SYDNEY: Former Australia skipper Michael Clarke has slammed Aaron Finch & Co. for their "un-Australian" brand of cricket throughout the Men's T20 World Cup at home, which resulted in their exit from the Super 12 stage of the tournament.
Australia's defence of their title at home began on a bad note, losing to New Zealand by 89 runs at Sydney. That crushing defeat left Australia playing catch up and despite wins against Ireland and Afghanistan, they weren't much convincing in their performances, culminating in them finishing Group 1 in third place with a negative run rate.
"I think Australians in general, on the biggest stage under the most amount of pressure, always put in on the line and have a crack. We're not scared to lose. Yet we picked an aggressive 11 in this World Cup squad yet played so defensively. Very un-Australian," Clarke said on the Big Sports Breakfast radio show. But what frustrated Clarke the most was Australia's inability to ruthlessly defeat Ireland as their winning margin was 35 runs and then edge Afghanistan by just four runs.
"The frustrating thing for me is -- I think they missed a trick against Ireland and then against Afghanistan, I don't know what I was watching. It felt like they were doing everything they could just to beat Afghanistan. I know you can never just wipe the floor with a team and have that attitude but they had to." (IANS)
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