| krishna |
Posted
on 02-Mar-03 08:23 PM
Yesterday's match saw a delightful innings from Michael Bevan saviour yet another victory for the Aussies in the thriller at Port Elizabeth. Andy Bichel, coming in at number 10 for the Australians hit a magnificent his career best 34 to support Bevan in guiding Australia through to victory.
England hit a mere 204 batting first on a good track and it seemed highly unlikely that the upset was on the making. But the Australians were reduced to 135 for 8 wickets still needing 70 runs and only 2 wickets in hand, thanks to Andy Caddick for producing a wonderful spell knocking out the dangerous Aussie's top order. Remember if England had won this game, they were through to Super Sixes without any doubt.
Michael Bevan then produced another of his matchwinners. He kept his head cool, never panicked, just played some lovely shots, never went for a rush blooded strokes, played very positively and made a classy 74 not out which was decisive. Lets not take anything away from the no. 10 batsman. What more would a team ask when a player coming in at 10 plays a handsome knock of 34 and supports well the world's finest one-day cricketer? Andy Bichel aslo ripped through the England batting claiming 7 wickets. What a day it was for Bichel?
It was the finest display of composure I have ever seen. They call Michael Bevan, 'the Finisher' and once again he gave a classic example of how to win matches against all odds. He guided Australia to an unlikely victory having hardly played a shot in anger. He knew he was the only top order batsman remaining and the rest coming down the order were bowlers of the pinching ability. He knew he had to stay there till the end to lift Australia to victory and however possible never lose his wicket. The boundaries were hard to come by but he also knew that he never needed them. He could just run through singles, converting them into doubles, and converting doubles to three's. That is how Bevan thinks. If boundaries don't come by, you have to run through and make those singles to doubles and equal the boundaries. And we all know how quick Bevan is between the wickets.
On the other hand, a lot of sub-continent cricketers, if they know that boundaries are not coming by, they will start to panic and play rush shots that would eventually get them. 'Patience is what I think is the difference in Aussies's classy'.
In Australian line up, we don't see any Sachin Tendulkar, or Brian Lara, or Inzamam, or Saeed Anwar or any of those classic hitters of the cricket ball, so then why they are so dominant in cricket thesedays and we hardly see them loosing? I will start to rub my eyes, if I see them loosing. That was the case yesterday and again they became victories claiming 14 straight victories against England.
But they have players like Gilchrist is one of the cleanest hitter of a cricket ball and a fine wicket keeper. Boy! I tell ya, he can hit some really huge ones and can play a very dangerous innings. They have Matthew Hayden, who can be as classic as Tendulkar, and as pinchy as Klusener. Captain Ricky Ponting is one of the best timers in the game, and I have never seen Ricky play bad shots, eventually he does that and it becomes decisive for him. But he is a dangerous player coming in the middle. They have Damien Martyn and Darren Lehmann, both are equally dangerous and have guided Australians to many a victories. Then comes 'the Finisher' Mr. Michael Bevan.
The bowling department has the greatest weapons of all time, in both versions of the game, who else then Glen McGrath. What a player he is? I recall an incident with him, Australians were playing against India and Tendulkar started whacking McGrath to all parts of the ground. He didn't know what to do. He was panicking. Then captain Steve Waugh told McGrath to drop the ball good length, just outside off stump. Steve Waugh placed a lot of fielders protecting the offside boundary.
The next 5 overs that followed saw Glen McGrath bowl deliveries at the same length over and over again. Just an inch outside off stump and good lenght ball. He just hit his mark time and time again and eventually got Tendulkar out. That is Glen McGrath for you and just imainge how much labor is required to produce that kind of deliveries in the nets. Its just unbelievable piece of bowling when one considers, he doesn't swing the ball and he doesn't nothing with the ball except bowl at a good lenght slightly rising and a little of outswing. He has taken a lots and lots of vital wickets for Australians at the right time.
Australians can afford to drop the Waughs and still become the dominant side in world cricket today. Hats off to the Aussies. I hope a lot of teams will follow the strategy taken by the Australia side. They are the phenomenon to cricket and a change of cricketing era with their epic distortion.
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