The result for the West Indies was a good one, but they will feel slightly down after being so close to beating Australia for the first time in 17 years for a limited overs series.
Australia have reason to be disappointed with the performance against the side ranked at 8 for ODIs.
There were many errors from the side but there were a few things to consider.
This is a team that came into this series right after victory in the Commonwealth Bank series, which sees no shortage of fixtures. A few players were not present and some were rested in the build up to the test series.
It’s not about excuses but sometimes these factors do play a part. This shouldn’t take away the fight shown by the West Indian players. They made us panic at times, both players and supporters!
Looking at the statistics, the Windies seem to have taken the honours for the series as the better team.
- 1st ODI: Australia won by 64 runs.
- 2nd ODI: West Indies won by 5 wickets.
- 3rd ODI: Match tied (4th tied match in history between West Indies and Australia)
- 4th ODI: West Indies won by 42 runs.
Result: Australia won the 5th ODI by 30 runs (Series drawn 2-2)
Australia: 9-281 from 50 overs. David Warner 69, Shane Watson 66, Peter Forrest 53.
West Indies: 251 all out. Brett Lee 3-42, Shane Watson 2-44, Xavier Doherty 2-40.
Not long ago I had a great chat with an international fast bowler. I asked him when is the pressure, as a both a player and a side, at its most intense level to secure victory?
He said it was plain and simply when playing a weaker or lesser-ranked team, because you’re expected to win and to perform beyond your usual standards of achievement.
This makes sense as heading into this ODI series we expected Australia to win, especially after the 1st ODI victory.
However, an inability to rip through the Windies mid to lower order, a concerning struggle for the batsmen to adapt to a slow wicket where three games were held, and a tactical fall out for “death bowling” made the series a hard fought one. The Windies nearly took full advantage of these weaknesses to have a historical series win. Our guys would have felt that pressure no doubt.
Last article I pointed out numerous issues which unfortunately carried into this match. On a positive note, the one thing that was all important was to see the top order batsmen at their best. David Warner and Shane Watson finally managed to find some time in the middle and did so in their trademark style, being naturally aggressive.
I feel the West Indies did make a mistake to put us into bat, just as I think Watto made a huge mistake making us bat first on that slow wicket during two of the first three games. Unfairly, taking the lower order heroics away from Darren Sammy indicates we should have won this match comprehensively and put out the lights on Sammy’s defence to bowl first on a beautiful batting track. He did his best to prove otherwise though.
It was mighty good to see the top order come right, which included Peter Forrest who was in need of a decent innings. The fluency at the crease from all the batsmen would have been owed to a better understanding of the conditions and some rather ordinary bowling from the Windies.
It was exciting to see Watto and Warner play their natural games. The value placed on their wickets was also refreshing after the horrible display during the 4th ODI where every batsman threw away his wicket. Some days it pays off, but when it does these two blokes are just epic to watch.
Peter Forrest played his part in the top order to score a half-century to get his early career back on track. George Bailey had a reasonably successful debut ODI series with the bat. His fielding was excellent, especially when taking stance at short extra cover.
I was pleased to see Matt Wade find some time at the crease with some lower order power hitting, although I do think he shouldn’t be batting so low down the order in ODIs. He’s probably had a forgettable series with the bat in hand but it’s his first overseas tour for Australia and every player needs to have that one poor show to know the harsh reality of this game at the elite level. Only gets better from here for Matt.
The batting at the end of the innings was a bit embarrassing come the last over but the top order had done their job to give a really solid foundation to capitalise upon the Windies obvious loss in momentum and a drop in body language. The final over bowled by Andre Russell did seem to spark some kind of momentum though. The Windies have shown a ridiculous ability to rapidly build this wonderful thing called “momentum”, game in, game out. It builds pressure in body language and they were able to follow through.
This didn’t help their top order though as Brett Lee bowled outstandingly with the new ball, taking two wickets and operating with economic excellence alongside Ben Hilfenhaus.
