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Australia has been in decline in recent years, and nothing reveals this decline more blatantly than the predictability of their actions and decisions on the field of play. In this article, I take a look at 4 predictable things you can expect from Oz, when they meet India in the quarter-finals, on Thursday, March 24.
1. All-out pace attack: The Aussies lack a credible spin option and try to cover up this deficiency with a pretense of deliberately opting for an attack based on fast bowling. But apart from Lee, none of their bowlers has shown any penetration and that could be Oz's undoing on wickets that are taking more spin as the tournament wears on.
2. Batting failure of Ponting: Ponting is the only player in the current tournament to have played in 3 title-winning campaigns, two of them skippered by himself. But that history counts for nothing, as the Aussie captain finds himself in the middle of the worst batting slump of his career.
3. Sledging when the going gets bad: The Aussies have always been known for sledging. But they have got away with it, in the past, on the back of their winning habit. All the world loves a winner, and is ready to forgive what might commonly be perceived as a minor transgression, if committed by a winning team. However, the current situation is entirely different. Pakistan handed Australia a humiliating defeat in their last league game in Group A. The earliest sign of a batting collapse in that game came when skipper Ponting was caught behind and the decision was referred, after the field umpire declined to rule him out. Even as the UDRS appeal was upheld, non-striker Haddin decided to have a few juicy words with some Pakistani players, who are no shrinking violets either.
4. A disputed catch/ run out: It has happened so often in games involving Australia that nobody finds it remarkable any longer. Often, when a batsman of a rival team settles down to play a good innings against Australia, and becomes hard to dismiss, he eventually gets out under controversial circumstances, whether it's an LBW to a ball that struck him on the head, or "catch" not taken cleanly by an Aussie fielder. Perhaps, that's the reason why many Aussies (including commentators like Ian Chappell) don't favour the UDRS technology that could catch them out when they indulge in these shenanigans.
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Suresh Iyer is an avid sports fan and blogger
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