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With an Ashes tour on seam-friendly England wickets headlining a monster 18 months of cricket for Australia, the ability to play the moving ball has become a major headache for the Australian team, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. Sri Lankan medium pacer Nuwan Kulasekara, who ripped Australia apart with five wickets in Friday night’s humiliating total of 74 at the Gabba, again was on song in Sunday’s SCG washout ODI.
The 30-year-old finished with 3-30, including the valued scalp of Clarke (20) and opener Phil Hughes (1), again getting the ball to hoop into right-handers with immense success.
The triple disappointments of the top order in Adelaide, where the hosts slumped to 6-83, the Gabba, where they were bowled out for their lowest total since 1986, and the SCG, where after 12.1 overs they were again struggling at 3-53, has incited Clarke to tell his teammates to overcome the opinion they were simply flat track bullies.
Clarke said the players need to be able to perform not just on good wickets but on tough wickets as well, adding that he thinks there is that area of their game that every Australian player need to improve especially when there’s a bit of movement. The captain added the last three wickets in Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney have probably swung and seamed as much as he has ever seen in limited overs cricket but that’s not an excuse for poor performance. Clarke further said his top four needs to find a way to set a platform to build a good total.
