The Hindu : Sport : Australia is in a zone of its own

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Friday, Jan 12, 2007
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Australia is in a zone of its own

Ted Corbett

MELBOURNE: Michael Vaughan, smiling his way through the barrage that hit England's bowlers in the Twenty20 match at Sydney this week, will need all his famous ability to remain cheerful in adversity to rebuild the morale of the side as England attempts to gain a place in the final of the Australian one-day tri-series which begins on Friday.

He may even need every skill in his captain's locker to persuade England to win a single match but he is not the only leader with problems.

Ricky Ponting will discover how good he is when captaincy no longer consists of the questions: "Which end, Pidgeon?" to Glenn McGrath and "Can you go another ten overs, Warnie?"

Stephen Fleming, whose New Zealand is thought of as an outside chance for the World Cup, has been alternated with Daniel Vettori and may have to take a firm stand on that situation alone to get the best out of a group of highly-motivated, rather than highly-talented, cricketers.

Sense of humour

Vaughan demonstrated last on Tuesday that his long layoff with a knee injury has done nothing to suppress his optimism or his sense of humour. He was the only England player who agreed to have a microphone on his shirt so that he could talk back to the Channel Nine commentators and he made the most of his chance.

"How's the knee?" he was asked. "The knee's fine — but I am getting a sore neck watching these sixes soar into the crowd," he laughed as the Australian batsmen let fly. Later he said:

"Our biggest challenge over the next couple of day is to make sure we get the players in a good mental state. When tough times come you need tough players and these lads have already shown me they have a good work ethic which will serve them well."

Reliable player

The genuine success in that heavy defeat came from Jamie Dalrymple who fielded briskly and made a top score of 32. Dalrymple is an all-rounder with Middlesex, 26 later this month, born in Nairobi and captain of Oxford University.

He is, quite simply, a good cricketer, reliable and aggressive. Surely there is a place in one-day cricket for him and Vaughan knows he can rely on this athlete whose chunky appearance betrays his past on the rugby field.

The interest in the Australian side lies in new men, like the quick Mitchell Johnson, but especially in the bearded young fast bowler Ben Hilfenhaus who seemed to have pace to spare as he bowled Ian Bell and had Paul Collingwood caught.

Brett Lee is out of the first two matches with a bug that has swept through the Aussie dressing room and that could be important in the progress of Hilfenhaus.

Return of Bond

New Zealanders may not have the glorious ability of the All Black Rugby giants and has to depend on spirit, guts and getting under the skin of their opponents as much as their skills but the return of Shane Bond gives them a pace option which the other two sides will envy.

This Bond is not 007 but he leaves batsmen shaken and stirred and if he hits form there could be an upset in at least a couple of matches.

As for a prediction, there is only one side in the competition. It will take a very nasty virus to stop Australia winning whoever else reaches the final.

With or without McGrath, Warne and Justin Langer it is a side of all the talents, hard, resilient and supremely confident. It is their time and they will make the most of the moment.

The teams (from):

Australia: Ricky Ponting (capt), Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark, Michael Clarke, Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Ben Hilfenaus, Brad Hogg, Michael Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Glenn McGrath, Andrew Symonds, Cameron White.

England: Michael Vaughan (capt), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood, James Dalrymple, Andrew Flintoff, Ed Joyce, Jon Lewis, Sajid Mahmood, Paul Nixon, Monty Panesar, Kevin Pietersen, Liam Plunkett, Chris Read, Andrew Strauss, Chris Tremlett.

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