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| April 25, 2007 | Wednesday | Rabi-us-Sani 07, 1428 |
Hayden hungry for more runs
CASTRIES (St Lucia), April 24: Australia opener Matthew Hayden batted on Monday until even the bowling machine had had enough before pronouncing himself fit and ready to add to his World Cup tally of 580 runs.
Hayden, the leading run scorer in the tournament, practised in the nets well after most of his team mates had left the Beausejour Cricket Ground in the penultimate training session before Wednesday's semi-final against South Africa.
Asked if he was now in a position to add to his three tournament centuries, starting with his 66-ball Cup record against South Africa in the group stages, the strapping Queenslander laughed.
“I truly hope so,” he told a news conference. “I think today is all about getting a little bit of a feel for the ground.
“Certainly it is one of the best surfaces that we have seen throughout the tournament.”
Hayden and Adam Gilchrist's opening partnerships have underpinned Australia's unbeaten record throughout the tournament.
The two left-handers strike the ball as hard as anybody around and still hustle between the wickets like a pair of teenagers rather than weathered veterans with a combined age of 70.
“I think that throughout this tournament the sides that have got in trouble are the sides that have lost two or three early wickets,” Hayden said.
“Australia's batting plan will be very simple, to try to develop a good platform and then go from there.
“We are a side that is playing particularly well at the moment, we are a side that is right on top of its game.”
Hayden fired the opening shots in the propaganda war before Wednesday's semi-final when he told the Sunday Mail that he felt the South Africans had been intimidated in their Group A loss.
“It was just body language,” he said. “You could feel that they could feel it.”
Two of the South Africans who played in the 1999 semi-final tie against Australia, which eliminated their team from the competition, responded by saying they were looking forward to a rematch.
“There are a few nerves around but if you can't enjoy the build-up to a game like this then why are you playing the game?,” all-rounder Jacques Kallis told reporters.
“From the moment you first pick up a bat in the back garden you enjoy playing, and that's just the same now. If it wasn't, then why would you train, why would you want to be here at the World Cup?”—Reuters
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