Australia lose another warm-up game in this Cricket World Cup 2011 and this time it is to South Africa. Some may say that it is only a warm-up. Unfortunately, that argument would have held true had the side fought hard, matched the South Africans and then gone down.
Instead, there were huge issues to look at for South Africa.
One was their batting. While batting collapses are common in this day and age of aggressive cricket, they have gone down like a pack of cards on two successive occasions – against India they lost nine wickets for 58 and now, eight for 89.
This was followed by their bowling. Only two days ago, India had bowled Australia out in the second innings under lights. This time around, Australia managed just one wicket – the other two were retired outs to allow practice for the other batsmen.
Even that wicket was a run-out. The bowling, to me, seems overly dependent on Brett Lee. His ten overs aside, things will look difficult for the side if they have to depend a lowish total and the confidence would be sapping as well.
