The Hindu : Sport : Stop me if you can, says Warne

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Friday, Dec 08, 2006
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Stop me if you can, says Warne

Melbourne: Spin wizard Shane Warne has challenged Duncan Fletcher's claim that England team had sorted him out and asked the rival camp coach to come up with a plan to stop him from leading the Australians to another Ashes victory.

``I'm sure Fletcher will come up with some you-beaut plan, a you-beaut comment,'' Warne said.

All about winning

``I know Fletcher has said he thought England are playing me really well.

"If that is what he thinks, that's fine, but at the end of the day it is all about winning,'' Warne was quoted as saying by the Herald Sun.

But, after the loss at Adelaide, Fletcher said: ``I don't think he has (mental hold of England). It's like other good spinners who have bowled well against us on wickets that suit them,'' he said.

``I have never said we have played him comfortably in the sense we are confident against him, but I felt we played him better than we have than in recent years.

``He had to wait 54 overs for one wicket in the first innings. In the second innings we struggled to score off him but he still had to bowl 32 overs,'' he added. Warne said Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood were the only two English batsmen who he felt had played him well in the opening two matches of the Ashes series.

Comfortable

``I thought Collingwood at times has played me well and Pietersen has played me well, but apart from that I have felt very comfortable bowling to all their players and I still feel comfortable bowling to Pietersen and Collingwood.''

He also defended his tactics of bowling around the wicket, particularly to Pietersen, in the first innnings (1-167 off 53 overs) which drew widespread criticism.

Strategy

``I had to revert to going around the wicket because the game dictated that we had to stop them scoring. As much as I didn't like doing it, going around the wicket, I had no option. We just had to stop them scoring and getting too far ahead of us.

``That was the tactic and I was hoping to get him (Pietersen) out at the other end by taking a few more risks with the other bowlers, but it didn't work,'' Warne said. — PTI

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