Blogs Aus versus Pakistan: ODI Series With A Difference
April 28th, 2009 by punterSo, Australia did win the third match of the ongoing ODI series in Abu Dhabi, and lead two to one, but there was something more to these matches that made them interesting. After quite a gap, ODI matches with low, aggressively defended scores were on display. A score of about 200+ was regarded as a safe, in fact a match-winning score. This comes as a complete contrast to what has been going around for the last five years wherein scores of even about 325+ look pedestrian on many occasions. It was nice to see the sub-continental spin bowlers relishing the slowish pitches that meant batsmen had to craft-out their innings.
Just consider this — Australia scored just 198 in the third ODI and still won the game, convincingly! There were no strokes played on the up and hitting the ball through the line was like committing suicide. This is what I suggest should be done to make ODI games more interesting — provide a plethora of different playing conditions to make every tournament have a typical characteristic about it rather than every game being about slam-banging bowlers.