Binga has had a touch and go series. As excellently as he bowled up front, he still had a torrid time with bowling at the death of the Windies innings. Yorkers which become ideal full tosses and short deliveries which become easily dispatched have made his work load at the end a bit of a concern.
With the younger players coming through the system in the build up to a limited overs series in the United Kingdom in a few months time, he’ll need to dig deep into his experience and bring us that all round intensity with the new and old ball.
Our death bowling needs to be addressed. I felt our mix of Nathan Bracken, James Hopes and Shane Watson proved to be a brilliant bowling unit to handle the crucial overs, whose skllis Ricky Ponting was able to execute really well. Suddenly it has become an area of worry as there were many moments during the Commonwealth Bank series as well where we lost control of the games during the last 10 overs or so of the match.
I was admittedly impressed with Watto’s courage to bowl Xavier Doherty towards to final stages of the innings. Xavier has gained so much experience this series and did a pretty good job in my opinion. Just needs to work through the blues of being smashed about the park.
Darren Sammy’s innings was the defining blow to our chances of a convincing victory and one hell of an awesome innings. Taking out his efforts alongside Andre Russell doesn’t paint of a good picture for the Windies, but Sammy’s fight was significant to show that we never had this series in our control, we never had the dominant factor. He also opened up a whole can of worms for the death bowling debate.
The final power play saw 0 wickets fall and 60 runs came from it, doubling our efforts for PP3.
Ben Hilfenhaus was the tidiest of the bowlers having delivered economical spells in games four and five. He only managed one wicket but it would have been far more effective had we seen more “pressure building spells” from the other end, as we saw from himself and Binga taking the new ball in yesterday’s game. It is a tactic that has worked in the test matches.
I haven’t gone into the full discussion and analyses of everything into this game but reading back over previous match reports (all links above) you will see the relevant areas of discussion.
The statistics for the series tell a story as well that we were never in domination of this series.
Statistics for the ODI series against the West Indies:
Top Batting stats:
-Michael Hussey: 5 innings, 174 runs, HS 67, Average 34.80, x1 fifty
There were many errors from the side but there were a few things to consider.
This is a team that came into this series right after victory in the Commonwealth Bank series, which sees no shortage of fixtures. A few players were not present and some were rested in the build up to the test series.
It’s not about excuses but sometimes these factors do play a part. This shouldn’t take away the fight shown by the West Indian players. They made us panic at times, both players and supporters!
Looking at the statistics, the Windies seem to have taken the honours for the series as the better team.
- 1st ODI: Australia won by 64 runs.
- 2nd ODI: West Indies won by 5 wickets.
- 3rd ODI: Match tied (4th tied match in history between West Indies and Australia)
- 4th ODI: West Indies won by 42 runs.
Result: Australia won the 5th ODI by 30 runs (Series drawn 2-2)
Australia: 9-281 from 50 overs. David Warner 69, Shane Watson 66, Peter Forrest 53.
West Indies: 251 all out. Brett Lee 3-42, Shane Watson 2-44, Xavier Doherty 2-40.
Not long ago I had a great chat with an international fast bowler. I asked him when is the pressure, as a both a player and a side, at its most intense level to secure victory?
He said it was plain and simply when playing a weaker or lesser-ranked team, because you’re expected to win and to perform beyond your usual standards of achievement.
This makes sense as heading into this ODI series we expected Australia to win, especially after the 1st ODI victory.
However, an inability to rip through the Windies mid to lower order, a concerning struggle for the batsmen to adapt to a slow wicket where three games were held, and a tactical fall out for “death bowling” made the series a hard fought one. The Windies nearly took full advantage of these weaknesses to have a historical series win. Our guys would have felt that pressure no doubt.
Last article I pointed out numerous issues which unfortunately carried into this match. On a positive note, the one thing that was all important was to see the top order batsmen at their best. David Warner and Shane Watson finally managed to find some time in the middle and did so in their trademark style, being naturally aggressive.
