McGrath shoulders heavy burden (10 June 1999)

10 June 1999

McGrath shoulders heavy burden

Ian Chappell

Australia showed plenty of muscle power when batting, but there must be concern that the bowling relies too heavily on the broad shoulders of Glenn McGrath.

If the lanky quickie doesn't get more support in attack there is the distinct likelihood that the better teams will try to play out McGrath's opening spell and look to punish the lesser bowlers.

On the other hand, the batting must fill Steve Waugh full of confidence. What a day for his twin brother Mark Waugh; not only did he play in commanding fashion, but he also became both the most prolific run scorer for Australia, passing Allan Border, and the only batsman with four World Cup centuries.

Generally, when Adam Gilchrist starts quickly, it allows Mark to play his natural game, but on this occasion it was a Ricky Ponting sprint that allowed the opener to play in a controlled manner. Ponting was in his best form of the tournament, playing brilliantly off the back foot and through the onside, but once again he squandered a promising start. Apart from those two, Australia have also had good contributions from Steve Waugh, Michael Bevan and Tom Moody.

The trick is now to create similar depth in the bowling. The dangerous and talented Neil Johnson showed up deficiencies in the Australian attack and on his current form he would make any team in the competition.

Johnson bowls at a lively pace and scores runs in a similar fashion, with a great liking for the offside and Shane Warne's leg-spinners. In a show of aggression, Steve Waugh correctly called on his leg-spinner well inside the first fifteen overs in order to try to snuff out the Johnson danger, but the left-hander responded by hammering four boundaries through the offside in one over.

Coming on top of the three sixes in one over against India, this was another blow to Warne's confidence. Maybe the thought of Daryll Cullinan being mesmerized by the flipper will be just what Warne needs, but at the moment Steve Waugh is having to rely heavily on McGrath and Damien Fleming, plus plenty of variety.

Australia must beat South Africa to be certain of reaching the semis, in addition to giving the untried points system credibility. It was said before the tournament that the system would reward consistency. If Zimbabwe and Pakistan advance, they could do so with a combined total of one win in the Super Sixes, while Australia may miss out having won two of the second stage matches. A strange way to reward consistency.

Source :: The Electronic Telegraph