Australia move up the gears

21 September 2007

The Australia players have responded well to losing their opening game © Getty Images

Australia are confident they have shrugged off their sluggish start to the ICC World Twenty20 and are now ready to deliver at the business end of the tournament.

Having not played any competitive cricket since beating Sri Lanka in the World Cup final in May, Australia suffered a shock defeat in their opening match of the tournament to Zimbabwe to put their participation in the latter stages in doubt.

But, despite losing to Pakistan, they qualified for Saturday’s semi-final with India in emphatic fashion by completing a 10-wicket victory over Sri Lanka which sent an ominous message to the remaining teams in the tournament.

“We feel as though we’re getting better every day,” said coach Tim Nielsen. “We came off a long break so it’s nice to have a bit of competitive cricket.

“The less competitive games you have before a big tournament, the more time you need to get back on your feet and get back into the swing of things.

“It’s been great we’ve been able to find our way through to this stage of the tournament and ideally we’re getting better every time.”

Nielsen, who took over from previous coach John Buchanan at the end of the World Cup, believes defeat by Zimbabwe provided the perfect jolt to the system necessary to get their campaign back on track.

Australia bounced back strongly from that opening setback to seal an eight wickets victory over England in their next match and are now only two wins away from adding the ICC World Twenty20 crown to the Champions Trophy and World Cup.

Coach Tim Nielsen claims Australia are getting better by the day © Getty Images

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“Coming off the break we were a bit unsure of how the tournament was going to work and how Twenty20 cricket was going to go,” admitted Nielsen.

“Our international players hadn’t had a lot of exposure to it and each time they played it had been a lot of fun, it had been almost a break between Tests and one-day internationals.

“Probably getting a bit of a shot in the arm losing to Zimbabwe was as good a tonic that we could have hoped for at the start.

“It wasn’t great fun that night but it really did square us up to the target and get us focussed and make us realise that if we weren’t quite right we were going to be under real pressure.

“But the more and more work we’ve done the boys have got more and more comfortable with where they’re at and now they feel they can meet the challenges thrown at them better.”

Already missing captain Ricky Ponting, who sustained a hamstring strain in the defeat to Pakistan, for the remainder of the tournament, Australia suffered a further injury blow with the loss of all-rounder Shane Watson.

Having only just overcome a hamstring injury himself to replace Ponting against Sri Lanka, Watson aggravated the problem and flew home on Friday to seek further treatment and rest.

Australia are considering calling up a replacement for the remainder of the tournament and possibly the one-day series in India which follows this event.