I feel the West Indies did make a mistake to put us into bat, just as I think Watto made a huge mistake making us bat first on that slow wicket during two of the first three games. Unfairly, taking the lower order heroics away from Darren Sammy indicates we should have won this match comprehensively and put out the lights on Sammy’s defence to bowl first on a beautiful batting track. He did his best to prove otherwise though.
It was mighty good to see the top order come right, which included Peter Forrest who was in need of a decent innings. The fluency at the crease from all the batsmen would have been owed to a better understanding of the conditions and some rather ordinary bowling from the Windies.
It was exciting to see Watto and Warner play their natural games. The value placed on their wickets was also refreshing after the horrible display during the 4th ODI where every batsman threw away his wicket. Some days it pays off, but when it does these two blokes are just epic to watch.
Peter Forrest played his part in the top order to score a half-century to get his early career back on track. George Bailey had a reasonably successful debut ODI series with the bat. His fielding was excellent, especially when taking stance at short extra cover.
I was pleased to see Matt Wade find some time at the crease with some lower order power hitting, although I do think he shouldn’t be batting so low down the order in ODIs. He’s probably had a forgettable series with the bat in hand but it’s his first overseas tour for Australia and every player needs to have that one poor show to know the harsh reality of this game at the elite level. Only gets better from here for Matt.
The batting at the end of the innings was a bit embarrassing come the last over but the top order had done their job to give a really solid foundation to capitalise upon the Windies obvious loss in momentum and a drop in body language. The final over bowled by Andre Russell did seem to spark some kind of momentum though. The Windies have shown a ridiculous ability to rapidly build this wonderful thing called “momentum”, game in, game out. It builds pressure in body language and they were able to follow through.
This didn’t help their top order though as Brett Lee bowled outstandingly with the new ball, taking two wickets and operating with economic excellence alongside Ben Hilfenhaus.
Binga has had a touch and go series. As excellently as he bowled up front, he still had a torrid time with bowling at the death of the Windies innings. Yorkers which become ideal full tosses and short deliveries which become easily dispatched have made his work load at the end a bit of a concern.
With the younger players coming through the system in the build up to a limited overs series in the United Kingdom in a few months time, he’ll need to dig deep into his experience and bring us that all round intensity with the new and old ball.
Our death bowling needs to be addressed. I felt our mix of Nathan Bracken, James Hopes and Shane Watson proved to be a brilliant bowling unit to handle the crucial overs, whose skllis Ricky Ponting was able to execute really well. Suddenly it has become an area of worry as there were many moments during the Commonwealth Bank series as well where we lost control of the games during the last 10 overs or so of the match.
I was admittedly impressed with Watto’s courage to bowl Xavier Doherty towards to final stages of the innings. Xavier has gained so much experience this series and did a pretty good job in my opinion. Just needs to work through the blues of being smashed about the park.
Darren Sammy’s innings was the defining blow to our chances of a convincing victory and one hell of an awesome innings. Taking out his efforts alongside Andre Russell doesn’t paint of a good picture for the Windies, but Sammy’s fight was significant to show that we never had this series in our control, we never had the dominant factor. He also opened up a whole can of worms for the death bowling debate.
The final power play saw 0 wickets fall and 60 runs came from it, doubling our efforts for PP3.
Ben Hilfenhaus was the tidiest of the bowlers having delivered economical spells in games four and five. He only managed one wicket but it would have been far more effective had we seen more “pressure building spells” from the other end, as we saw from himself and Binga taking the new ball in yesterday’s game. It is a tactic that has worked in the test matches.
I haven’t gone into the full discussion and analyses of everything into this game but reading back over previous match reports (all links above) you will see the relevant areas of discussion.
The statistics for the series tell a story as well that we were never in domination of this series.
