Visakhapatnam, Oct 21:Australia stand-in captain Michael Clarke expressed his disappointed after having failed to defend a target of 289 in the second ODI, but said that there were a lot of positives for his team to take from the defeat.
The middle-order batsman said the wicket was slow and dew played a role as his side suffered a five-wicket loss to trail 0-1 in the ODI series against India.
Excerpts from the press conference.
On the positives for Australia
I think we can take a lot of positives from this match. Obviously we didn’t get the results we wanted - that is to win the game - but I thought Mike Hussey and Cameron White really played well. I thought John Hastings on his debut bowled really well, Clint McKay was fantastic and I see a lot of potential in Mitchell Starc. No doubt we are disappointed that we didn’t get the result we wanted but we take a lot of positive from this match.
On the target of 289 runs
I thought 290 was a pretty good score. The wicket probably quickened up throughout the game once the dew set in and once the light came into play. It was a better wicket to bat on in the second half of the game. It was really tough to score when I first went out there and I guess that probably was the difference between the two teams. After 15 overs we were around 50 runs and India were at about 80. I think we can improve in Goa in a couple of days.
On Virat Kohli playing with a runner
I didn’t mind Kohli having a runner [at Vizag]. I think Yuvraj [Singh] was probably disappointed. He was cramping and he needed a runner so it was fair play.
On the dew factor
I think the dew played a bit of a part. It probably helped the wicket and the ball skidded off the wicket a bit better. The batting was better in the second half of the game. The ball didn’t get that wet and it certainly didn’t affect our bowlers so we have no excuses. India outplayed us tonight.
On John Hastings and Mitchell Starc
We had two guys making their debut and I thought they tried really hard. We can all improve and our fielding certainly can improve. Hopefully we come out with a better performance in Goa.
On his century
It obviously helps because I didn’t spend too much in the middle in the Test series. I found it difficult early because as I said the wicket was very slow and it was quite hard to beat the infield and hit the boundaries. I think in conditions like [at Vizag] it is about trying to hang in there and we knew if we had wickets in hand we could put on a decent total by maximising our scoring in the last ten overs and we did that. Cameron White played really well, probably as good an innings as I have seen in One-Day Internationals but unfortunately there weren’t enough runs.
On Cameron White’s innings of 89 off 49 balls
White’s big strength, one of his strengths certainly, is the big hits at the end of the innings. Whether it is one-day cricket or Twenty20s, he hits the ball as hard as anybody. He is a strong boy and if he keeps playing like that we would be in good stead.
