Key battleground won convincingly by the home side in lopsided series.
While their deeds with the ball have been heralded this summer, the Australian cricket team’s bowlers have also been more than handy contributions with the bat.
And it all stems from a pact they made to each other and the rest of the team to add at least 100 runs to the team total every innings.
The normally arduous task has been made to look relatively pedestrian by the Australian team, who’s batting coach Michael DiVenuto said he does not think of numbers eight through to 11 as tailenders.
“I like to call them our lower order,” Di Venuto said.
“I don’t think we’ve got any tailenders; they only bat down there because they have to bowl 20 overs so they have a bit of a rest as well.
“They are all highly skilled and highly talented and there is no reason why those guys can’t score runs and good runs.”
A statistical analysis shows that the Australian lower order (last five wickets) have contributed on average 27 more runs per man than the English tail.
“We have just been blowing their lower order away,” DiVenuto said. “They get to six (wickets) down and they’re almost all out and some of those guys can bat too, so full credit to our bowlers for doing a job on their tail.
“And when our blokes get the opportunity with the bat they are determined to score runs.”
So much so that Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson and Peter Siddle have been listed among the top 10 all-rounders on the latest batch of official International Cricket Council rankings.
COMMENTS