Stand and Deliver, You Mugs!
THE Aussie cricket team have lost the plot. While the Saffers are belting us to all ends of the park, we are struggling to find the boundary at crucial times. What has happened to the Aussies that has sapped us of our ability to tonk?
Well guess what folks, the problem may be more obvious than you think. Whip out the highlights from the 4th ODI (Port Elizabeth) and compare Gibbs’ slogs out of the park to Michael Clarke’s pathetic attempts to score quickly. There is a bleedingly obvious defect in the Aussies attempts at belting and it has been apparent for quite a while now, it may have crept in somewhere in the Aussie Summer, or it could have been even earlier. If another Aussie tries BACKING AWAY again, the television will be switched off until that batsman gets out – which in the current climate wouldn’t be long. Stay in front of your damn stumps and stand and deliver!
Michael Clarke has been a serial offender. In looking for a big shot he backs off to leg side and ends up having one fired at his body which he fails to play, or he suceeds in punching one through the off side for a single. His available scoring shots are severely limited after backing away. It gets even worse against spin. Everyone knows how good Clarke is at playing spin, and how well he uses his feet. He has completely left this behind, backing away to leg side is not using your feet well. Watch how Clarke got out in the last match. Bowled by van der Merwe after the ball beat the outside edge. He was all at sea because his body somewhere outside leg stump. Clarke isn’t the only one, most of them are doing it.
Two that aren’t (or didn’t last time I checked at least) are Haddin and Johnson. Haddin scored a fashionable and fast 78 at Port Elizabeth and we all know what Johnson has been doing lately. Perhaps it would be a bit harsh on Ponting as well, but thats probably it.
Its ugly to watch, its losing us games and its easy to stop. Watch as Gibbs stays in front of his stumps, clears his front leg and belts one over cow corner. Phil Hughes is a specialist at that, he displayed it to us in the test series. Maybe its time to throw him into the One Day team. But I think perhaps all that could be needed to is a good drilling of the team: Stand and Deliver, You Mugs!
