Aussies - A perfect example for team work

Well what a team work this has been from the Australian team, who can still bring the cricket fans out of the IPL mood that is catching up high on the other side of the globe? If one goes through the scorecard of the second innings of Australia's bating chart, almost all the Aussie batsmen have done their bit towards the team total of 511 for the loss of 8 wickets. If not for the captain Ricky Ponting who returned back scoring just 6 runs that all included was a full-toss hit out of the boundary line, the rest of the Aussies batsmen gave in everything they could to their team.

Much to the surprise, there were decent knocks from the blades of Ryan Harris and Nathan Hauritz - both of whom are more known for their bowling skills and less when it comes to playing a similar delivery. Ryan Harris scored an unbeaten 18 runs and Hauritz scored 41 that included 2 sixes as well. But, I give it all to the opening batsman - Simon Katich who not only top scored with 106 but also held the Australian innings firmly after their first innings lag of 33 runs. This is evident from the fact that he stood at the crease for 279 deliveries having crucial partnerships with Shane Watson and Mike Hussey.

Simon Katich not only bought in all his experience when he did that but also showed a non-selfish motive when he gripped the Aussie innings as mentioned. It was Katich who was responsible for his team to put up such a mammoth total after their initial hiccup. All batsmen who followed Katich came up with increasing strike rates with Hussey, Clarke, North and Haddin returning with strike rates of 41.87, 57.79, 66.66 and 120 respectively. All these were steadily increasing after Katich's 37.99. One bad decision that Ponting was found doing was when he declared the innings at 511 with 2 wickets in hand.

It is neither an insufficient total at which Ponting should not have declared nor the two wickets that Australia had that could have added few more runs to their mammoth total of 511. But, the fact is that, had Ponting chosen to declare a bit later, may be Nathan Hauritz might have scored a half century who had to end his innings at 41*. An interesting fact is the, it was only Mitchell Johnson who could not contribute with the bat for his team but did everything to compensate with the bat when he took three of the five wickets that fell from the Kiwi side.