CB Series 2007-08

Forget controversial summer - Hussey

Peter English

March 1, 2008

	Ricky Ponting and most of his team-mates batted poorly against Sri Lanka on Friday, but Michael Hussey is not worried about it hampering Australia in the first final © Getty Images

Michael Hussey wants Australia to ignore Friday's disturbing hit-and-miss performance and recall the strong batting memories from last week at the SCG for the first final. Hussey was one of the many failures as Australia fell from 0 for 107 to 208 all out against Sri Lanka in Melbourne, but he does not believe the display will affect the home team when it faces India in the most crucial one-day match of the season so far.

As a spiteful summer draws to a close, Hussey has urged his team to shut out the various distractions, which have ranged from on- and off-field verbals to the shadow of the Indian Premier League, as they attempt to win the last Australian tri-series. "I'd prefer to bury everything and focus on final," he said. "Both teams and the Australian and Indian public have had enough of the controversy."

Hussey encouraged his team-mates to take the emotion out of the encounter to achieve their peak performance. "It's important we don't let the distractions play any part on our minds," he said. "If we play on emotions sometimes those distractions can have a detrimental part on your performance. If we take emotion out of it, I think we can play our best and go 1-0 up in the series."

A key ingredient to any Australian success is a well-rounded batting performance, which is something that has been missing for much of the series - they have played eight games and only twice passed 250. Despite the stuttering, Hussey expects the more batsman-friendly surface at the SCG to help the side forget the low of Friday night.

"There have been difficult conditions in Melbourne during the year and all teams have struggled," he said. "We don't want to look too much into [the MCG performance]. We're looking to our last performance in Sydney, when all the batsmen played particularly well."

Ricky Ponting broke free from his run drought with 124 in that game and all of the top six made useful contributions in the total of 7 for 317, which led to an 18-run victory. "We know we're playing well," Hussey said, "and we know we can put on a good performance."

Peter English is the Australasia editor of Cricinfo

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