Australia captain George Bailey remains positive ahead of the Twenty20 World Cup despite his side slipping to tenth spot on the ICC rankings after a super-over defeat to Pakistan.
Chasing down Pakistan's 4 for 151, Australia made the same total for the loss for with tailender Pat Cummins hitting a six from the second-last ball to tie the scores then losing his wicket from the final delivery.
Australia made 11 runs in their super over and Pakistan were 0 for 10 with one ball remaining before Cummins bowled a wide and Pakistan claimed a quick single from the next delivery to notch an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
Australia begins its Twenty20 World Cup campaign against Ireland the team it has now slipped behind in the rankings.
"It (a ranking of 10th) doesn't look very good. I'm still not sure how the rankings work," Bailey said.
"So Ireland go past us tonight. I'm not sure if we've ever played Ireland in a T20.
"Make of that what you will. If Ireland are a better side than us, then I guess they'll show it in a couple of weeks in Sri Lanka."
Australia showed considerable improvement on its second-lowest total ever of 89 on Wednesday in a seven-wicket defeat and Bailey says he is taking plenty of positives out of the performance.
Debutant Mitchell Starc took 1 for 17 from his four overs and looked right at home while Cummins was expensive with 1 for 37, although he bowled without luck.
Bailey, on his 30th birthday, hit a career-best 42 for Australia.
Openers David Warner (31) and Shane Watson (33) were also good contributors with the bat.
Bailey says Cummins, who took seven wickets and hit the winning runs in his Test debut in Johannesburg in November 2011, will learn a lot from his latest experience in the cut-throat world of international cricket.
"He was really keen to bowl that (extra-time) over. That's something that's really exciting from my point of view," Bailey said.
"He'll learn a lot out of that. His first four overs were outstanding.
"I gave him the wrong field to start. On another day he could have had 3-20.
"Mitchell Starc was outstanding. He and Patty Cummins are going to be two really exciting players for us in years to come but hopefully in the next few weeks as well."
ABC/AAP
Tags: sport, cricket, twenty20, australia First posted September 08, 2012 12:00:49
No comments:
Post a Comment