Mumbai: Australia’s stand-in skipper David Warner has reacted strongly to pitches offered during the ODI series. Australia defeated Sri Lanka in the fourth ODI played at Dambulla to clinch the series 3-1, with one match still remaining in the series.
Warner replaced Steven Smith, who flew back to Australia mid series to manage his workload for the upcoming busy home season.
Australia thrashed SL in the fourth match with Aaron Finch scoring a quickfire 55 off 19 balls and George Bailey continuing his good form by scoring 90 not out. SL only managed 212 in their essay. The pitches have been sluggish and on the slower side and run making has been difficult for both teams.
“It’s hard to gain momentum when the wickets prepared are like this,” Warner, who took over as captain after the second ODI while Steve Smith is rested, told reporters.
“It’s a little bit disappointing from our point of view because it’s not the way we like to play. We like to play an aggressive brand of cricket. We like to entertain the crowd.”
England, who won against Pakistan by scoring world record total of 444 for three at Trent Bridge are playing exciting brand of cricket and Aussies are struggling to score even 200 on pitches, which are not conducive for aggressive and fast paced cricket.
“When you see games like the England match last night — that’s what I love about cricket. I love that kind of atmosphere, and that’s why as a youngster I went to watch the game.
“But if you come here and you play five games like that, on wickets like they have here at the moment, it is going to be very, very tough to draw a big crowd all the time,” Warner said.
Australia are currently ranked No.1 in limited overs cricket have redeemed themselves. They were whitewashed during the Test series and had no clue on how to play on wickets which aides spinners.
Aaron Finch also equalled the record for the fastest fifty by an Australian. He scored the half century in 18 balls. Glenn Maxwell and Simon o’Donell have also scored their fifty in same number of balls.
“It’s always awesome to have one of your players go off like that and for me it is more of a watching tour to be honest,” said Warner.
“I’ve been up the other end or in the dugout watching the guys go about it. But it’s fantastic – I love that Finch comes out and plays his game.
“That’s how we play. That’s the Australian way,” said Warner.
Australians will be chuffed and relieved that they won something on this tour. Warner might be short on runs but he has led the side well and has shown character to bounce back from the Test series loss. Darren Lehmann, coach, would like to win the remaining ODI to set the record straight and salvage some pride.