Blogs Australia Finally Turn Around Things
April 25th, 2009 by punterThe Australian team has been under the hammer for quite some time now. To make matters worse, their skipper, Ponting hasn’t been batting as well he used to do. So, when the current one-day series against Pakistan started, it was a bit confusing to hear CA say that Ponting would be rested for the entire series. Does that solve any purpose at all, in any conceivable way?
Michael Clarke has been named as the replacement skipper and he usually does a pretty decent job of whatever is handed to him. Somehow the Aussies looked totally outplayed when batting in the first one-dayer at Abu Dhabi. There were reports in all cricket journals that how they had buckled under the quality spin bowling of Afridi and to a certain extent you cannot blame them — Afridi did take six wickets in that match.
However, to say that the Kangaroos just can’t play spin would be a bit of an exaggeration. I mean, every now and then, the best of teams are bound to have inexplicably bad days and this Aussie team is under a bit of re-building right now, so such lapses are bound to happen. I still don’t think Afridi is the most threatening bowler on any sort of pitch, no matter what these cricket experts say.
Just as expected, the Aussies put their mind to the task in the second game and comfortably defeated Pakistan. Afridi did bowl well under what are slowish conditions but doesn’t spin the ball that much and lacks the consistency. Yes, he does look like someone who is bordering on being something really good. Well that is something that has been happening in his case for a decade now, both with his batting and bowling — on the verge of being really good and then it all goes awfully wrong for him.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Australia defeats Pakistan even more comprehensively in the remaining games and clinches the series quite easily in the end. Yes, they are trying out a few new combinations and pushing-up players like Symonds and Hopes, but the team does have the habit of learning from its mistakes and mending its way pretty quickly.
