Cricket World Cup 2023 AUS vs NZ | We want to keep the standard going: Australia captain Pat Cummins

Australia has 'nailed' the brand of cricket it wanted to play, says skipper Pat Cummins. Bowlers have been aggressive, picking up wickets in the middle-overs. Cummins praises Mitchell Starc for his ability to bowl across phases. Glenn Maxwell's 40-ball century against Netherlands was 'insane'. NZ skipper Tom Latham warns teams not to take Australia lightly.

With three wins in its last three matches, Australia has finally arrived at the World Cup and skipper Pat Cummins believes his side has ‘nailed’ the brand of cricket it wanted to play.

“Our group’s big on talking about the style that we want to play, and I think in the first two games not only did we not win, but I think we didn’t really nail the style that we wanted to play. I think in the last few games you’ve seen us be a bit more aggressive — batting and bowling... That’s a standard we want to keep going with for the rest of the tournament, Cummins said ahead of the match against New Zealand at the HPCA Stadium here.

In the losses against India and South Africa, the Aussie bowlers allowed to let the game drift away in the middle-overs by not picking up wickets. However, its three-match winning streak since, which includes a record 309-run win over Netherlands, has seen Australia bundle out oppositions with ease.

“We could try and be really safe through the middle, but we’re not going to take wickets where they’re probably going to score runs at the back end. So, we’re always all about wickets at the start and the middle, and happy to give up a few runs in search of that,” Cummins explained.

The captain also lauded his bowling partner Mitchell Starc, who has never gone wicketless in 23 World Cup matches since 2015, for his ability to bowl across phases and maintaining his pace over the years.

Cummins was involved in a very different partnership against the Netherlands — a 103-run alliance off 44 balls with Glenn Maxwell, who blitzed a record 40-ball century.

Calling him a superstar, Cummins, whose contribution in that stand was eight, said, “He said to me with three or four overs left, ‘I just want to face many balls here and own these last four overs.’ And he did it. So yeah, just insane.”