Roseau (Dominica), June 8 (IANS) Australia pace spearhead Mitchell Johnson has revealed that they had planned to pepper West Indies middle-order batsman Marlon Samuels with short-pitched deliveries as the latter eventually succumbed to a bouncer from the seamer in the second innings of the first Test here.
“Yeah it was definitely something we spoke about. He’s not too good with the short ball. That’s what we found and that’s what we thought in what we spoke about in our team meetings. So it was definitely a plan to bowl a few short ones at him, try to get him to hook,” Johnson was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au on Monday.
Samuels was twice caught at fine leg on the hook during Australia’s nine-wicket victory in the first Test with his second innings dismissal coming in a match-turning collapse of seven wickets for 35 on the third evening.
The 34-year-old was caught by Mitchell Starc at fine leg off Johnson’s bowling for 74, having blunted the Australian attack for much of the day in a 144-run partnership with debutant Shane Dowrich.
Starc had been the successful bowler in the first innings when Samuels perished for 7 after he top-edged a hook shot to Josh Hazlewood running around the fine leg boundary.
With the win, Australia went 1-0 up in the series. The second and final Test will commence on June 11 at Sabina Park in Kingston, Jamaica.