Ranchi: All-rounder Glenn Maxwell said there would be no let-up in Australia’s strategy of targeting the Indian batsmen with short-pitch deliveries when the two teams square off against each other in the fourth one-dayer here on Wednesday.
“I think the short ball has probably been our best strategy so far. I don’t think we’re going to change our strategy too much. We thought we bowled pretty well (in the last match),” Maxwell told reporters here on Monday.
“Unfortunately, Dhoni went off at the end and played brilliantly. I thought we bowled really well last game. It felt like we sorted out a few of their batsmen. Hopefully they’ve got a few worries in their camp. We’re feeling pretty good at the moment,” he said.
Australia’s bowling spearhead, Mitchell Johnson, used the short ball successfully against the Indian middle-order and sent the hosts on the back foot in the third ODI in Mohali with figures of 10-1-46-4. The visitors, who lead the series 2-1, won the Mohali rubber by four wickets riding on James Faulkner’s match-winning innings.
The Australians will now take on India skipper MS Dhoni in his home town.
Dhoni played a captain’s knock of 139 under trying conditions to set up the third one-dayer in Mohali.
Talking about their plans against him, Maxwell said, “I think we had pretty good plans to him in the last game, though a couple of things didn’t quite go to plan. I think we dropped a catch, one ball that just cleared mid-off.”
“If we take those chances, I think we’re chasing 260-270 and we finish that game a lot earlier. I felt like our plans were very good. We shut him down early. We made him face a lot of dot balls at the start of the innings. Hopefully we get a little bit more assistance with the ball here,” he said. (PTI)