2nd ODI Final

I wonder how many Australian fans ended up changing channels or turning the TV off after what is one of the worst bowling efforts by Australia.  I hate to say it but the effort that was put in makes me wonder if any of the players deserved their match payment.  Whilst there was some good points to the game, there were too many negatives.  The batting had two centuries but was still well short of what should have been achieved and the effort on the field was inept all-round.

Before I get into the bowlers and captain for Australia, I will first highlight yet again inept umpiring.  McKay was denied a wicket after the umpire called for a replay to see if he overstepped. I have no problem with the wicket being denied, what I do have a problem with is the umpire in this situation.  If it wasn't a wicket taking ball, the umpire has admitted that he would not have called it a no-ball. This then raises the obvious question. How many no-balls are not called? This has been an ongoing problem this summer and I cannot see it improving. It makes it even worse when on numerous occasions Australia has taken a wicket and the umpire checks for a no-ball and it is not even close to being one.

Back to Australia though. Why is it that Australia are struggling to score runs early? Constantly our top order is meandering along, losing a couple of early wickets and then trying to do it all in the last 10 overs.  Not much point in leaving it until the end though if the batsmen who take most of the time in the middle don't score at a decent rate.  It makes it more important too, knowing that our bowlers are not able to keep the runs down.

Yet again Australia's bowlers have shown that they do not know how to change up their pace and bowl the right line in one day cricket. It is that or Clarke does not know how to place the field to his bowlers. Most of Sri Lankas runs were scored in the Quadrant from keeper to point. Clearly this shows bowling wide and short off stump and no protection.  If this was the tactic then it went horribly wrong.  A lot of talk lately has been about Australia's trouble in bowling the last ten overs but I think Australia is losing the game in the first fifteen with both bat and ball.  When you give the opposition a 40-50 runs advantage at the start it is always going to be hard to claw it back.

If Australia don not go on to win the third game then the selectors seriously need to look at the team make-up and see where they went wrong.  And the answer is not to go back to what they changed from.