Not surprisingly, the ICC World team caved in quite abjectly to the spin of Warne and MacGill to lose to world champions Australia by a huge margin. There was a glimmer of hope when the overnight batsmen Dravid and Brian Lara batted with assurance against the pace of Brett Lee and the cunning of McGrath, but as soon as Warne was introduced, he got the ball to buzz and that was that.
Dravid played Warne inside out, which is different, but that’s the way he plays spinners turning the ball away from him, be it a leg-spinner like Warne or a left-arm orthodox spinner. What he does with this method is leave himself open to the outside edge if the ball turns a bit more than he expects and that’s precisely what happened here with Hayden completing a low catch. Murali was an interesting observer to this and one could see his brain ticking for the Lankans come over to India soon for one-dayers as well as Tests and already he is planning on bowling the ‘doosra’ to the Indian captain.
Of course, Dravid being the studious player that he is, will no doubt be practicing how to get over this aspect of his batting and making sure that he covers more for the spin than he does.
Lara too fell to the spin whiz and after that there really was no resistance, thanks to less application. Inzamam may have got a bad one with the ball seeming to go down the leg-side and he thus completed a poor game. Perhaps he didn’t come prepared as he seemed to have been upset at his omission from the squad in the first place and so when he was picked to replace the injured Tendulkar, he probably wasn’t quite ready and as we all know that when playing a champion team like Australia, if a player is firstly not mentally prepared, then it’s going to be virtually impossible for him to do well.
If only the World team’s batsmen had shown the application of Kallis and the way he batted in both innings then there may have been a more competitive game than was seen. Kallis plays very late and does not commit himself till the very last second and it’s this lateness in playing that gives him the chance to negotiate the extra turn or unexpected bounce. The other batsman who could have swung it the World team’s way was Andrew Flintoff, who has come on in leaps and bounds since the India tour in 2001-02.
Unfortunately, on the bigger Australian boundaries, he wasn’t able to clear the deep mid-wicket fielder and with his dismissal the procession started, and it was a bit embarrassing how quickly the rest succumbed as the tail did not even flicker, let alone wag.
The Australians with this display have restored the faith of their supporters and will go on to the new season with more confidence than after their loss in the Ashes series. It was galling for them to lose the Ashes after almost 20 years and so they were more determined than the World team in the event, both the one- dayers as well as the Super Test. The success of Stuart MacGill may well make them play with two spinners from now on, though of course the wickets at the other centers may not be as conducive to spin as the one at Sydney. Still, with Watson looking like he will be given more opportunities, the Aussies may consider going in with him as that gives them a bit more balance than otherwise and they will still have four top quality bowlers capable of running through any side. So it does look like the Aussie domination will continue for some more time unless England do something special on their tours to Pakistan and India later on in the season. Yes, no question about it. Aussies rule and the world, including England, better accept it.
