AUCKLAND: Australia captain Michael Clarke scotched claims on Saturday that he made a tactical blunder in his use of bowlers in the one-wicket loss to New Zealand.

Australia was fighting its way back into the match, defending its meager total of 151, and Mitchell Starc had taken three wickets in five balls when Clarke removed him from the attack and brought in Mitchell Johnson.

New Zealand was on the back foot at the time of the change but Corey Anderson hit Johnson’s first three balls for two fours and a six to alleviate the pressure.

Starc returned and took another three wickets in his second spell, but New Zealand won the match by a wicket, prompting questions as to whether Australia would have won had Starc bowled through.

“It’s pretty tough to a bowl 10 over spell,” he said.

“So it was more to give Mitch (Starc) two overs off.

“He was bowling beautifully, and I knew we could find another way to get a breakthrough. I thought Mitch would have a huge opportunity to try to go through the tail as he just about did. Good decision?”

Clarke attributed an over-emphasis on attack as the reason behind his team’s poor batting performance.

“We were extremely poor, no doubt about that. Our shot selection was poor,” said Clarke, who was playing his first World Cup game after an injury layoff.

“We needed to score more runs than we did,” he added.

“Going forward, the ball is going to swing, so we have some work to do, that’s for sure.”—Agencies

Published in Dawn March 1st , 2015

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