The Australian cricket team astounded everyone by winning 7 matches on the bounce in the ODI WC 2023. It has been a collective effort from the Aussies in all the 3 facets of the game. Marnus Labuschagne has been the silent assassin. Marnus Labuschagne & Steve Smith have made sure that they stick to the crease and play an impactful knock.
Australian cricket team will have to bring their ‘A’ game if they want to defeat the mighty Proteas in the Semi Final clash on 16thNovember. All eyes will be on the left arm speedster Mitchell Starc who hasn’t been at his best in the previous couple of matches.
Skipper Pat Cummins would be tested against a dangerous South African side who have got a lot of ‘n’ match winners present just like Australia have. It won’t be wrong to say that the winner between South Africa & Australia would win the ODI WC 2023.
Marnus Labuschagne is the second-leading run scorer in championship- Ricky Ponting
Ricky Ponting was having an interaction with Sydney Morning Herald. Ricky Ponting pointed out that the middle overs phase of 11-40 would be quite critical in determining the winner between Australia & South Africa in the Semi Final. Ricky Ponting wants Australia to play Marnus Labuschagne in the summit clash.
“If you’re going to win the World Cup, you’re going to have to fix those overs 11 to 40, because so far in the tournament they’ve lost 12 more wickets in that period of time in the tournament than what India have through the whole tournament,” said Ricky Ponting.
“India have only lost 20 wickets through that phase. I probably would (retain Labuschagne). I mean even today we’ve seen Australia have gone to Mitchell Marsh’s bowling before they used Stoinis,” he stated.
“If Steve Smith had passed his fitness test, which he didn’t, then Labuschagne was the one missing out and Stoinis was staying in the side. But if you actually look at the numbers through this series, he hasn’t done a bad job, second leading run scorer,” he added.
“I know the most important phase for Australia through this tournament they haven’t got right yet is their middle order batting. They haven’t got that right, and they need to fix that quickly,” he concluded.