Mitchell Johnson

It was Mitchell Johnson and Ryan Harris who were Australia’s heroes with the ball at the end of the second ODI. Australia survived a late scare from the new Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori after his he displayed a wonderful array of shots all round the wicket en route his innings of 70 of just 49 balls. Vettori exposed his stumps all day as he moved across his stumps and flicked for boundaries in the square leg, long leg region. New Zealand were in tatters before Daniel Vettori walked in with the score being 131 for 6 and the black caps still needing another 135 off 114 deliveries.

Earlier in the day ponting had called right for the second time in a row and surmisably Australia decided to bat first. The Australians failed to convert another good start provided by their openers Watson (47) and Haddin (53). Both the openers failed to carry on and were dismissed in an attempt to increase the tempo. Ricky ponting and his deputy Michael Clarke both fell to dismal strokes leaving Australia in trouble at 116 for 4. It was up to Cameron white and Michael Hussey to dig them out of the hole that they had created from themselves to a substantial total.

Call him Mr. Cricket or Mr. Fixit, Michael Hussey always comes up with the goods when the Australians need him. And so he did this time around too as he put on a game changing partnership of over a 100 with Cameron white. The duo were flawless and looked set to help Australia put on a score off over 300 before Cameron white holed out in the deep to Brendon McCullum. The wicket fell just against the run off play and halted proceedings for a while as Australia once again posted a below par score off 273.

White fell before hammering two consecutive massive sixes of James Franklin who later stretched his hamstring. He (white) fell in an attempt to clear the boundary on the third instance. The strategy seemed logic less as it was the 43rd over and Australia still had their batting power play in hand. Had they taken it white would possibly have carried on.

New Zealand started their chase with Brendon McCullum attacking Doug Bollinger. Bollinger really had one of his off days, perhaps his worst of the summer. Ponting was very pro-active throughout the day. He saw that, and immediately brought in a change he brought in Mitchell Johnson to bowl in the 5th over of the New Zealand innings.

The crowd with their ‘booing’ tried to put Johnson off his game all day but only inspired him to perform better. Johnson, on the day let the ball do the talking by picking up a 4-for. Before he started his spell, Johnson at the top of his run up turned, faced the west stand and kissed his Australian coat of arms and accounted for McCullum in his first over itself. Ponting in the post match presentation said that the emotional quickie was only spurred on “if anything” by the whole saga today.

Johnson was seen accompanied by a security personnel while fielding at the boundary. Ryan Harris struck with a couple of L.B.W’s off consecutive balls putting Australia in front before the rain finally came. The match was then reduced to 45 over one with the black caps needing 266 to win (D/L method). Australia were in the driver’s seat before Styris (Australia’s undoing the last time round), Hopkins and Tuffey all played well around their skipper Daniel Vettori who gave the Australia some butterflies.

In the end it came down to 13 off 11 balls as Vettori tried another of his flicks only to see his stumps rattled by Ryan Harris. How ironic it was that the match had to end with Vettori playing his, for the day ‘flick’. The anguish was etched on Vettori’s face after he was dismissed for a classy 70. Ponting later said that this wasn’t Australia best performance by any stretch of imagination and they had a lot of work to do. Australia do need to do some “fine tuning” before they go in to Hamilton’s fixture on Tuesday.

New Zealand’s hero was set to miss the match as he decided to rest his neck but was forced to play after Ross Taylor injured his leg during practice. With Oram also missing Vettori had to play. However, Vettori showed “A wounded man can still hurt you”—just.

Pakistan won the toss and from the outset looked a different unit today largely due to change in captaincy. It was Shahid Afridi who was captaining Pakistan in place of Mohd Yousuf who was rested due to a niggle. The Pakistani’s decided to bat on a good looking pitch but, Ryan Harris continued his golden rise in international cricket as he got Salman Butt poking at one away from his body.

Harris struck in the first over itself. As if that was not enough Mitchell Johnson bowled a delightful over and got rid of Khalid latif caught and bowled again for a duck. Pakistan were caught reeling at 2 for 0. Younis khan and Shoaib Malik hung around for quite a while before Younis khan fished at one from McKay only to be caught by Haddin. Pakistan were in dire straits at 17 for 3 in 10 Overs.

