AUSSIES NEED SPINNERS

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The T20 captain of Australia, George Bailey, has said that Australia needs to find unorthodox spinners if the team has to do well in the next T20 World Cup which is going to be held in Bangladesh in 2014.

While talking to the reporters after his return from Sri Lanka, Bailey said, “If you have to do well under subcontinent conditions, you need to have a bit of variety in your spin bowling attack. But, we didn’t have any unorthodox spinner.”

“You look at the other top T20 sides and you will find that they have got a mystery spinner in their bowling line up. Pakistan has Saeed Ajmal, Sri Lanka has Ajantha Mendis, West Indies has Sunil Narine and India has Ravichandran Ashwin. But, we don’t have any mystery spinner. We need to find one pretty soon, otherwise, we will struggle again in Bangladesh.

“We had two specialist spinners in our squad, but, both of them were the orthodox ones. Xavier Doherty doesn’t bowl arm bowl too often and only bowls the delivery which comes in for the left hander. Brad Hogg has got a wrong one, but, his wrong one is not as lethal as a ‘carrom ball’ or a ‘doosra’.

“In Australia, the unorthodox spinners are not encouraged at the junior level. At the Under-11 or Under-13 level, they are told to bring orthodoxy in their bowling and try to be a genuine leg spinner or off spinner. But, we have to change our approach a bit. We need to encourage such type of spinners at junior level.”

When asked whether he wants to continue captaining the side, Bailey said, “Yes, I am enjoying the captaincy and I want to continue leading the Australian T20 side in the future. But, it all depends on the selectors. If they think that I am doing a good job as a captain, I will be more than happy to continue captaining the side.”

PAKISTAN SMASH AUSSIES

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The Pakistan cricket team has defeated Australia by 7 wickets in the 2nd ODI match at Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi. The Pakistani players looked pretty determined and put up a brilliant performance to level the series. Australia was playing with the same team that had defeated Pakistan in the first ODI two days ago. On the other hand, there were two changes in the Pakistani side. Shahid Afridi and Aizaz Cheema were not playing and Junaid Khan and Abdur Rehman were brought into the side.

The Australian captain, Michael Clarke, won the toss and decided to bat first. The Australian team was off to a very poor start and Matthew Wade was clean bowled by Junaid Khan in the second over of the match. Michael Clarke and David Warner stabilized the inning a bit and added 66 runs together for the second wicket. Australia was in a decent position at 74 for 1, but, all of a sudden, Australia lost three quick wickets and the score became 87 for 4. The Australian batsmen again struggled against the classical off spinner Saeed Ajmal.

Michael Hussey scored a half century and put up a 66-run stand with George Bailey for the fifth wicket. Glenn Maxwell again played well and scored 28 runs off 27 balls with two towering sixes. The Australian team scored 248 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in 50 overs. Saeed Ajmal took 4 wickets for Pakistan.

The Pakistani team looked in complete control while chasing the target. Nasir Jamshed and Mohammad Hafeez attacked the Australian bowlers right from the first over. Mitchell Starc looked unimpressive this time around and he gave too much room to the batsmen. Daniel Christian broke the opening partnership at the score of 66, but, that didn’t have much impact on the match. Azhar Ali and Jamshed played quite sensibly and put up a 100-run stand for the second wicket.

Jamshed didn’t manage to complete his century, but, he had done his job before getting out. Azhar Ali saw the team home with the captain Misbah-ul-Haq. Nasir Jamshed was declared man of the match for his sublime knock.