Kenya: Pressure Pile On Champs Australia

Nairobi Star (Nairobi)

Banglore

18 March 2011

Ricky Ponting will be allowed no more metaphorical excuses like “blowing out cobwebs” or “shaking off the rust” to defend Australia’s performance.

After two scratchy performances against associates Kenya and Canada, nothing less than their traditional brand of ruthless, aggressive cricket from now on will see them lift the World Cup for the fourth straight time.

Even though the margin of both victories-by 60 runs against Kenya and seven wickets against Canada-looked fairly comfortable on paper, the truth is that they were stretched on both occasions.

First, a 29-year-old Kenyan came within two runs scoring his maiden century and then a 19-year-old Canadian treated the world’s fastest bowlers with utter disdain. While Collins Obuya’s unbeaten 98 showed that the Aussie pace trio of Brett Lee, Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson could be held at bay for 50 overs, Hiral Patel showed how raw pace can be used against its exponents by cutting and slashing his way to a whirlwind 45-ball 54.

“Against better teams and deeper batting orders, we have to make sure we don’t let teams get off to that sort of start,” Ponting admitted, referring to Canada scoring the fastest team half-century of the World Cup in 4.4 overs.

If his speedsters fail, Ponting does not have much of a fallback, since his spinners Jason Krejza and Steve Smith have been virtual spectators so far, neither picking plentiful wickets nor plugging the runs.

They have five wickets so far between them. Lee alone took four wickets against Canada. On sub-continent pitches that suit the spinners, if any sort of bowler, the lack of a quality tweaker to marshal the middle overs could well haunt Ponting when they face the stronger batting teams.

Speaking of batting, the Australian batsmen are in fine nick with the exception of the captain himself, who has managed just 83 runs in four innings, a dismal haul for the tournament’s second highest run-getter of all time.

Shane Watson and Brad Haddin struggled initially against Canada but then changed gears effortlessly later on to pummel the bowling and Michael Clarke and Mike Hussey scored workmanlike half-centuries against Kenya.

In the field too the team that is usually the standard-setter has been sloppy with a few catches being grassed and their dead-eye throws deserting them.

The captain gave vent to his pent-up frustrations on Wednesday by angrily slamming the ball into the turf after Smith collided with him while going for a catch despite a clear call. He took that catch. But if he wants to hold on to the World Cup, Ponting’s call to his team to lift their performance had better be louder and clearer.

AllAfrica – All the Time