words, the bowling has been a big letdown. One hopes that the remaining two games, between India and Sri Lanka allow the spectators some respite from the meaningless, one-sided results.

Talking of meaningless, it is funny to hear that the last league game between India and Sri Lanka has been termed as a dress rehearsal for the final. Given the number of games that the two sides have played against each other in last couple of years, it worth noting that the number of dress rehearsals that the side would have played against each other is probably many in number as well.

The stage has now reached where India-Sri Lanka games, in any format have become meaningless. Out of context. Boring. Dull. Monotonous. Drab. And all that.

Somewhere else, despite all that has happened in their cricket in the last couple of months, South Africa would be secretly hoping for some kind of a fight from their opposition. West Indies had lost every game on tour before the Test match at St. Kitts, before inclement weather and a rather flat track seems to have assisted them in getting away with a drawn second Test match. Sorry, let me repeat, an excruciatingly boring, drawn second Test match.

On a flat track, West Indies’ scoring on the fourth day was such a drab that commentator Jeff Dujon exclaimed in mock delight when a couple of runs were scored off an over; they are absolutely smashing it! Earlier, West Indies had been hammered 5-0 by the same side.

Games likes that between India and Pakistan the other day, and even the one between Pakistan and Sri Lanka at the start of the tournament, are few and far between. This has almost meant that not only has the fifty overs variety become a tad boring in terms of the results, but also one-sided thanks to the gulf between the sides playing it.

This is why, I have great hopes from the five match series that England will host Australia for. The last time they had met, England had yet to overcome the heady high that they were in, after having won the Ashes again, and Australia pummelled them 6-1. This time around, things could be a trifle different as England will go into the series with the confidence of having won the World T20 and an ODI series against South Africa late last year. On the other hand, Australia has a relatively inexperienced side that struggled to win the tour games against Ireland and Middlesex despite playing full-strength. It is not often that an English, limited overs side goes into a series against Australia with more confidence than the world champions!

Counting down to the Ashes: England need to guard against fitness woes

Despite what the pundits and the players have to say about the T20 World Cup final match-up and Ashes having absolutely no correlation, it seems quite obvious to me, that the win will go a long way in instilling a tad more self-confidence in the victors. Of course, gone are the days when the English cricket side was a meek mouse with aspirations to bell the cat. The battle in the Ashes has been quite even in the last half of the decade, despite the Aussie domination in the fifty overs format of the game.

When England went on to win the previous Ashes, Shane Warne had commented that the wrong team had held the urn. Whether the jury on whether it was a case of sour grapes or astute observation is still out, it was interesting to read Warne again. Again, he gave the tournament-win as no more than a cursory feeder to the Ashes result, but made a strong case of how the English have begun to believe that they were no longer scared of the Aussies.

Warne cannot get truer than this. Especially given that Ricky Ponting will know that he holds a very detestable record of being the first Australian skipper for many decades to lose the Ashes twice. Another loss here will not only end his rather lofty dream of leading the side to a win in the 2013 Ashes in England – to extract sweet revenge – but could also end his career then, and there.

To me, the big worry for Australia could just be the case of peaking a little too quickly. Shane Watson has been in the form of his life, and could just be due for some failures, while Australia still hunts for its Shane Warne-clone. Nathan Hauritz has done all that could be expected from him, but whether that will be enough against England is a question-mark. Steven Smith looks like a decent prospect in the shorter version of the game, but the transition from T20Is to Test matches is a leap as gigantic as when man first set his foot on moon. Add the pressure of Ashes, and the kitchen could get a tad hot for the young man.

However, it is not as if the urn is there for the English to land in Australia and carry it home. The last time England played in Australia, they looked overawed and almost puerile in their tactical acumen, something that they can ill-afford this year. Of course, their attitudes would be much more grounded than the previous series in Australia when they failed to shrug off the heady combination of the champagne and MBEs and became soft targets for Australia.

But, what they will need to guard against would be injuries to their main men; the quicker bowlers and the likes of Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Strauss himself. James Anderson and Stuart Broad will lead the attack, but what could count for a lot would be how the back-up staff of Tim Bresnan, Graham Onions (who is now injured and out of action) and Steve Finn go about their business on tracks that will not afford as much swing as they are used to.

Australia may still go into the series as favourites as things currently stand, almost six months before the first ball is bowled; but I will also look forward to watching them play India in India – if Cricket Australia accepts the obvious logic that playing a couple of Tests is far more palatable than seven meaningless ODIs.