The injury worries we came to the World Cup with never really left us. The latest on the list is Michael Bevan, who hurt himself while training on Thursday. The physio will check him tomorrow afternoon, and if he advises Michael to rest, Andrew Symonds will come back in his place. This means we might be playing Andrew and Ian Harvey in the game against Kenya. That apart, we are keeping the combination that has remained undefeated so far.
The greatest plus in this tournament has been the way Brett Lee has come along. Until the VB Series at the start of the year, Brett used to open the bowling only occasionally. However, with the injuries to Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie, he was given the new ball, and he has responded to that challenge quite brilliantly. Interestingly, he has been doing most of the damage with the old ball, since he is getting a fair bit of reverse swing. The Australians have never been big on reverse swing, though Glenn does use it every now and then. Brett has the pace to make his reverse swing lethal, and now he is a bowler I can bring back for two spells post 30 overs.
When I assumed the mantle of captaincy last year, I made a bit of an issue about Brett’s economy rate, which was pretty high at the time. I told him that he would have to tighten his line and concentrate on bowling tight rather than just bowling fast. I told him that his target would have to be to bring his economy rate down. Brett took this as a challenge and has been working very hard since then. He still can bowl raw pace at times, but he has added consistency and accuracy to his armory as well. He has watched Glenn at the nets and learned a lot about one-day bowling.
Today, Brett just doesn’t work at his body to get extra pace, he also works at the computer to find out the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition batsmen. Moreover, while he is still an attacking bowler, he knows how to contain the opposition when we are going for plenty.
Glenn also seems to enjoy the lessening of responsibility on his shoulders. He gets spurred on by Brett’s bowling, and they complement and compete with each other marvelously well. Glenn is as fresh and youthful as when I first entered the team, and I must say that the break before the cup has really made him as enthusiastic as a bowler on his first tour!
In this tournament, there have been occasions when the batting has let us down. However, it’s the bowlers who have really come to the party in each and every game.
It’s now for the batsmen, led by the likes of Matthew Hayden to get some runs. I have to admit that our failures in Port Elizabeth are a bit of a concern.
However, we escaped from jail both times, and I’m sure the guys will have a better understanding of the conditions by the next game there. We will meet either Sri Lanka or New Zealand in the semis, but I think New Zealand will struggle after getting bowled out for less than 150. Both teams are pretty similar in that they rely on slow bowlers and allrounders. We are not particularly worried about whom we meet because we back ourselves to do well against both, especially after beating them convincingly in the Super Sixes.
