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Australia maintain winning streak

The way they are playing right now, it will probably take the Australian A side to give the world champions a run for their money -- no other side seems likely to.

The 'A' side remark is not entirely facetious, mind you. Today Australia rested Jason Gillespie and Damien Fleming, giving them a rest, and brought in Adam Dale and Glenn McGrath, also Damien Martyn. And the team continued to play seamless, flawless cricket. A pointer to the awesome bench strength the Aussies command -- but more importantly, an indication of how well the Aussies work to keep every member of their touring party match fit and ready to play at their peak. Also, the change had the advantage of giving Glenn McGrath a chance to get back into his rhythm after sitting out the first two games with a thigh injury -- the Australians thus carefully working towards a situation where they can pair up Gillespie and McGrath for the final.

And it perhaps these little things, this ability to attend to detail, to think several moves ahead of the game, that make them the champion side they are.

A stumble in the middle order apart, Australia played near perfect cricket today to defeat Sri Lanka. The home team got it all wrong at the start of the chase, before a defiant innings by Chamara Silva, coming into the side in place of Avishka Gunawardene, aided and abetted by first Chaminda Vaas and then Upul Chandana, breathed fresh life into the chase. More importantly, the latter order ensured that Lanka didn't fall too far behind on the net run rate -- and that could be vital, given that Sunday's game between India and Sri Lanka will decide the identity of the second finalist, and if India wins, it will get down to the run rate factor.

Batting first, Australia -- courtesy Mark Waugh and Adam Gilchrist -- served up an object lesson in the basics of one day play. Waugh was a revelation -- when in form, as he was today, he makes batting look the easiest thing in the world. And a quick glance down the scoreboard of both teams will show that Mark was the only one who played with ease on a wicket where the ball tended to stay a touch low at times, and never really came on to the bat.

Mark Waugh played his shots throughout, with the elegance that is his characteristic. But the real lesson in that first wicket partnership, for the Indians, was the way the two rotated strike with immaculate running between wickets. The Lankans continued to impress in the field, as they did against India, but both Waugh and Gilchrist played late, waiting for the ball, then playing gently to the left or right of the fielders and racing the singles with perfect judgement.

It looked as if Australia had in fact come out with an overall gameplan -- for as each wicket fell, the next batsman slipped into the same mode, pushing the singles and keeping the score ticking over at a brisk pace. Till, that is, the 30th over, when Australia were 150/3. They say you can double your score at that point, if you have wickets in hand. But at this point, Australia collapsed (perhaps to indicate that they were, underneath the cold-blooded professionalism, human after all -- and that such collapses are not the sole prerogative of the Indians). And ended up on 241 after the allotted 50 overs.

With the bat, pretty much every Australian player looked good, but only Mark Waugh had the skill to keep going after getting in, while the rest fell to the twin demands of playing tight, probing spin and at the same time, keeping the run rate going. For Sri Lanka, again the outstanding feature of their cricket was the fielding -- very tight, very 'up', with Jayasuriya looking to shut down the singles as much as possible, attacking only when a new batsman was at the crease. Interestingly, too, the Lankans appear to have read their home wicket better than the Indians and the Australians -- thus, their gameplan is obviously to use spin as their main weapon, and it was in fact their spinners who shut Australia down after the side, at one point -- 33/0 in 5, 59/0 in 10, 83/1 in 15, 103/1 in 20 -- seemed to be motoring along very nicely.

For Sri Lanka, success in the chase meant that Jayasuriya had to fire. However, in common with most international teams, Australia appears to have worked out that Jayasuriya has two productive shots early in his innings -- the slashing cut through the slip-gully-point region, and the flick off his pads up and over midwicket. Opposing teams these days tend to place fields for these shots -- typically a couple of slips, a gully if you can afford it, a deep backward square, a deep midwicket. Which was the field Waugh set -- with the addition that he also put the right fielder in the right place. Jayasuriya's biggest get-out region is square on the off, and Waugh placed Ponting there at a very squarish gully/fine point. McGrath bowled one outside off, Jayasuriya slashed, and Ponting, anticipating brilliantly, took off with the shot, flinging himself to his right to hold one of the best close catches you ever want to see.

From there on, there really could be only one result, as tight bowling and electric fielding shut the Lankans down. Lanka, 17/1 at the end of 5 overs, slid and slithered their way through -- 41/1 in 10, 56/4 in 15, 70/4 in 20, 87/4 in 25, 110/5 in 30, 134/6 in 35. 157/7 in 40 -- till the slog overs, when the tail showed the kind of cricketing sensibility their betters had lacked. Chamara Silva had already proved an inspired choice ahead of Avishka Gunwardene -- the right hander is a compact little batsman, somewhat in the Atapattu mould, getting right behind the line every time, and playing with correct technique and calm temperament.

It was when Chaminda Vaas joined him that the game turned on its axis. Initially, it looked as though the two batsmen were looking to just chip the runs -- every run they scored ensuring that the net run rate would take less of a beating. Then Chandana came out, and pushed the pedal right to the floor with some electric hitting that brought the ask down from nearly nine at one point, to an attainable seven and a half.

At this point, the real difference between the two teams showed up -- the Australians have been there before, they know how it's done, and they have ice cold nerves; whereas the Lankan team is relatively inexperienced, and therefore nervy. The Aussies, thus, just kept doing their thing, bowling length and line, not worrying about the big hits, keeping things as tight as they could, shutting the game down as much as possible and waiting the Lankan batsmen out. The latter succumbed as the pressure mounted, first Silva, then Chandana, falling victims to their own exuberance and finally giving Australia a 27 run win.

For Australia, the most impressive bowlers were -- surprise, surprise -- Adam Dale and Damien Martyn. Dale bowled his 10 overs right through, and produced immaculate figures of 2/27. And Martyn in the middle overs did what he was required to -- cut out the frills, bowled a three quarter line around off and battened down the hatches on the Lankan batsmen.

But for me, the highlight of the day was Mark Waugh. If the Indians can get hold of a breakup of his innings, it might be worth their while to study it -- here was a batsman going at almost a run a ball without ever looking stretched, and the most noticeable aspect of it was the high proportion of singles he ran. In fact, by the halfway stage of his innings he was obviously feeling the humidity -- and yet he not only continued his active search for the short single, but also ran just as hard when he was at the non-striker's end.

Basic one day cricket, that -- hit when you can, if you can't, look for the single. But Mark had that basic down pat -- and look at the difference his batting made to the eventual outcome.

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