The next 3 Overs were maidens. Umar Akmal and Shoaib Malik stitched a 60 run partnership before Mitchell Johnson put on show a brilliant bit of athleticism to run out Shoaib Malik. Fawad alam was next in; and the duo just like the last two matches put on a decent partnership of 82. Wickets fell in a hurry soon then after with Akmal, Afridi and Ahmed all departing in a space of 5 Overs. In the end it was Fawad alam’s brilliance that enabled Pakistan to reach a fightable score of 212. Alam made 63.

It was a pretty modest total and the Aussies looked pretty upbeat about the task ahead of them. They lost Haddin and marsh pretty early on in the piece. Cameron white soon followed suit. But, the trend of the summer continued as it was a culmination of contributions that won Australia the match and not a single stand-out performance (barring Cameron white’s scintillating 100 in the 1st ODI). Today, it was ponting and hussey who were to steer the ship home. Ponting made 55 before he holed out to Umar Akmal at long on. Australia looked a little skeptical in their approach and were continually losing wickets.

Michael hussey has been instrumental in winning Australia the series. He’s made decent contributions in all the matches and his versatility must be lauded. Put the man in at number 4 or 6, over number 20 or 45—Michael Hussey seems to have the game to do it for Australia.

And so he did today. Hussey saw Australia through with the tail ending up on 40 of 46 balls. Australia needed 12 of 12 at the end of the batting power play with Hussey and Hauritz at the crease. Hussey took rana for 9 off the pen ultimate over with some positive running and lusty hitting. It was 3 off 6 when Hauritz was trapped LBW by Rao.

Ryan Harris was Australia’s number ten and he seems to be doing nothing wrong at the moment. He had a swipe at his first ball and managed to clear wide mid-on for a couple.

A lot of drama was seen in the finale of the match. Firstly, it was Shahid Afridi who was seen biting the ball twice which was caught on camera. Reports later suggested that Afridi pleaded guilty to the charges laid down by match referee Ranjan Madugalle. Afridi has been banned for two T20 internationals which means he will miss this Friday’s clash at the SCG as well as the one against England.

The act was caught on camera and the umpires were informed so on their microphones and the ball was immediately changed. Another striking incident was when one of the spectators charged at Khalid Latif. Thankfully, for latif there were no injuries. A very embarrassing moment, for Cricket Australia considering such incidents have been happening quite often. Australia won the match when Harris was caught off a waist high no ball at mid off.

Australia clean swept the Pakistani’s not just in the ODI series but also in the test series. What remains to be seen is whether Pakistan would be able to manage a single win on this tour?

Medium-pacer Ryan Harris picked up his second consecutive five-wicket haul as Australia inflicted yet another embarrassing defeat on the hapless Pakistanis. Batting first, Australia recovered from a poor start to post a challenging total of 277 for 8, thanks in main to half-centuries from Michael Hussey and Nathan Hauritz.

Harris then carried on his demolition job, akin to Adelaide, as Australia trounced Pakistan by a mammoth 135-run margin. None of the Pakistani batsman could reach even 50. Umar Akmal ended up being the top-scorer with 38 as the visiting side crumbled to 142 all out, well before the stipulated 50 overs.

The chase for Pakistan just never took off. Harris, bowling at a rather quick pace, was in his elements right from the word go. Salman Butt edged one that was directed in the other direction and Cameron White picked up one of the better catches you will see in the slips. Younis Khan went as quickly as he came, poking his bat at an outswinger from Harris. Pakistan never managed to recover from there on. On the contrary, they only went deeper into the mire.

Peter Siddle joined in the fun scalping two crucial wickets. He had the struggling Kamran Akmal and Mohammad Yousuf, both caught behind of Brad Haddin, who ended up plucking five catches. There was a semblance of resistance in the form of a partnership between Umar Akmal and Fawad Alam, but alas it could not last long enough to trouble the Aussies. Alam was run-out by Hauritz while Harris cleaned up Umar to all but seal the game. Shahid Afridi played a breezy cameo before departing, but it hardly had any impact on the game. Harris eventually returned to do the mop up job and finish with another five-for.

Earlier, in the day, Pakistan squandered their umpteenth golden opportunity to put Australia under immense pressure. Despite having them tottering at 190 for 6, they managed to let them off the hook as Hussey and Hauritz added 80 valuable runs for the seventh wicket and propelled their side to a highly competitive score.

