Australians looking to play square
The Age
Friday March 4, 2011
THE progress of Australia's batsmen with their primary task for the World Cup ‚€ playing more horizontal-bat shots against spin ‚€ will be significantly tested on Saturday against Sri Lanka.Australia's inability to score freely against Zimbabwe's spinners in the first match of the tournament prompted captain Ricky Ponting to concede that the batsmen had to be more willing ‚€ and able ‚€ to hit spinners square of the wicket, including reverse sweeps.As well as the revered Muthiah Muralidaran, Australia is likely to have to also contend with specialist spinners Ajantha Mendis and Rangana Herath. Middle-order batsman David Hussey said the team's training for the past three days in Colombo had been tailored to improving its capability to punish opposition spinners."Everyone's got their own individual ways of handling spin, and we know that against Sri Lanka and later on in the tournament we're going to be facing a lot," he said yesterday. "A lot of boys are practising sweep shots, using their feet to spin and getting back and forward out of the crease. It's been a very useful three days and hopefully we can put it into practice against Sri Lanka."While Hussey insisted Muralidaran would be respected, he also justifiably defended Australia's record against the Sri Lankan off-spinner. In Muralidaran's 39 matches against Australia he has claimed 53 wickets at an average of 31.15. The only nation he has fared worse against is India, against which he averaged 31.26 runs per wicket." 'Murali' is a great bowler ‚€ he's got over 800 Test wickets and is a phenomenal competitor ‚€ but Australia has had pretty good success against [him] in the past. Hopefully that can continue," Hussey said.Muralidaran predicted the R. Premadasa Stadium pitch would offer more assistance to batsmen on both sides than it would for his bowling."It's going to be a batting wicket rather than a typical Sri Lankan wicket [more conducive to spin]," said the 38-year-old, who is playing in his final international tournament. "It's going to be a little bit slow, good for batting and spin a bit as well."A day after Ireland's record World Cup chase of 7-329 against England, Muralidaran downplayed the possibility of a similarly high-scoring match tomorrow in Colombo."I don't think in Sri Lanka you can score that much. If you're really batting well you can score more than 300, but in Indian conditions ‚€ smaller ground, fast outfield, better wickets ‚€ 350 is achievable, but in Sri Lankan conditions 280-290 is a good score," he said.Despite Sri Lanka's historic limited-overs series victory in Australia in November, Muralidaran insisted Australia remained the team to beat in this tournament."They've played spin well in the past, they are still ranked No. 1 team, have won in every type of conditions and have won the past three World Cups so they're the team to beat," he said."It was a great win for us because we'd won a series for the first time ever. It's a hard place to beat Australia so we were satisfied, but we're not going to look back, we want to see what happens in a few days' time."The past is the past, the future will count."€“Mike Hussey's bid for a last-minute recall to the Australian World Cup squad has been endorsed by a predictable ally: his younger brother David."He's desperate to get back and play for Australia, he's back playing shield cricket at the moment. If I was chairman of selectors I would definitely choose Mike first and foremost," he said.
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