Australia batters have all bases covered in Champions Trophy: Jos Inglis

India Today

Australia batter Josh Inglis feels that their batters have all the bases covered to excel in the Champions Trophy. Australia, on February 22, gave a terrific account of themselves, chasing down a record total against England in the tournament.

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00:00Q Hey Josh, congratulations for the victory, a great 100. First of all, Australia lost

00:07two early wickets, Travis Head and Smith, and still you guys chased it with two hours

00:12remaining. So I want you to reflect on this modern day approach that you and Marnus and

00:17Kerry and Maxwell adopted, like you guys kept the strike rate high and still managed to

00:23chase such a big total.

00:25Yeah, I think firstly the partnership between Shorty and Marnus was really important. They

00:31sort of set the platform there, got us off to a good start. We were in and around the

00:39run rate to start off with, so that was a big help. And then, yeah, me and Kez, we didn't

00:46really say too much out there. Kez is pretty quiet when he's batting, so I think we were

00:52going pretty well. So I just tried to not look at the scoreboard too much, look at the

00:57run rate, just keep batting the way we were going. And we knew if we could get close enough

01:03with Maxie still to come, that we've just seen what Maxie can do, and everyone's seen

01:09it for a while now. So to get close enough for him to be able to explode like that at

01:13the back end was probably in the back of our thoughts.

01:17Let's suppose your team is in the final. What will be your personal choice? Will you want

01:24to play the final match, Lahore or Dubai?

01:29Sorry?

01:32Let's suppose you are in the final. What will be your choice to play, Lahore or Dubai?

01:40There's a few games to come before that, so I don't know. It was a pretty nice wicket.

01:46Yeah, we'll see when we get to there.

01:51Congratulations, mate, on scripting history here in Gaddafi Stadium by chasing down the

01:55highest total for your century as well. My question is that the top team from your Group

02:01B will be playing here on 5th March in semi-final. Do you believe that Australia will be playing

02:07here on 5th March?

02:11I hope so. Obviously, there's only three games in the group stage, so we've obviously started

02:18well. Our focus will be on recovery tonight and tomorrow, and then we'll look forward

02:25to the next match.

02:27Inglis, you played brilliantly without your senior players. What is your belief when England

02:35scored 350 plus total in this pitch? Do you guys feel confident enough that you chased

02:40that total easily?

02:42I don't know about easily. I think 350 is a big total in any one-day game. But we sort

02:48of knew. We trained here at night for the last couple of days, and it got really dewy

02:55around 7.30, 8 o'clock, so we sort of knew that was in our favour during the run chase.

03:02If we could take it deep enough, it would be tough for the bowlers at the back end.

03:07It made life easier for us. The wicket skidded on beautifully, and it really helped our run

03:16chase.

03:18Josh, I think you said as a kid you used to support England. How much of an England fan

03:23do you feel now?

03:26Yeah, those days are long gone, I think.

03:29Are you a City fan?

03:30I am, yeah.

03:32Have you checked the score today?

03:33Yeah, 2-1.

03:35Quick work.

03:37Josh, I was actually going to ask something similar. Given your background, how special

03:42was it for you to score 100 against England today?

03:47I think it's really special. It doesn't matter who it's against. I think, like I said before,

03:54it's a really tight, quick tournament. We knew how we started the World Cup in India

04:03last year, and we know we're not able to work your way into this tournament. You've got

04:09to be right on it from the first game. I think that's probably the most pleasing thing, to

04:14get a win on the board in Game 1.

04:17Nevertheless, do you expect text messages from English relatives in the next 24 hours?

04:22Yeah, I've had a few already, so that's been nice.

04:33Hi, Joshua. Do you think this is perhaps the best innings of your career so far, because

04:37it's the maiden 100. Obviously, it must be special.

04:41Yeah, it's really special. Maybe, I think, under the circumstances, I think in an ICC

04:48event, obviously, you want to have an impact, and you want to help your team win a game.

04:57Maybe. I think I'll reflect on that in the future.

05:06You guys are supposed to play against Afghanistan, and they have some world-class spin bowlers.

05:11Do you think that in the next match, it will be a spin wicket, and what will be you want

05:16it, either a spin wicket or a special for the pacemakers? Because today, Arthur Rashid

05:20was pretty cool with the ball.

05:30We've come up against Afghanistan before, and they've got all bases covered. They've

05:35got some good pace bowlers, and obviously, some world-class spinners as well. I guess

05:41once we get to that game, we'll assess the wicket, assess the conditions, and play accordingly.

05:53Do you like the support from the fans? A huge number of the crowd was here to support both

05:57the teams, and until you hit the last six, the crowd was cheering for Australia. Do you

06:01like the support from the fans?

06:03Yeah, I thought the atmosphere was amazing all day today. It's obviously the new stands.

06:09I think the ground and the stadium looks amazing. We've really enjoyed the last few

06:14days training here, and then to play tonight in front of a packed crowd, yeah, it was unbelievable.

06:21The noise at times was deafening, and the Mexican wave as well. I've seen that going

06:27around a few times. Yeah, really nice crowd and good atmosphere tonight.

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