Blogs 2nd One-dayer: Aussies Fighting Fitness Issues
January 17th, 2009 by punterThe Aussies might have got some solace after wiping out South Africa in the two T20 games but when it came to a more ‘proper’ format of the game — ODI, they could not do much against the swinging blade of Morkel. Now, the second one-dayer at Hobart assumes greater significance for Australia because if they don’t manage to win this one, things could get real tight as they would have to win the remainder of the matches.
South Africans have shone in the past too that they don’t depend on just one or two good players to deliver the goods. As it has turned out, it isn’t Kallis or Gibbs who is scoring heavily for them but it the formerly-unknown Duminy who is proving to have that magical touch when it comes to scoring against the Aussies. There have been murmurs that Johan Botha didn’t deserve the captaincy as players like Boucher were there in the squad. The decision is a bit surprising but maybe the administrators in SA just don’t want a scenario of more than one capable captain within the team in order to preserve his complete authority. It seems that Botha realises, just like most of us, that he is a very much a stop-gap sort of a selection.
The Aussies are plagued by injuries which in combination with a string of retirements has made the team look much more vulnerable than it actually is. Just imagine if the actual squad members were fit. That would have meant that the Aussies would have all-rounders like Symonds and Watson playing along with James Hopes to provide plenty of bowling options for Ponting without compromising on the batting part. Both Haddin and David Hussey aren’t capable of scoring in the manner Gilchrist or Symonds did and their team needs some batting firepower.
Now, the latest development is the injury of Michael Clarke and he is bound to be replaced by David Warner who despite having very limited first-class cricket exposure has caught everybody’s attention with his T20 exploits. He can hit the ball gruesomely hard and the Aussies would be banking upon him to fire on early and give them a start just like those they were served by Gilchrist & Hayden.
