Foundation then flair the Aussie mindset

For all the flair and innovation that has characterised the batting of successful teams in the 2015 World Cup, it is the players with strong defensive skills and sound Test match techniques who rise to the surface in the pressure cooker of the tournament’s final week.

Just days from the knockout semi-final between India and Australia, Steve Smith and Aaron Finch have highlighted the value of batsmen who can keep their wickets intact and push deep into their innings rather than pull off a swashbuckling cameo that provides more highlights than substance.

Since being elevated to No.3 in Australia’s ODI batting order when Shane Watson lost his place in the starting XI several weeks ago, Smith has ironed out a couple of flaws in his unorthodox technique to ensure he provides that stability.

And Finch, who this week sought out his long-time friend and teammate Andrew McDonald to help provide reassurance that runs are not far away, cited an Australia middle-order that includes proven Test match performers Smith and Michael Clarke as a key element of Australia’s hopes of a place in next Sunday’s World Cup Final.

“I have always said I enjoy batting at three and with Pup (Clarke) at four we just like to take our time and knock the ball around, and that will work well against India with their spinners bowling quite a few overs in the middle,” Smith said after his team’s training at the SCG today.

“We can knock them around and give our power hitters the last 15 overs ideally to come in and do what they did against Sri Lanka (in which Australia posted 9-376).

“I think that is our blueprint to ideally perform.”

Finch’s opening partner David Warner spoke earlier in the tournament of how Australia’s batters became caught up in the adrenaline surge of the much-hyped match against New Zealand in Auckland and, as a consequence, pushed too hard too early and were bowled out for 151.

With the atmosphere at a sold-out SCG on Thursday likely to be similar to that which filled Eden Park that day when Australia experienced their only stumble of the tournament thus far, Finch claimed the semi-final will be as much a battle of temperament as talent.

And he believes Australia is on a solid foundation in that area.

“When you're under pressure you go back to your basics and I think we've got some really good 'basic' players,” Finch said today.

“We've got a lot of guys with flair, but when they're under pressure they've still got a really good defence to fall back on.

“When you look at guys like Steve Smith and Michael Clarke they're quality Test players and that's what you tend to fall back on and let the other guys like (Glenn) Maxwell play with the flair.

“But saying that, we're not going to be holding back.

“We’re an aggressive team with bat and ball.”

Finch noted that India’s success in the World Cup – the reigning champions have not dropped a game after going winless through the Test and ODI Tri-Series in Australia that preceded the tournament – was built on a similar structure.

They have prospered in the heat of tournament play due to the ability of top-order batsmen Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to bat deep into the late overs and to shift gears from Test match to ODI mode along the way.

“They (India) have gone with a pretty similar strategy, they've gone with a game plan that seems to be clicking for them now,” Finch said as he attempted to put his finger on the remarkable turnaround in India’s form over the past five weeks.

“They've just played a lot more cricket here (in Australia since last November) and probably got used to the conditions and the lengths you bowl and stuff like that.

“It's no rocket science – they're bowling well and batting well. They're going to be tough to beat.”

Smith made some similar observations, though he couldn’t resist harking back to earlier in the summer when he led Australia to a two-nil win in the Commonwealth Bank Test Series and a clean sweep of the Carlton Mid ODI Tri-Series against India and England.

“I think we'll have a little edge over them with a few scars from the matches throughout the summer, they didn't beat us once,” Smith said.

“So I think that's going to be playing on their mind a little bit.

“They've been here for a long time now, they've been able to get accustomed to the conditions, the bounce we've got here compared to back in India.

“Other than that I just think we need to do what we can do well to control that.

“If we do that I've no doubt it's going to be a competitive game for us.”

Finch spoke at length today about the fact he remains unfazed by a lean trot in recent innings that has seen him fail to reach 25 in his past five innings.

Quick Single: Finch confident he’s not far from flying again

But Smith also revealed he uncovered a chink in his own armour, having viewed video footage of himself batting during the summer and noting that he was moving too far across the crease and was therefore exposing his leg stump as well as himself to opposing bowlers’ attack plans.

Smith was bowled behind his legs in a World Cup warm-up game against India in Adelaide, and was dismissed for single-figure scores in Australia’s opening pool matches against England and New Zealand.

It prompted national selector Mark Waugh to note only days ago that Smith was “out of form” earlier in the tournament but that problem had been fixed with the right-hander making scores of 95, 72 and 65 in his past three innings.

Smith said today he had not sought third-party advice to fix the flaw in his game having self-diagnosed the problem, which he has remedied by taking guard on leg stump when he arrives at the crease and then moving even farther away on the leg side to scratch a second mark.

That now becomes his starting point to ensure he does not drift so far across the crease that his stumps are on show, as was the case “for about a week” until he fixed it.

“I didn't feel out of form,” Smith said in response to Waugh’s assessment on Fox Sports last Sunday after the 25-year-old’s remarkable Test series against India earlier in the summer in which he scored four centuries and averaged 128.

“I just felt like I was out of sync a little bit with a few of my movements.

“I watched a little bit of footage of my batting in the summer in the Tests and I was actually starting to go a little further outside leg and for some reason I forgot about it, and I went back to leg stump and started moving across a little bit too far.

“I've got it back to where I want it now and it really feels good.

“I ask for leg stump (guard) and then I just pull it this way (leg side) a little bit, so there is a mark in the middle of nowhere out there.

“It has fooled a few people, Pup (Clarke) came out and said ‘what’s going on out there?’.

“But that's back, my swing's back where I want it to be, so hopefully I can continue crunching India around the park.”