Mohammad Shami rattled the Aussie top-order with in a sensational first spell in the abandoned fourth one-dayer and the pacer credited his success to well-planned strategy against the visiting batsmen.
“The plan was not (to) give any room to batsmen to play their strokes,” pointed out Shami, after bagging his best ODI figures (3/42) yet. “The idea was to make the batsmen play the ball. The pitch in the beginning was assisting fast bowlers and we bowled accordingly.”
Shami felt there was not much assistance from the pitch, especially after the first rain interruption. “There was nothing special in the pitch. We were bowling first and there will be something for the fast bowlers when the wicket is fresh. There was not much bounce nor was there any carry. It was a little better before the rain but once it rained, the pitch slowed down a lot.”
The Bengal paceman said he was under no pressure having got his first match of the series.
“I don’t put myself in any kind of pressure. Whenever I step on the field, I only concentrate on the job given to me. I focus on my bowling, maintaining right line and length and not bother about the situation or batsmen.
“Whether I play the next game or not it depends upon team management but the aim of all the bowlers will be to win the series. I don’t think we should be thinking about whether I will play or not. The team is like a family and whoever gets the chance, he will try and help the team win,” he elaborated.
Aussie skipper George Bailey didn’t think this (98 off 94b) was his best knock. “Not really, I was dropped twice. I was a bit frustrated out there and found it quite difficult. I think Maxy's (Glenn Maxwell) innings was absolutely superb.
“We've seen his hitting before and we've seen how he can take games away late in an innings. But to come in with the team under pressure, with the ball still doing a little bit, I thought he summed it up,” Bailey said.
