Australia Moves to the Fourth Position in World Cup Points Table with 62 Runs Win Over Pakistan
Australia has found its way back to the top four of cricket World Cup. Australia cricket is bred on aggresion and passion, it was perfectly visible in their performance against Pakistan on Friday night. They wanted to win the match at all costs, it was in their body language.
Australia scored 367 in their given quota of 50 overs. They could have had more which is going to be talking point about their batting performance. David Warner and Mitchell Marsh together scored 284 off 132 balls. Rest of the Australian batter scored 58 off 67 balls.
Such capitulations have been troubling Australia for last 10-12 months. From an absolute dominant position, they move towards a rocky position which is very uncharacterisic of their identity as a batting unit. A big reason behind this is Australia doesn’t have batters who can carry forward the set foundation in exact momentum.
They are definitely missing Travis Head who allowed Mitchell Marsh to flex his muscles in the middle-order. At the moment, Smith is struggling to get going, Labuschagne hasn’t been able to rotate strike, Stoinis couldn’t make use of his stay at the crease. Yet they won the match quite confidently.
Bowling Putting Australia Ahead in the Game
The good positive for Australia will be their bowling unit which has found some rhythm. Even against Pakistan on Friday, earlier in the innings, Australian bowlers were quite full and wide but as soon as they fixed their lines, the results came to their best efforts.
In last two matches, Australia has conceded two 100 runs partnership for the first wicket. Mitchell Starc has struggled with consistentcy and rhythm. But the noticable thing is they didn’t allow the opposition to run away with the game despite not being able to take wickets.
Matthew Hayden said if Adam Zampa starts to get wickets in the middle overs, Australia will be there till the end. Good thing for Australia, Zampa has found his mojo and now he has back to back four wicket hauls for Australia at Cricket World Cup.
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Pat Cummins has started to bowl well, his speed and intensity has increased. Most importantly, he looks for wickets with a bit of aggresion which is a good sign for Australia. They do well when they are full of aggresion.
A lot of boxes ticked for Australia but something remains to be improved. The middle-order has been exposed and it has struggled against spinners and pacers alike. It can be a big misstep going ahead in the tournament if Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne don’t find their form.
Other than that, all looks good. At some stage, Maxwell and Stoinis will need to finish games on high and it can’t be too long from here. They have some big matches ahead and not at all occasions, Warner and Marsh will provide flying start to the team.
Good thing is Australia has found Josh Inglis who is a wonderful stroke player as well as a talented wicketkeeper. It is nicely placed for Australia at the moment and they have got the winning rhythm, what is only needed is cohesion and more charecters standing up to the cause.
