B D NarayankarImagine. Last over India needs eight runs to win the World Cup and likes of Nathan Bracken are ready to bowl to Sachin Tendulkar or Yuvraj Singh. Will they match Bret Lee's intimidating bowling to restrict these batsmen? The answer is no. Look at the Aussies' bowling fiasco in the recently-concluded Chappel-Hadlee one-day series against New Zealand. The Kiwis tore to shreds the lackluster Aussie bowling which failed to defend 300-plus total twice. It will not be a surprise if they concede over 300 runs on the slower and spin-friendly wickets in West Indies too.
They honestly were good during the power plays, but looked pretty ordinary after that. And even worse in the death overs. Glen MacGrath's presence in the team might boost the Aussies', but it is certainly not enough unless he fires all cylinders up. With all due respect to the great bowler, he has lost his zip. Perhaps it is due to Shane Warne's absence. The leggie was a perfect foil to him who kept the pressure on the other end constantly. It should not surprise cricket enthusiasts that they share over 1,000 wickets between them.
Shaun Tait, Nathan Bracken, Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson and Brad Hogg surely are good replacements and have skills to perform. But they lack experience to handle pressure. They awfully lost both Commonwealth Bank and Chappell-Hadlee one-day series to Kiwis.
It is true cricket is a game of skills, but more than that it is a mind game and teams which can handle pressure can grab the World Cup. What is worrying the Aussies more is in what fashion their bowlers caved in to New Zealand.
The Aussies were decimated 3-0. In the first game of the series, Australia lost by 10 wickets for the first time in their cricketing history. In the next two games, Australia lost in spite of scoring mammoth 330-plus scores while batting first. In fact, they have on four occasions in the past 14 months failed to defend a total of 330-plus. This just goes to show that the Australian bowling attack has lost much of its bite.
With 14 days to go for the cricket World Cup, the champions no longer look invincible. They have lost five matches on the trot, including a rare whitewash in a one-day series. The last time the Aussies lost more than four matches in a row was back in 1997.
Ponting might have come up with a solution to cope up with the lackluster Aussie bowling -- bat second. For that, Ponting has to win the toss every time he goes out to twirl the coin.
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