Mitchell Johnson
New Zealand has been having a very bad week, the earthquake hitting Christchurch on Tuesday, of such a high magnitude along with the number of aftershocks that happened.
The New Zealand team has due to this earthquake faced problems as well, along with their hearts being with their country their physiotherapist Dayle Shackel and trainer Bryan Stronach had to rush back to attend to their families in Christchurch that were affected by the earthquake.
As a result of a major part of the team being missing New Zealand were a trainer and physio short. Some talk was there about the physio at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore to help the Kiwis but ultimately it was Australia that came to the rescue along with some help from Nagpur.
It is sad to see that the BCCI don’t think it is their responsibility to help them in their time of need.
The 8th match of the World Cup (Group A) was a day match at Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Jamtha, Nagpur in India. Australia won the toss and elected to field first, the openers Martin Guptill made only 10 runs of 25 balls his wicket was taken by Shane Watson and Brendon McCullum made 16 runs of 12 balls before his wicket was taken by Shaun Tait.
Shaun Tait took a total of three wickets; he also took the wicket of Scott Styris who got out on a duck and Ross Taylor who only managed to make 7 runs of 22 balls.
The bowler of the day however was Mitchell Johnson who took 4 wickets, that of Jesse Ryder who might have been able to make a contribution for his side but failed to do so due to Johnson’s bowling attack, Ryder made 25 runs of 31 balls.
James Franklin also got out on a duck, Nathan McCullum stayed along with Daniel Vetteori to make a respectable partnership but couldn’t hold on long enough, McCullum made the highest individual score for his team in this match 52 runs of 76 balls and Tim Southee made 6 runs of 10 balls, all these men fell victim to Mitchell Johnson.
Captain Daniel Vettori managed to salvage some respect for his side making 44 runs of 43 balls but fell to Brett Lee. So New Zealand made 206 runs, not a difficult total to chase especially by a team like Australia.
The Australian innings started with success, opener Shane Watson made 62 runs of 61 balls but was dismissed by Hamish Bennett who also dismissed second opener Brad Haddin who made 55 runs of 50 balls.
Captain Ricky Ponting made only 12 runs of 28 balls hopefully someone took his bat before he entered the dressing room; Ponting was dismissed by Tim Southee.
Michael Clarke made 24 runs of 37 balls and Cameron White made 22 runs of 28 balls both remained not out at the end of the Australian innings and lead their team to victory.
The man of the match award went to Mitchell Johnson for his 4 for 33.
Everyone is praying for the people of New Zealand and hopefully their team performs better in matches to come.
Tags: Australia, Cricket, ICC Cricket World Cup, Man Of The Match, Mitchell Johnson, Nagpur, New Zealand, Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, World Cup
