Zeecric Bureau
Vadodara: New South Wales being in the Champions League T20 final hindered Australia’s preparations for the 7-match ODI series against India, so feels skipper Ricky Ponting.
Despite winning the first ODI by 4 runs, Ponting seemed clearly frustrated and admitted that his team was unsettled before the opening match as three of his team members were in Hyderabad until Saturday celebrating their CL T20 victory, thus, being unable to attend practice session of the ODI series.
Brett Lee, Nathan Hauritz and Doug Bollinger arrived on Saturday night for Sunday’s match, thus, barely giving them time to rest and prepare.
The trio reached Vadodara from Hyderabad after Australia’s team meeting for the series opener.
“There is no doubt that those guys playing in the final hindered our preparation,” Ponting told reporters.
“We had three players fly in and get to the hotel at 8.30pm Saturday night and we’re leaving the hotel at 7am on match morning. There was not much time for us to get our team tactics in order - we had a team meeting after training and those blokes were not even here. It hindered our preparation and theirs.”
Well, surely, the tiredness was evident in the game as Lee could bowl for just 6 overs after which he complained of an elbow injury while Hauritz managed to nick in just one wicket at an expense of 34 runs off nine overs. As for Bollinger, he missed the game altogether.
Lee’s woes will be dealt with before the second ODI on Wednesday in Nagpur.
“He got a little bit sore in his elbow towards the end of his second bowling spell,” Ponting said. “He came off and had it looked at then came back on and fielded for the rest of the game but right at the moment we are not sure.”
