India underdogs in semi
[caption id="attachment_74866" align="alignright" width="300"] SHAPING UP: Australia cricketers run during a training session at the Sydney Cricket Ground yesterday, ahead of their World Cup semifinal match against India tomorrow Picture: AFP -[/caption]
Aussie skipper feels his men can swing things their way
INDIA still bear the scars of the mauling they suffered at the hands of Australia at the start of their tour Down Under and Steve Smith thinks it could be a factor when the countries meet in tomorrow’s World Cup semifinal.
The world champions have stormed back to imperious form in the World Cup and are unbeaten going into the last four showdown at Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG), where they will be out to end Australia’s bid for a fifth world crown.
From the start of December to early last month, however, Australia simply dominated India, winning two tests and drawing two, then beating them comfortably in a tri-series match and World Cup warm-up.
“I think we’ll have a little edge over them, with a few scars from the matches. Throughout the summer, they didn’t beat us once,” Smith, 25, said at the SCG yesterday.
“So I think that’s going to be playing on their mind a little bit.
“They’ve been here for a long time now, they’ve been able to get accustomed to the conditions, the bounce we’ve got here compared with back in India.
“Other than that, I just think we need to do what we can do well, to control that. If we do, I’ve no doubt it’s going to be a competitive game for us.”
Smith’s own spectacular form with the bat played a large part in Australia’s supremacy in the test arena, scoring centuries in all four matches and 769 runs in total.
He has been less prolific in the World Cup, scoring 241 runs in six matches, but showed great maturity in his innings of 65 to help Australia to victory in the quarterfinal against Pakistan.
Smith feels his elevation up the batting order to No 3 works well for the team, especially against spin-reliant sides from the subcontinent.
“I have always said I enjoy batting at three and with [Michael Clarke] at four we just like to take our time and knock the ball around,” he said.
“That will work well against India with their spinners bowling quite a few overs in the middle.
“We can knock them around and give our power-hitters the last 15 overs to come in and do what they did against Sri Lanka. I think that is our blueprint to perform ideally.”
Meanwhile, Waqar Younis has warned that cricket could die out in Pakistan if rival teams continued to boycott the country, where international tours have not taken place since 2009.
There has been no international cricket in Pakistan since the militant attacks on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore in March 2009, which killed eight people and injured seven visiting players.
“The biggest hurt is that we are not able to stage international matches,” Pakistan head coach Waqar said.
“I fear the game might die out as we lack talent at junior level and it’s tough to indulge kids in cricket. “It’s a very important aspect. “We have to bring international cricket back and the government has to help in this regard.”
The Pakistan Cricket Board managed to bring minnows Kenya for a short one-day series last year and are negotiating with Zimbabwe for a visit in May.
Waqar believes Pakistan’s quarterfinal exit from the World Cup at the hands of Australia showed there was a lot of hard work to be done on the country’s cricket set-up and infrastructure.
“If we want to save Pakistan cricket we have to lift our domestic game.”
His team crossed the 300 mark just once in seven games at the World Cup – against the amateurs of the United Arab Emirates.
– Reuters, AFP
