 Australia 6 England 0. Sounds like a hockey scoreline I guess, but the sport remains
the same - cricket! What had begun as a slow start to the series has quickly turned
into embarrassingly depressing situation for the English, and a loss in the final
game of the series would mean that the English would become the first ever in
the history of the ODI cricket to lose a series 7-0.
Australia has been playing decent cricket without having looked at their imposing
best. However, when you add that to England is usual lack of disciplines
in all the three departments of the game, it does assume proportions beyond
the fathomable.
Click for Live Score Card of England vs Australia
Captain Andrew Strauss did call for a lot of character from his side
after the sixth game, but that is something he should have expected from the
first match itself. For now, the Aussies have their foot firmly on the English
throats and expecting the hosts to get out of the quagmire would be something
almost improbable. From the point of view of England, the only chance that they
would have to win the game would be to bat, bowl and field exceptionally well;
usually they have found at least two of the departments of the game going against
them.
The fielding has been the most common aspect of their issue and the English
would need to ensure that there are no misfields and dropped catches whatsoever.
The batsmen, on the other hand, will need to get moving with their scores and
not get out before they have converted their 20s and 30s to bigger efforts.
This is not to say that they will win the game even if they did that, because
against them there is a team that has smelled blood. The Aussies will want to
go into the game with their full strength side, after having rotated the players
around in the previous two matches. This will mean that the likes of Michael
Clarke, Ricky Ponting, Hussey and White will still form the middle-order,
with Ferguson, in all probabilities coming in at the number seven position.
The bowling should be spearheaded by Brett Lee, who though is on the
expensive side of things, ends up picking wickets at regular, vital intervals.
Same could be said about Mitchell Johnson, and if Nathan Bracken
continues bowling the way he usually does - conceding not more than four to
the over - the hosts could very well be staring down a whitewash. The one option
they do have is to go after Nathan Hauritz, but even the off-spinner
has been clever with his variations and should be difficult to get away with.
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