LONDON: Australia’s bowlers have been told to learn from Saturday’s powerplay pasting from Sri Lanka and realise sooner when they need to be fuller.
Sri Lanka’s 87-0 after the opening 10 overs at The Oval is the fastest start to an innings by a team at this year’s World Cup.It also marked the equal-second most runs Australia has conceded in the first 10 overs of a One-Dayer this century.
Australia’s quicks were at times plundered to the square-wicket boundaries, with Mitchell Starc’s first two-over spell going for 13 runs and Pat Cummins’ opening three overs for 25.Kane Richardson and Jason Behrendorff also copped plenty of tap, going for 23 and 32 from their first three overs before Australia turned it around in the 87-run win.
Asked what his quicks learned about the onslaught, heading into Thursday’s clash with Bangladesh, captain Aaron Finch said: “You have to be really adaptable quicker.“We felt as though (if) we bowled group Test match line and length that there would be enough there.
“We went shorter rather than fuller, which was probably a defence mechanism. So once we went fuller, and we had a bit more protection square of the wicket with a straight man up, I felt like that’s when we started to rein it back in and really stop the scoring.” —