AUSTRALIA- THE END OF TWO DECADE DOMINANCE

Australia is the most respected and threatening nation in the field of cricket. They won the world cup in the year 1987. With great players like mark Taylor, Allan border they stabilized their team with consistent performance in the 90’s. However it was after the emergence of the Waugh brothers , the Australia started dominating. Under the captaincy of Steve Waugh the Australia emerged as a strong team. With potential players like Warne, McGrath, Gilchrist, Lehman, martin the team was well balanced to turn any match towards their favor. After the switch over of captaincy to Ricky ponting the team even got better with youngsters in team. However, now with major players retiring from the side, the team loses its balance and the intensity. The youngsters are failing to make an impact as their senior players did. The team has left ponting, Clarke and Hussey to stand as an example for the youngsters to win matches. With loss in Indian test series and a home loss to South Africa has raised question towards the potential of the Australians. Their dominance and discipline in the field is missing. This shows lack of talent and chemistry in the team. Now the number one spot is open to any talented team. The strong contenders are India and South Africa.

Symonds and lee back

Controversial cricketer Symonds(DC) and lee(kx1) are back during the closing stages of this IPL season 2. Both are very strong players and it will be interesting to see how their return has an impact on their respective teams.

AUSTRALIAN CRICKET

Australian cricket has gone through a number of leaps and laps in the past two to three decades or so. The Australian cricket’s development is considered as the benchmarking for the overall development of the cricket of our age. The main reason for the massive development of the cricket in Australia is due to various reasons like the introduction of new technologies and the advent of the talented coaches in all forms of the game. For example, it is hard for all the teams to give batting practice for their bowlers. In Australia, they have introduced the bowling machines well before the introduction of the machines in other countries happened. In addition, the strategically attempts for a cricket match is first carried out by the Australians only. In this technique, they will analyze the batting and bowling performances of each players of the opposite team and they will face the game accordingly. It is widely accepted fact that the game plan of the Australians are fore most trivial than the game plans of all the teams. Consistent victories and the immense confidence on their talents is also one of the main reasons for their mind-blowing performance in the past two to three decades.

PITCHES IN THE AUSTRALIAN SUBCONTINENT

It should be accepted that there are various factors affecting the success stories of a team. These facts include the pitch types, weather conditions, the toss and the D/L methods. Out of these, the pitches are several types including the flat pitch, bowling pitch and the hard pitch. A flat pitch is one that favors both the batting and the bowling. A bowling pitch is one that favors the bowlers in various forms of the bowling. The pitches in the Australian sub continent, which determines the success rates in various aspects. Australian subcontinent includes the two countries like Australia and the New Zealand. The pitches in the Australia are of flat tracks or of bouncy tracks. However, in the New Zealand almost all the pitches are of bowling and hard tracks. Thus, the matches played in the Australia are ending up with an average first innings score of more than 300 whereas the average score in the case of the pitches in New Zealand are around 200. Due to these variations, it becomes difficult for any touring team in the Australia and the New Zealand to identify the nature of the pitches. Only a few veteran players like the little master, Lara are capable of playing under all types of pitches in various circumstances.