 Johannesburg will play host to the Group A game between Australia and West
Indies on Saturday. It will be the first of the two games on the day, and will
be a day affair. West Indies will go into the match after having lost their first
game against Pakistan, whereas Australia will be playing their first game of the
tournament.
Click for Live Score Card of Australia vs West Indies
Australia will be coming off a high. After all, it is not daily that you beat
your arch-rival 6-1 in an ODI series, especially after having lost the Ashes
to the same opponents. Many of the experts say that the win was possible thanks
to a lacklustre English side, and may not be the same against a tougher opposition.
But, for now, the Aussies will be happy with the fact that it would be West Indies that they would face first up in the competition - which will ensure
that they can slide into the tournament with what many would term as a practice
game!
It was far too evident that the West Indian batsmen lack the experience to
bat through the fifty overs against a good bowling attack. Against Pakistan,
they had had to not only endure the stronger bowling, but also the pitch was
green in nature. The game against Australia will be on the same pitch and it
remains to be seen whether the pitch curator is able to shave off the grass
or allows the same, but one can be rest assured that things will not get easier
for the men from the Caribbean.
Australia has a balanced batting and bowling attack. In fact, if anything,
one of their better recent players in Callum Ferguson may need to sit
out for the game if the Aussies decide to play their best playing eleven, that
includes the likes of Ricky Ponting, Clarke, Hussey, White and Hopes
in the middle order. It may boil down to the toss up between James Hopes
and Ferguson, as, if the pitch will support the bowlers, and cause it to nip
around, the Aussies could easily do with an extra batsman. This will mean that
Hopes will need to give way to Ferguson and Australia will go in with four frontline
bowlers, and Michael Clarke and Watson to share the remaining overs.
With Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson and Nathan Bracken sharing the
workload for the fast bowlers' slots, and Nathan Hauritz slowly getting
into his own as the spinner, the Aussie bowling attack does seem to be the one
to look out for.
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