I love the aggression of my pacers: Clarke
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Australian cricket captain Michael Clarke can't stop raving about the aggression his pacers displayed in the opening Test against India and wants them to remain ruthless and bounce the visitors again during the second match starting on Tuesday.
"I love the aggression of our fast bowlers. I love the way they served it up to the Indian tailenders during our strong victory in Melbourne," Clarke wrote in his column for 'The Daily Telegraph'.
"If conditions suit, I have absolutely no problems with them bouncing the Indians again during the second Test in Sydney. I want us to be ruthless, to continue the same strength and aggression with ball and bat we showed at the MCG," he added.
Australia won the first Test by 122 runs inside four days and Clarke praised his team's 'positive body language, making it clear to India we were up for every challenge that was presented.'
But Clarke said the Australians will have to be on guard in the second test as the Indians have a reputation of coming back hard.
"We have to be smart about the way we attack them in Sydney and play according to the conditions and circumstances on offer," he said.
"A team with as many quality players as India will hit back hard after this initial disappointment and some of their batsmen have outstanding records at the SCG," he said.
"The great challenge for us is to play consistently strong cricket so we can get off the win or loss roller-coaster of the past few months," Clarke added.
Clarke said "the key would be to maintain the pressure with consistent bowling.The most impressive part of our bowling in the first test was the way our guys bowled as a unit, constantly maintaining pressure."
"We haven't done that well for a long time, and what a difference it makes. It is a real credit to our quicks given that James Pattinson was playing just his third Test, Peter Siddle has fought his way back to become an important member of the attack again and Ben Hilfenhaus was at his best in his first test for a while," he said.
"We have had our batting collapses, but so have our opponents. To bowl India's highly respected batting line-up out for just 169 on a fourth-day Melbourne pitch with hardly a mark on it shows how difficult batting can be against quality bowling in helpful conditions," he pointed out.
Clarke also urged the fans to support senior batsmen Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey, who were struggling for form but came back strongly to play crucial knocks in the Sydney test.
"Australian crowds appreciate the great contribution players such as Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Virender Sehwag have made to the game. It's important we do that for our own fine players, too, such as Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey," he said.
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