Clarke defenceless over 'poor' showing

All week, the talk had been how the quaint village green dimensions of Eden Park would see bowlers dismantled, sentiments more often reserved for visiting rugby teams.

Even though opener David Warner lived up to his name by cautioning his fellow batsmen from getting “too greedy” with the straight boundary seemingly looming just behind the umpire, and bowling coach Craig McDermott claimed targeting the big hit potentially spelled bigger trouble, the Australians were seduced.

Centre-wicket training in the days before the game resembled a golf driving range as the top, middle and even a few of the lower-order batters rehearsed their tee shots to the extent that windows were cracked and onlookers warned to seek safe harbour.

Quick Single: Black Caps prevail in nervy Eden Park epic

But in the wake of his team’s last-gasp, one-wicket loss to New Zealand – a margin that would have been significantly wider if not for a virtuoso bowling effort from Australia’s other increasingly more lethal Mitch – Michael Clarke admitted his team had perhaps got its preparation wrong.

That it wasn’t so much the proximity of the boundaries but the vagaries of the strip in the middle that would decide the outcome.

That instead of belting ball after ball at the defenceless, the occasional defensive shot – back foot or front – might have served them better when it came to facing bowlers who were swinging the ball at pace, the most searching examination any batsman can face when fresh at the crease. 

Clarke's post-match press conference

“We were extremely poor there, is no doubt about that,” a candid Clarke acknowledged when asked if the struggle that his opponents found in chasing down Australia’s sub-par score meant the pass mark for Australia’s batting should be lowered accordingly.

“Our shot selection was very poor and I think our defence more than anything else was an area that was a lot poorer than we would have liked.

“I think sometimes in T20 cricket and one-day cricket you can get caught up working on the power side of your game.

“I don’t think we’ve had too many training sessions where we have worked on the start of our game and actually defending the brand new ball or the swinging ball and that’s an area we can focus on because I think you face conditions like that all around the world, not just here in New Zealand.

“I think you will see the ball swing at the WACA in our next game (against Afghanistan on Wednesday) and we have experienced it plenty of times in Brisbane, even the MCG and the SCG  these days.

“The ball is going to swing and we have some work to do with the bat, that’s for sure.”

The urgency to undertake that remedial work is heightened by the knowledge – or perhaps the supposition prior to today’s wake-up call – that the last two of those venues he named are where Australia was likely to play its World Cup semi-final and final should they make it that far.

But into that equation now looms the distant prospect of the very Eden Park venue where the reality check was administered, should Australia stumble again in their final three matches. Image Id: ~/media/0434BA3AD09C4E9B974B550C762AF3D9

For if, as seems likely given the still undefeated Black Caps’ final two group games are against associate nations Afghanistan and Scotland, New Zealand finishes atop Pool A there remains the prospect of a semi-final re-match between the trans-Tasman rivals in Auckland.

On the strength of all but Starc’s bowling this evening, it’s safe to speculate which team has greater cause to fear that scenario.

With the early exception of Warner who looked solid and suitably subdued until he was pinned on the crease, and Brad Haddin who was scrapping for every run he could squeeze when batting with the very end of the tail, there was a distinct whiff of a self-inflicted wound about the batting.

Batsmen with feet planted pushing hard at the ball early in their innings, picking out the fielders purpose-placed in front of the wicket or finding enough of the edge to find their own stumps rather than opposition catchers.

In fairness, the New Zealand batsmen were guilty of similar crimes in their haste and anxiety to chase down a tantalisingly small total with most of those who didn’t have their stumps skittled by Starc holing out trying to hit that siren-like straight boundary.

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Williamson and Boult celebrate the thrilling win // Getty Images

With the notable exception of New Zealand’s batting prodigy Kane Williamson who summed up the match, the conditions and the requirement, and decided that playing textbook rather than tee off would see him there at the finish.

Which he sealed with his one and only six when Pat Cummins granted his wish by pitching full and – fittingly if belatedly – the short, straight boundary proved a godsend.

“When you are trying to chase a total like that spending time in the middle is important and accumulating every run you can eats away at the total,” the 24-year-old future leader of New Zealand cricket noted, before echoing Clarke’s observations.

“That was important to try and form partnerships, from their (Australia’s) perspective they came out very aggressively and they have some very aggressive stroke makers.

“We’ve seen some of the totals they’ve put on the board before and on a small ground like this and one a good track obviously they were looking to do it again.”

Having started as if they were seeking to emulate South Africa’s demolition of the West Indies the previous evening and hunt a total beyond 400, the middle then went missing meaning that was revised back to less than 300.

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Starc is mobbed by his teammates // Getty Images

When the bottom fell out Australia’s lowest World Cup total was suddenly in play, but even when they limped to 151 Clarke told his team that was a defendable total.

They weren’t counting on their leading bowler going for more than 50 in his first four overs and then, upon being recalled to the crease after Starc had got rid of two key batsmen in successive deliveries with only dinner in between, a further 14 from his first three balls.

Clarke defended the decision to rest Starc at that crucial point, before engaging him again with New Zealand 23 runs from triumph with six wickets in the shed.

The fact that he carried them within a solitary laser-like yorker of stealing a win endorsed the view aired by commentators that the initial switch of Mitches made for a pivotal moment.

“It’s pretty tough to bowl a 10 over spell, it was more to give (Starc) two overs off,” Clarke said when quizzed on his rationale for making the change.

“He was bowling beautifully and I knew that if we could find a way to get another breakthrough (with Johnson) I thought Mitch (Starc) would have a huge opportunity to go through the tail.

“As he just about did.”

Even though his much-documented fitness issues of the past year have been linked to the proximity of playing commitments to long-haul flights, Clarke does not foresee that tomorrow’s seven-hour leg to Perth and then another cross-continental trip on Thursday will see him on the sidelines any time soon.

“I don't think it will be from the flight if I don't play – maybe not making enough runs,” said Clarke who looked unhindered in making 12 from 18 balls before falling to the short-cover cordon.

Quick Single: Injured McCullum blazes half-century

Similarly, his rival skipper Brendon McCullum was nursing a badly swollen, heavily bruised left forearm after wearing one from Johnson but a Black Caps spokesman said the skipper did not require scans, just an ice pack or two.

And unlike the Australians as they prepare to head back home to more familiar surrounds, the headache he wakes with tomorrow will surely carry an easy-to-administer cure.