Buchanan heaps praise on Hayden, bowlers

St Peter's, Antigua Mar 28: Australia coach John Buchanan heaped praise on his big-hitting opener Mathew Hayden for scoring a blistering 158 when his side needed it the most against West Indies in the Super Eight league match of the World Cup at Sir Vivian Richards ground here.

''It was a top innings,'' he told media persons after the match was called off for the day following persistent rains. '' Matt had a fantastic ODI record. Going back he lost his position due to injury. Then he found it hard to get back in the side as his replacements did quite well.'' ''But he believed he should have been in the side, and now he's justifying his selection and belief in himself,'' the Australian coach said.

Buchanan said Mathew's role at the initial stages of the innings was to provide a platform for the team and he did exactly that.

''Beginning with this tournament, he's made a huge statement about himself, he's got the capacity to play long innings and is capable of good ODI scores. He is reasonably flexible with his shot selection and range of shots,'' he said about Hayden.

When asked about the incomplete game and the 322 total posted by his team, the coach said, '' Yes its nice to have that total on the board. I think we have our nose in front because we have the score on board, but its a two-day one-day international, we've got a lot of work to do to defend the total tomorrow.''

Commenting on the pitch condition of the newly built ground, Buchanan said, ''Honestly I had no apprehension about the pitch, its was new ground for both teams and the wicket has played truly. It had reasonable pace earlier with the new ball, but the outfield was not that quick.'' He, however, showed happiness over his team's so far performance in the World Cup and said, ''So far in this tournament, we're happy.

In this game, we're half-way through.'' ''We have a lot of experience in the batting order, we let the batsman decide. It is left to the batsmen to bat according to the situation,'' the coach said about his team's strong batting line up.

Considering the fact that so far in the mega event most of the teams are finding it difficult to bowl out oppositon chasing total, he said, ''Lots of teams are preferring to send the opposition in, having the game structured for themselves and knowing how much they are changing, what exactly they are chasing and then go about the chase accordingly and the teams are now finding more and more difficult to restrict those chases.'' But he admitted his side's 'total defending' ability and said, ''We are like anybody trying to prove our ability to defend the total. I think we did a very good job against South Africa. The run out of Graeme Smith certainly helped the case, but nevertheless our bowlers struck to the task taking nine wickets for 70 runs on a pitch that was batting friendly.'' The coach was reasonably pleased with his team's bowling performance - which was a matter of concern for them considering the fact that they came to the Caribbeans without their pace spearhead Brett Lee and master leg spinner Shane Warne, who had retired from international cricket last year - and praised his bowlers for their impressive show in the group stages of the cup.

Buchanan was also seen considerably satisfied with his side's present form which saw them get back to the winning terms again after their two consecutive series loss against England and New Zealand earlier this year.

''In the group stages, against Zimbabwe and England we played well enough to get the winning feeling back,'' he said, adding, ''any negative feeling from the losses against England in the finals of the World Series and New Zealand in the Chappell-Hadlee Series is well and truly gone.''

UNI