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- Jan 13, 2010
Australia quest for the elusive T20 World Cup title took a slight detour with a shock loss to Zimbabwe in the first warm up match in the Caribbean. Zimbabwe set a very respectable 173 and in the end they held their nerve to win by 1 run.
Points to note from the match:
When Australia was at the peak of their powers this summer, Watson was firing in both departments, providing crucial breakthroughs with his bowling and magical hitting displays. If Australia are going to make an impact in this tournament, they will once again need Watson firing on both cylinders.
Michael Clarke finished the match with 49 off 42 balls, solid and considering the guys around him apart from Warner failed, some would say a needed knock. But when you look into his knock in more depth, by my calculations he would have been 23 off 30 balls when Warner departed in the 13th over. This meant the run rate had increased from 8.6 to 11.3 run an over despite the fact Warner was going at a strike rate of 147. This leaves far too much pressure on the rest of the batsmen to pick up the slack. My solution is moving Clarke down to number 6 or 7 where he has two modes: hit out or steady the ship.
Any thought of playing both Smith and Hauritz all but went out the window after the second warm up match where Hauritz again went for over 10 an over. David Hussey, Michael Clarke and Steven Smith all took wickets in the second match and they will more than likely form the spin combo for this tournament.
Run outs have been a big problem for Australia ever since Ricky Ponting was run out by the super sub during the Ashes series in 2005. Since then, we have seen a progression of wasted knocks ended by poor running between the wickets. The side has already achieved 5 run outs from two warm up matches. If this trend continues, Australia may end up running themselves out of the T20 World Cup.
Australia’s first opponent for the third T20 World Cup is Pakistan who played the same warm up teams. Both were convincing winners over the Windward Islands and both suffered shock losses to Zimbabwe.
My team for the match against Pakistan would be:
David Warner
Shane Watson
Cameron White
David Hussey
Brad Haddin
Michael Clarke
Steven Smith
Ryan Harris
Mitchell Johnson
Dirk Nannes
Shaun Tait
A few years ago Cameron White was considered the premier T20 batsmen, he should be give maximum game time to have an impact on the match. Michael Clarke isn’t one that has the sort of impact on a match that White or David Hussey can have, hence hes best served batting down at 6. I’ve always been a fan of Steven Smith’s batting and I feel he can make a contribution from number 7 and this means we have another bowling option which could be handy considering Watson’s bowling form from the IPL and the warm up match against Zimbabwe.
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Points to note from the match:
- Watson conceding 34 runs off just 2 overs and making 2 off 6 balls
- Michael Clarke 23 off 30 balls after Warner departed at 2/95, run rate required gone from 8.7 to 11.3 an over.
- Nathan Hauritz conceding 24 runs off 2 overs
- No contribution from the middle and lower order
- 3 run outs
- Warner makes back to back half-centuries
- Clarke made 30 off 23 balls for a strike rate of 130
- 2 run outs including Steven Smith again
- Side named is most likely the starting 11 for the first match against Pakistan
When Australia was at the peak of their powers this summer, Watson was firing in both departments, providing crucial breakthroughs with his bowling and magical hitting displays. If Australia are going to make an impact in this tournament, they will once again need Watson firing on both cylinders.
Michael Clarke finished the match with 49 off 42 balls, solid and considering the guys around him apart from Warner failed, some would say a needed knock. But when you look into his knock in more depth, by my calculations he would have been 23 off 30 balls when Warner departed in the 13th over. This meant the run rate had increased from 8.6 to 11.3 run an over despite the fact Warner was going at a strike rate of 147. This leaves far too much pressure on the rest of the batsmen to pick up the slack. My solution is moving Clarke down to number 6 or 7 where he has two modes: hit out or steady the ship.
Any thought of playing both Smith and Hauritz all but went out the window after the second warm up match where Hauritz again went for over 10 an over. David Hussey, Michael Clarke and Steven Smith all took wickets in the second match and they will more than likely form the spin combo for this tournament.
Run outs have been a big problem for Australia ever since Ricky Ponting was run out by the super sub during the Ashes series in 2005. Since then, we have seen a progression of wasted knocks ended by poor running between the wickets. The side has already achieved 5 run outs from two warm up matches. If this trend continues, Australia may end up running themselves out of the T20 World Cup.
Australia’s first opponent for the third T20 World Cup is Pakistan who played the same warm up teams. Both were convincing winners over the Windward Islands and both suffered shock losses to Zimbabwe.
My team for the match against Pakistan would be:
David Warner
Shane Watson
Cameron White
David Hussey
Brad Haddin
Michael Clarke
Steven Smith
Ryan Harris
Mitchell Johnson
Dirk Nannes
Shaun Tait
A few years ago Cameron White was considered the premier T20 batsmen, he should be give maximum game time to have an impact on the match. Michael Clarke isn’t one that has the sort of impact on a match that White or David Hussey can have, hence hes best served batting down at 6. I’ve always been a fan of Steven Smith’s batting and I feel he can make a contribution from number 7 and this means we have another bowling option which could be handy considering Watson’s bowling form from the IPL and the warm up match against Zimbabwe.
More...