All this after Mohammad Asif had dismissed Shaun Marsh cheaply and Naved-ul-Hasan accounted for Haddin just when he was beginning to look dangerous. Michael Clarke also failed to contribute much before getting run-out, while skipper Ricky Ponting’s promising innings of 30 was cut short by Afridi.

The in-form Cameron White began the resurrection work for the Aussies, in the company of Hussey, with a gritty 44. Still, Pakistan held the upper hand when Saeed Ajmal managed to send back White and Asif returned to dislodge James Hopes. Unfortunately, Pakistan could not capitalize on the strong position and allowed Hussey and Hauritz to get away.

While Hussey took his time initially, Hauritz went hammer and tongs to post an unbeaten 53 off just 39 balls. As Pakistan began to feel the heat, Hussey too joined in the action. He was brilliant in the powerplay overs. Australia scored at over 10 runs per over during this phase and it was enough to rattle the already flustered Pakistanis.

Australia seem to have buckets of pace bowling talent in their backyard. Ryan Harris Australia’s bustling pacer did the job once again when he cleaned up the Pakistani’s with another five-for and what’s ironic is after taking 10 wickets for 62 in the last ten games the man still stands a chance of missing out on the playing 11. Where except Australia will you get to see that?

That itself speaks volumes about the quality and the number of personnel Australia have in their domestic circuit. After Friday’s clinical performance Australia are looking to clean sweep the series and take their total to 7 wins out of 7 this year which includes two in the test arena all be it against the same opposition.

Australia won the toss and with Watson resting it was Haddin and marsh who opened. Haddin played his own game trying to blast the Pakistani’s away but he tried one too many and was finally bowled by Naved Ul Hasan. Australia failed to build strong partnerships at the top of the order but again it was the in-form men in Michael Hussey and Cameron white who rescued the innings with half centuries.

But, the impetus to the innings was added by spinner Nathan Hauritz who absolutely blasted the Pakistani’s all round the park with a 39 ball 53 which included 4 massive sixes. For Pakistan it was Mohd Asif again who troubled the Australian’s with Saeed Ajmal chipping in with a couple too. The Australians made full use of their batting power play and scored 54 of their 5 Overs with the loss of just one wicket. The Australians amassed another big total (Mind you: Every total’s looking big for Pakistan at this stage) and ended at 277 for 8.

Pakistan came out after a good attempt at the Adelaide oval looking pretty confident especially with Fawad alam in – in place of Shoaib Malik. But, it was not to be as Ryan Harris the 30 year old bustling Queenslander with his deceptively quick pace dismissed both butt and khan within a space of two Overs giving himself figures of none for 2. Peter Siddle both Kamran Akmal and mohd Yousuf and once again the Pakistan top order batting left a lot to be desired.

It was again the young paid of Umar Akmal and fawad alam who tried to resurrect the innings with both of them making 38 and 21 respectively. The duo put on 60 before Alam pushed Harris to mid off where Nathan Hauritz who was having a wonderful day (at least with bat and in the field) hit the stumps directly and alam was caught napping.

Ryan Harris got his 3rd wicket off the match after he cleaned up Umar Akmal who tried to drop the ball down and run as the ball came off his bat and hit the stumps. It was tough luck for Umar Akmal but as mark taylor said on channel nine ryan Harris had created his own luck with some splendid bowling.

Shahid Afridi decided to take matters in his own hands with some magnanimous sixes of Hauritz that travelled more than just the distance. He made a quick fire 10 ball 29 before succumbing to McKay. The rest of the tail made a cumulative score of 12 and Pakistan were yet again embarrassed by another professional performance by the close knitted Australian unit.
The season with Pakistan is almost coming to a close and Australia would want to end it without dropping the match and the odds are on them doing so.

It would be interesting to see whether shaun tait who has been brought in as cover up for peter Siddle will get a game or not. If so there is every possibility and for the first time in history that a man who has taken two five wicket halls in two consecutive matches might be dropped. The Australians have had a fantastic series all this without their potential strike bowler Mitchell Johnson who has been rested thus far. If he gets a game it could be yet another clinical win for Australia in the teams last encounter of this series at the WACA cricket ground.