Statistics for the ODI series against the West Indies:
Top Batting stats:
-Michael Hussey: 5 innings, 174 runs, HS 67, Average 34.80, x1 fifty
-George Bailey: 5 innings, 172 runs, HS 59, Average 34.40, x1 fifty
-David Warner: 5 innings, 160 runs, HS 69, Average 32.00, x1 fifty
-Shane Watson: 5 innings, 150 runs, HS 66, Average 30.00, x1 fifty
-David Hussey: 5 innings, 109 runs, HS 57, Average 21.80, x1 fifty
-Peter Forrest: 4 innings, 103 runs, HS 53, Average 25.75, x1 fifty
Top Bowling stats:
-Xavier Doherty: 5 matches, 45.2 overs, 11-242, average 22.00, economy rate 5.33
-Shane Watson: 5 matches, 41 overs, 8-170, average 21.25, economy rate 4.14
-Brett Lee: 5 matches, 43.4 overs, 8-278, average 28.50, economy rate 5.22
-Clint McKay: 5 matches, 43.2 overs, 7-213, average 30.42, economy rate 4.91
The Frank Worrell Trophy:
The test series will see a different wave of competition hit the Windies.
I tipped the Windies to have the best chance against us in the ODIs, even though their team wasn’t at full strength either. Our test side is excellent in my opinion and they’re coming off a 4-0 series win against India. The Windies will lose their big hitters and be in a completely different level of combat for the test series, where their inexperience may show.
Against the Windies the bowling tactics should not change, which saw the downfall of India during the Border-Gavaskar series. The batting will be essential for us as the Windies batting is their strength in the test arena, in my opinion. If our batsmen put the runs on the board, I can see our bowlers working around the clock to deliver something brutal.
I am positive heading into the test series.
The series sees the return of Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke, Peter Siddle, Ed Cowan and Ryan Harris. The bowling is boosted by Ben Hilfenhaus, James Pattinson and Mitchell Starc, while two spinners have been selected, meaning Michael Beer returns to try build upon his 1 test.
Here is our Test Squad for the Frank Worrell Trophy.
Michael Clarke (captain), Shane Watson, Ed Cowan, David Warner, Ricky Ponting, Michael Hussey, Peter Forrest, Brad Haddin (wk), Matthew Wade (wk), Ryan Harris, Ben Hilfenhaus, James Pattinson, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, Michael Beer, Nathan Lyon.
*The 2008 series in the West Indies was won 2-0 by Australia, and 2-0 in Australia 2009/10 .
Twenty20 matches:
It’s the Twenty 20 matches first which will be a nice spectacle to wrap up what has been a very entertaining limited overs series. Fifty over cricket has been given a massive boost by the Australian team over the last few series, dating back to the ODIs against South Africa.
-David Warner: 5 innings, 160 runs, HS 69, Average 32.00, x1 fifty
-Shane Watson: 5 innings, 150 runs, HS 66, Average 30.00, x1 fifty
-David Hussey: 5 innings, 109 runs, HS 57, Average 21.80, x1 fifty
-Peter Forrest: 4 innings, 103 runs, HS 53, Average 25.75, x1 fifty
Top Bowling stats:
-Xavier Doherty: 5 matches, 45.2 overs, 11-242, average 22.00, economy rate 5.33
-Shane Watson: 5 matches, 41 overs, 8-170, average 21.25, economy rate 4.14
-Brett Lee: 5 matches, 43.4 overs, 8-278, average 28.50, economy rate 5.22
-Clint McKay: 5 matches, 43.2 overs, 7-213, average 30.42, economy rate 4.91
The Frank Worrell Trophy:
The test series will see a different wave of competition hit the Windies.
I tipped the Windies to have the best chance against us in the ODIs, even though their team wasn’t at full strength either. Our test side is excellent in my opinion and they’re coming off a 4-0 series win against India. The Windies will lose their big hitters and be in a completely different level of combat for the test series, where their inexperience may show.
Against the Windies the bowling tactics should not change, which saw the downfall of India during the Border-Gavaskar series. The batting will be essential for us as the Windies batting is their strength in the test arena, in my opinion. If our batsmen put the runs on the board, I can see our bowlers working around the clock to deliver something brutal.
