We have reached a point in the current tournament where we have had time to review our four performances, as well as those of New Zealand and India. From this review, we now look ahead to the next two games, and then separately the final in Kolkata. Our aim for the tournament — to make the final — has not changed. Our first goal in achieving this result was to minimise ‘damage’ in these first four games. This we’ve done, and has been measured by results on the points table; the injuries/sickness we have sustained; implementation of our overall game plan; the adjustment of our players, particularly first-timers, to the Indian conditions (some observers call this ‘form’); and the harmony within the touring group. We have been delighted with the new ball work of Brad Williams and Nathan Bracken. Both are learning quickly about bowling with older balls on these wickets and small grounds. Ian Harvey and Brad Hogg have been good support bowlers in the middle periods, with Andy Bichel yet to hit his straps. The left arm orthodox of Michael Clarke in Mumbai was a salivating taste of the future. All batsmen at different times have shown their wares onfield. While this is a sign of a team effort across a tournament, one would say that our batting line-up has not yet functioned near its capacity as a unit within a game. We have continued to spend time on the basics of our fielding, knowing this is critical to our defensive play against any batting team in these conditions. One feature of our game has been the leadership of Ricky Ponting. He has been decisive, intuitive, innovative in the marshalling of his troops. We realise there are areas of improvement, principally the adjustment of our techniques as batsmen and bowlers, plus, some fine-tuning of the game plan. We set about putting these aspects into operation in our training and debrief discussions in Delhi, prior to the games in Guwahati and Bangalore. In a nutshell, our goals for these two games were to — • Maintain the momentum we have established• Improve our onfield performance• Have all 14 players ready for selection for final in Kolkata. At the same time, we looked at other factors which can impact on what we have set ourselves while here in India. The factors are our opposition teams, the conditions we have and will face and some overall statistics. Firstly, a look at our opposition, New Zealand and India, suggests that their performances have been variable. New Zealand are feeling the loss of key impact players Nathan Astle, Shane Bond and a fit Chris Cairns. While the two Macs, McMillan and the perky McCullum, have elevated their one day status, they are lacking support from senior members Fleming, Harris and Vettori. India are under microscopic inspection from all and sundry — a difficult position for any team and the leadership of that team. Rahul Dravid looks to be carrying the full weight of the team’s as well as each individual’s performance personally. With Saurav Ganguly fit, this may be one piece of the jigsaw that can be reset to allow players like Dravid to return to their normal roles. However, I am reminded by Rajan Bala in Glances at Perfection that ‘‘It was Duleep who emphasised the value of the correct technique without in anyway meddling with the natural in the cricketer. Nature has endowed Indian cricketers with an inborn suppleness and wristiness that are the envy of the cricketers from the west. If these assets are used in the right way.these can prove devastating.’’ There is little doubt of the natural talent in this Indian outfit, but it seems John Wright’s words about certain players still ‘‘living in the glorification of the World Cup final’’ are a more of a reality than prophetic. With respect to the playing surfaces, wickets and outfields, Venkat Sundaram, chairman of the grounds and wicket committee for BCCI, explained the amount of work and education his committee is undertaking to improve the surfaces around the country. Hopefully, by the time we return in twelve months time we will see the continuing progress. Finally, there are some statistics which may have a bearing on the final games of this tour. I have been exploring with Krishna Tunga, a Mumbai cricket analyst and statistician I met on my last visit to India, the different ways of using the myriad of numbers that cricket throws at us with every ball bowled. In this case, we’ve used the traditional win/loss records, viewing Australia playing in Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka since 1998. The reason for this sample is to gain a picture on our ODI performances away from home, in like conditions. Before this tour began, Australia had played 17 matches for 12 wins and 5 losses. Five of these games were day/night, of which Australia had won one. So in terms of pure numbers, this tour demonstrates we are continuing the improvement we are seeking: to be recognised as the best team on any surface in the world. Regardless of the final result here, the Australian team and its players will be better planned for their future encounters with India, and matches played in similar conditions. (Gameplan)
