England are one win away from completing the ultimate smash and grab raid in the CB series. After getting hammered throughout the (Aussie) summer, they sneaked into the ODI series finals and pulled off an amazing 4-wicket win over the Aussies at MCG yesterday. Collingwood did the star turn with the bat and in the field. While the Pom media have predictably gone to town with what is (only) their second win over Aussies on this tour, even Cricinfo has found it fit to dwell only on the English side of the story. To me, the more engrossing development of this tri-series is the surfacing of some weaknesses in the Aussie team, when we are just a few weeks away from the biggie in the Caribbean. When Buchanan lamented that his boys are not getting a proper workout from Eng/NZ, he wouldn't have bargained for this.
Weaknesses were never far from the surface in the recent Champions Trophy, but the Aussies successfully overcame them to lift the trophy. Australia are struggling to replace Damien Martyn and now it looks like they may have to replace Symonds too. Hodge should do the job in the middle-order but for some odd reason a middle order that also boasts of Clarke and Hussey has had more than its share of collapses. Other teams must be thinking along the lines of 'remove Ponting and you have an opening'. Indeed the game changed pretty quickly the other day once Ponting, who was motoring along, was dismissed. Still with so many (too many some would say) matchwinners in that batting line up, one gets the feeling they will turn it on when it matters.
Symonds' loss is the greater blow, in my view. It is not entirely clear if he will miss the world cup but assuming he does Australia have a problem, actually three problems. They need a powerful lower order hitter, an useful fifth bowler and a top class fielder to replace Symonds! Cameron White has been tried but is not upto scratch. Shane Watson is still to convince but he has improved his bowling and is the best hope Aussies have at this point of time. Problem is he is just coming back from injury and is running out of time to become match fit. Going back to the final, the Australian bowling appeared toothless whenever Lee was away from the attack. Hogg, who can be a handful on some days appears to suffer from rustiness. And whisper it but McGrath and Hayden belied their age in the field. Still it would be rash to bet against them - Lee, McGrath and Bracken are good to finish off most teams on most of the days. But when one of them is having an off day, do Australia have others to step up to the plate? What if the off day happens to be in the World Cup semi-final or final?
With Ponting and Gilchrist missing, not much can be read into the results of the forthcoming Chapell-Hadlee series against NZ. But their performances, particularly in the field, will be dissected minutely. If there is one thing the Aussies are really good at, it is in digesting losses/setbacks and rebounding strongly. India (2003-2004) and England (2005-2006) will testify to that. But if England manage to put it past the Aussies one more time, either at Sydney or Adelaide, those world cup odds on Ponting and co might just lengthen a bit.
No comments:
Post a Comment