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| November 27, 2001 | Tuesday | Ramazan 11, 1422 |
Pressure on Kiwis in Perth, says Waugh
HOBART (Australia), Nov 26: Australia captain Steve Waugh has said the pressure will be on New Zealand in Friday’s third and final Test in Perth after the first two matches in the series were drawn following rain interruptions.
“There’s no real pressure (on Australia),” Waugh told a news conference Monday.
“We’ve played excellent cricket. Without the weather intervening, we would have been in a commanding position in both Test matches.
“We’ve done all we can do and it just wasn’t possible to get a result, and so if we play in the same vein then New Zealand are going to be under pressure.
“From their point of view, they’ve obviously got a chance of winning the series so it shapes up as an exciting test match.”
Waugh said it was a little frustrating his side failed to secure a victory in the first two Tests.
“We know that’s cricket. It can happen and ... there’s no use worrying about it. The weather is certainly out of our hands,” Waugh said.
“We’ll still be aggressive and back ourselves,” the 36-year-old veteran added.
“I think our best cricket is to come. Three or four of our guys haven’t done much in this series so far, of which I’m one, so I’m keen to do well over there.
“The other guys are playing excellent cricket so there’s no reason why we shouldn’t win in Perth.”
Waugh said the prospect of Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee bowling at the Kiwis on the bouncy Perth wicket was exciting.
“We’re going to be very hard to beat if they bowl the way they did today. They were just superb,” Waugh said.
He added that Gillespie, who took 3-45 from 28 overs in Hobart, was one of the best quick bowlers he had ever seen and that the sky was the limit for the 26-year-old.
Waugh said his side had been looking to capture 16 Kiwi wickets on Monday to force victory.
“I really believe if we had a full day’s play today we had a chance of achieving that,” Waugh said.
In the first Test, New Zealand almost snatched victory after three declarations when they scored 274 for six, falling 10 runs shy of their target.
New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming said the Kiwis were happy to escape with a draw.
“It’s fair to say particularly in this Test we were always behind the eight-ball, right from the first ball,” Fleming said.
“To be out of it with a draw, yeah, we’ve got to be happy with that.
“In both Tests we have been coming from behind and that stems from the way we played on the first day, the first morning,” Fleming said. “We tried to address it in this game and it probably went even more horribly wrong,” Fleming added.
Australia have not drawn a Test series at home since playing South Africa eight years ago for a 1-1 result.—Reuters
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