Former Australian opener Matthew Hayden slammed Australia for their poor performance against South Africa in the 2023 World Cup match in Lucknow on Thursday, October 12. Opting to bowl first, Australia let the Proteas post a decent total of 311/7 in their 50 overs and eventually were bundled out for just 177 in reply as well. However, Hayden was particularly concerned with their bowling changes as Glenn Maxwell was introduced in the attack ahead of other only specialist spinner Adam Zampa and captain Pat Cummins himself.
Matthew Hayden was quoted as saying on air by Wisden.com about Australia’s defensive tactics: “You had an off-spinner bowling inside ten overs, with no slip, with not really a conscious plan to go, ‘Right, how are we going to get a wicket’. Whenever I think of … Shane Warne, the very first thing that he comes up with is, immediately, how am I trying to get a wicket. And I sense that hasn’t happened with the ball. I sense it also hasn’t happened with the bat either. They are just waiting to be shot down, and they have been.”
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However, Australia needed their big guns to step up with the bat, but it didn’t happen as Marco Jansen, Lungi Ngidi, and Kagiso Rabada all picked wickets at regular intervals. Marnus Labuschagne and Mitchell Starc’s seventh wicket partnership of 69 proved to be the only positive for the Aussies, who lost their first six wickets for just 70 runs as well.
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Matthew Hayden added: “Back-to-back wickets for the first and second wickets. Mini partnership. Back-to-back wickets for the third and fourth wickets. Mini partnership again. This is the only major contribution here right now (Labuschagne and Starc were batting at that moment). What interestingly though, has come to the fore is just how now they are starting to think, ‘okay, we going to get runs’ as opposed to, ‘okay, we’re gonna just survive’. And I think that’s been the trending story of the day.”
