Cricket / Chris Ryan / 25 September 2009 / Leave a comment Bet Now

Australia will begin their campaign in the Champions Trophy when they take on the second-string West Indies at Wanderers in Johannesburg, writes Andy Morris.

This was the same ground on which West Indies had played their first game against the Pakistanis and had run them hard before losing a low-scoring tie. Australia would have obviously followed the game and would understand the importance of not underestimating their much weaker opponents.

The Aussies will be on a high from their dazzling performance - or rather, good performance resulting in dazzling results - against the English side. And they will fancy their chances against the men from Caribbean, who are shorn of most of their talented players; there is no Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan or Dwayne Bravo, and it does not look like the current side has the wherewithal to beat a top side at all.

Having said that, Australia will be cognizant of the fact that things could boil down to a three-way tie between India, Pakistan and themselves and how crucial the net run rate would become at a later stage. This would mean that a big win is what the Aussies will be looking at, similar to what the Pakistanis attained - with almost 20 overs to spare - and boost their NRR up.

The playing eleven will be similar to the one that featured in most of the games in England, but Nathan Bracken will be the one man missing for sure given his knee injury. His injury will mean that Peter Siddle could be given a run-in, with a toss-up between James Hopes and Callum Ferguson - given that the tracks at Jo'burg will assist the bowling side and the extra bowler may prove to be redundant.

The West Indies would have been reasonably happy with their performance against the Pakistanis. Despite being bundled out for 133, they fought well through Gavin Tonge to make a comeback into a lost cause. However, it is their batting which will need to click well to afford any kind of an opportunity to their bowling. If they did bat first again, one would think that if the conditions did remain similar to the previous game, a score of 200 would be par for the course.

It must be remembered that the game is a day match, and an early morning start should ensure that the West Indian skipper Floyd Reifer does not repeat the mistake of batting first; instead, fielding first could turn out to be their only chance to run the Aussies close.

And it may not be a bad idea for the West Indian side to bat some of their less illustrious batsmen up the order and get in the ones like Devon Smith and Dave Bernard lower down by which time the ball would have stopped swinging around.

All in all, the Aussies should be runaway favourites for this one.