I am positive heading into the test series.
The series sees the return of Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke, Peter Siddle, Ed Cowan and Ryan Harris. The bowling is boosted by Ben Hilfenhaus, James Pattinson and Mitchell Starc, while two spinners have been selected, meaning Michael Beer returns to try build upon his 1 test.
Here is our Test Squad for the Frank Worrell Trophy.
Michael Clarke (captain), Shane Watson, Ed Cowan, David Warner, Ricky Ponting, Michael Hussey, Peter Forrest, Brad Haddin (wk), Matthew Wade (wk), Ryan Harris, Ben Hilfenhaus, James Pattinson, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, Michael Beer, Nathan Lyon.
*The 2008 series in the West Indies was won 2-0 by Australia, and 2-0 in Australia 2009/10 .
Twenty20 matches:
It’s the Twenty 20 matches first which will be a nice spectacle to wrap up what has been a very entertaining limited overs series. Fifty over cricket has been given a massive boost by the Australian team over the last few series, dating back to the ODIs against South Africa.
Pity is wasn’t an ODI series win but well done to the boys for their respective performances and very well done to the Windies for their fierce determination. As an avid follower of West Indian cricket, I have to admit that they surprised me.
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6 comments:
Ian,
Nice article! You've summed up the ODI series well.Fixtures that does not provide time to breath, is indeed a concern for all teams today, and i am sure it did play a part, as you've mentioned.Somehow, i feel George Baily would comeout as a sub-continent/slow wicket specialist! his style was lil bit similar to Steve Waugh i guess!I also feel, we missed Pup's captaincy in the field surely...Watson seemed to lose his cool and looked much tense when windies were clearing the fence regularly! He is indeed short in experience and surely he can improve.Overall,as you've said, we can take this result since we are re-building. No more Ricky and pup was not available...so, its "work in progress" i guess..
very disappointing performance.. but we need to win the t20 series and also win the test series 3-0. That will get us really close to the no.1 position.
Finally the Warner and Watson combo fired, got something to build on there.
Death bowling won't be solved until we bring in the youngsters as Lee won't be there at the next WC so even if he does well at the death it won't be helping us when we need it most.
Sad but true mate regarding Binga.
I still get so pumped up when he has a good game. His energy is contagious, but you and I have been talking for a long time now that 2015 we want to be dominant. The World Cup is in our domain and it's important to have some younger bowlers settled and aware of their key skill sets.
Yeah, I was very happy for Watto. A decent innings was around the corner. With Warner it had to happen.
Ian,
i think if Bollinger is there, it would be better...McKay too will evolove i believe..McKay/Bollinger/Johnson should'nt be bad once Lee retires...Johnson was decent in ODIs i think!
Hi Joshua
My apologies for your delayed post. For some reason it needed moderation.
In any case mate, thanks for your comment. I like your observation of George Bailey. I think his shortage in experience may have played a part but I feel he threw away his wicket a few times. In the first game he was lost, but even Huss struggled to adapt. From then on I am pleased with how George went for the series. He even did alright in the T20 last night, once again alongside Huss.
Watto is such an emotional bloke. He wears his heart on his sleeve and I like that about him. You sense his passion for the game, his competitive nature and his pride to play cricket for Australia.
However, it's a quality in a Captain I am not fond of. Watto has leadership experience but at this level it probably got to him a bit but he was the man for the job. As you said he is short in experience but Michael will return, George Bailey has the t20 duties and Punter returns to the Test side to offer his knowledge.
Keep optimistic!
Richie, apologies to you as well for the delayed moderation.
If Sri Lanka can beat in England in the current Test series and we can find a way to beat the Windies 3-0, we will shoot up to number 2 on the ranks if I understand correctly. Apparently this was also mentioned during the Sri Lankan test against England.
It was a disappointing performance but things can only get better. It also was a side that hasn't really played sufficient cricket together which plays a HUGE role.
Haha, Douggie B! I miss that bloke.
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