BANGALORE, (Reuters) – Australia’s pace battery will have much, much tougher tests ahead if they are to claim a fourth World Cup running but on the evidence of yesterday’s win over Canada they are peaking at just the right time.
With their batsmen also in fine nick, Australia gave other title contenders a glimpse of their efficiency with a seven-wicket drubbing of an admittedly weak Canadian side, sending a strong message to Pakistan who they face next.
“We haven’t fully been tested yet. We know we’re going to be tested against Pakistan in a couple of days in Colombo (Saturday) and we look forward to it,” captain Ricky Ponting said.
Brett Lee, Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson first ripped out the Canadian middle and lower order before batsmen Shane Watson (94) and Brad Haddin (88) chased down the majority of the 212 runs required to win in double quick time.
TEPID BOWLING
After a tepid bowling display on Sunday where the same bowlers on the same pitch failed to take 10 Kenyan wickets, the speedsters shifted up a gear by grabbing eight Canadian wickets.
Despite getting taken to the cleaners by 19-year-old Hiral Patel early on, the pace quartet showed their resilience with a fearsome display of bowling to rip the fight out of the North Americans, who lost their last eight wickets for 61 runs.
Brett Lee was the wrecker-in-chief as he grabbed four wickets, while Tait finished with two and Johnson and Watson got one wicket apiece.
Not a bad show on a wicket which has proved a batting paradise throughout the tournament. How batsmen in all the teams remaining will miss playing here now that it has staged its final match in the event. For Canada, only a whirlwind start by Patel (54 in 45 balls) and a steady knocks by captain Ashish Bagai (39) and Zubin Surkari (34) helped them post a decent 211.“Things went not too bad. They caught us on the hop a little bit with the way they started. I thought their top four or five batted really well,” Ponting said.
After teaching them how to bowl, the Aussies then gave the North Americans a lesson in how to pace the innings while chasing down a score.
Watson and Brad Haddin started off slowly as they negotiated the early swing in the ball and then stepped up when they took the powerplay in the 21st over.
They were 94 at that stage, when Watson and Haddin made full use of the long handle on a placid track and 14 overs later, the match was over. Although both openers fell short of deserved centuries, the aggression and intent showed as they went about carting the Canadian bowlers to all parts of the field.
However, the opening show meant that captain Ponting, whose form has been patchy so far, could not get a decent hit and he fell for seven mistiming a pull.
“You could say I am due, would have been nice to be not out, but maybe I am saving it up for the big games,” he said. Overall he was reasonably satisfied with the performance against a team which were not really in the same class as the world No 1 side, who are now unbeaten in 34 World Cup matches stretching back to 1999.
