Mukul Kesavan in his own inimitable way provides his take on Aus's stumble in the second CB final and also lists the learnings from the other matches on the same day. I am not fully convinced about SA; their exceptional home record is flattering their prospects. But they are pros and can be expected to go about their business efficiently in the super eight stage. I still think that they will struggle against teams with good seam attacks.
On breaking news, Oz have had another horror show in the first match of the Chappell-Hadlee series. They have suddenly been stripped bare by injuries to batsmen and Brett Lee. Shaun Tait should provide some quality in bowling but already the selectors' decision to drop Stu Clark and pick Mitchell Johnson appears to be folly. Buchanan will be more concerned about the poor showing in the field, notwithstanding the absence of Ponting and Symonds. At the minimum, expect them to put up a vastly improved show while fielding at Auckland on Sunday.
Momentum is a funny thing in sport - when the going is good and the team is winning even the small things fall in place and the team gets the lucky breaks. Australia are now in that situation where nothing is going right. Indeed, it is a moot point whether they will gain anything by playing in NZ at this time of the year. If my memory serves me right, India had a horror tour of NZ prior to 2003 world cup and it took them couple of matches into the tournament to sort out their batting. The wickets in NZ are not conducive to batting at least in the early part of the day, this time of the year. So matches become some sort of a gamble, dependent on toss. Not the ideal way to prepare for the world cup.
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