Ponting's men set to square up to tweakers
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday March 4, 2011
COLOMBO: The progress of Australia's batsmen against spin will be well and truly tested against Sri Lanka tomorrow.Australia's inability to score freely against Zimbabwe's tweakers in the first match of the tournament prompted captain Ricky Ponting to concede he and his fellow batsmen had to be more willing - and able - to hit spinners square of the wicket, including using reverse sweeps.As well as the revered Muttiah Muralitharan, Australia are likely to face specialist spinners Ajantha Mendis and Rangana Herath.Middle-order batsman David Hussey said the team's recent training had been tailored to improving their 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. "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 Muralit-haran would be respected, he justifiably defended Australia's record against the Sri Lankan off-spinner. In Muralitharan'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.Muralitharan predicted that 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, Muralitharan downplayed the possibility of a similarly high-scoring match 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 last November, Muralitharan 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."
© 2011 Sydney Morning Herald