Ponting’s head in a spin as Aussies hit double trouble

Jason Krejza

BANGALORE, (Reuters) – Captain Ricky Ponting will  have woken up today under no illusions that his Australian  side’s perennial problems on the sub continent have gone away  with the World Cup just three days away.
Ponting’s men struggled with both bat and ball on spinning  pitches in their two warm-up matches as they were  comprehensively thrashed by India on Sunday and again by South  Africa yesterday in Bangalore.
The current Australian line-up so far bears little  resemblance to the all-conquering outfit that totally dominated  the tournament in 1999, 2003 and 2007 with giants of the game  like Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath now watching from the stands.
Their build-up to the showpiece, which begins on Saturday,  has been marred by unpredictable form and injuries even though  they arrived in the sub-continent after walloping England 6-1 in  the post-Ashes one-day series on home soil.
The matches against joint hosts India and South Africa,  however, have dispelled any hopes they had that the sheer pace  of their opening attack would simply blow away their opposition.
It is not a new experience for Australia who have  traditionally grappled with sub continental conditions that  generally favour slower bowlers.

BATTLING COLLAPSED
In the two warm-up matches against India and South Africa —  who are two of the favourites to snatch the title away from  Australia — their batting collapsed to some disciplined spin  bowling with the middle order folding on both occasions.

Jason Krejza
Jason Krejza

Their two spinners Jason Krejza and Steven Smith proved  ineffective as they were smashed around the field by the South  Africans, conceding 66 runs between them in 14 overs, and failed  to pick up a single scalp on the spin-friendly wicket.
Australian vice-captain Michael Clarke played down the   seven-wicket defeat by South Africa as simply a practice match  defeat but he acknowledged that spinners will be vital over the  next seven weeks.
“I think spin bowling is going to play a big part in this  tournament. Firstly how you bowl it and then how you face it as  well,” Clarke said at a news conference after the match.
“I don’t think either are worries (for the Australian team)  to be honest.”
So far, the facts do not back him up.

WARM-UP WOES
Australia have been bowled out twice for scores of 176 and  217 on the same ground — the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore  — with opposing spinners picking up 13 wickets.
More telling was that on both occasions, their entire middle  order folded meekly to bowlers who are little better than  average.
In the absence of the dependable Michael Hussey, who missed  the tournament due to an injury, the middle order relies solely  on Clarke, trying to shrug off a slump in form, and Ponting, who  is recovering from a finger injury.
Their spin attack looks even weaker. It is led by Krejza,  who has only played one one-day international, and is backed up  by 21-year-old Smith and part timers David Hussey and Clarke.
Krejza’s figures for the two matches read 20-0-102-1, while  the other spinners took two wickets in the two matches.
“We know that as the tournament goes on, we could get  wickets like this. We will have to find a way to do well,”  Ponting said after his team’s 38-run loss to India.
Australia play two matches in the tournament on this same  ground, but both are against the unfancied Kenyan and Canadian  teams in Group A.
If Ponting’s winning streak as captain in the World Cup is  to continue — he steered Australia to wins in 2003 and 2007 —  he will have to first fend off New Zealand, Sri Lanka and  Pakistan in the group, before potentially getting another crack  at India and South Africa later.