Michael Clarke over the moon as Australia hunts down record total in Sydney
Australian ODI skipper Michael Clarke is extremely pleased with his team’s batting performance in the sixth ODI against England, as the hosts pull off a record chase at the famous Sydney Cricket Ground.
The hosts were set a daunting target of 334 runs by the POMS, who were served well by Jonathan Trott, who scored his second hundred of the series, to put his team in the driving seat.
However, a thoroughly professional batting performance led by Clarke himself meant that the thrilling encounter was bagged by the hosts in the last over of the match with two wickets standing.
After the match, Clarke stated that the win was a real tonic ahead of the World Cup next month. The Aussies would be the defending champions at the biggest stage in limited overs cricket.
The most pleasing aspect of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746’s win was the combined batting performance as almost all frontline batsmen contributed to the team cause.
The out of form Clarke scored his second successive fifty of the series and silenced his critics ahead of the big assignment starting in less than three weeks time.
"The boys are stoked. It's a huge win for us and again we can take a lot of confidence from that run chase going into the World Cup", Clarke said. "I think there's going to be some pretty big scores in the World Cup on pretty flat
wickets similar to that. I think you're going to have to get used to chasing some big totals. It's great practice for us".
Most of the decisions that the Aussies made in their chase brought rich dividends including http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Clarke-c51120’s call to promote Mitchell Johnson to No. 4.
The big hitting all-rounder played like a seasoned batsman, and rather than playing unorthodox shots, batted his way to a very useful half century.
He hit 57 to keep up Australia's early momentum after openers, Shane http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Watson-c96326, and, Brad Haddin had got the chase off to a rollicking start.
Johnson, who has had a roller coaster ride in the season, posted only the second fifty in ODI cricket and rather than throwing his wicket away the Western Australian played a crucial knock for his team.
"He was the only left-hander in our side today and I was confident that if Mitch miss hits the ball he could still get a couple over the rope". he said. "It was more a game situation, we were chasing a big total, we had to gamble and
fortunately it paid off”.
Once Johnson was sent packing by Kevin Pietersen, the Australians were well served by David Hussey and Clarke.
Clarke scored 82 off 70 balls striking 4 fours and 1 six in his innings. He added 90 runs for the sixth wicket with Hussey, who scored 38 runs. Clarke was run out with the Aussies at the brink of victory. He was lucky that the pair
of John Hastings and Brett Lee took the team home with four balls to spare.
The win was brought by an inside edge off Hasting’s bat that went to the fine-leg boundary sparking celebrations in the Aussie camp.
While Trott won the man of the match award, the celebrations were only visible in the home pavilion as the fans of the game in Sydney witnessed a remarkable game of cricket where 667 runs were scored.
The two teams now square off for the final game of the series at the WACA in Perth, the Aussies are already in the driving seat, with a 5-1 lead, and Clarke would be hoping of another win at the fastest wicket in the world.
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