Australian speedster Mitchell Johnson had rendered nervousness in the middle periods as the principal reason for the side’s lackluster batting performance and its eventual World Cup loss to New Zealand on Saturday at Eden Park.
New Zealand demolished the Australian batting order for a paltry 151 before claiming a nerve-racking one wicket victory over Australia at a packed Eden Park on Sunday.
Players and pundits were astounded by Australia’s catastrophic batting collapse, with some blaming it on the team’s serious lack of match practice in the preceding weeks since their opener against England. Skipper Michael Clarke said that the team’s dearth of training and ineffectiveness in dealing with swing bowling caused New Zealand to scurry through their batting order in their innings, Stuff.co.nz reported.
However, Johnson stated that there was no deficiency in the team’s preparation adding that they trained really well and further going on to say that they were probably a bit too nervous in the middle period.
Johnson claimed that they trained hard and anticipated the swing on the pitch, but were undone in execution of their game plan as they took the centre stage.
Though Mitchell Starc retaliated with a feisty 6 for 28 to provide Australia with an outside sniff at victory, fellow paceman Mitchell Johnson, was slaughtered New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum early in the innings and finished wicket-less for 68 bowling six overs, the report claimed.