London: Australia’s Jason Behrendorff’s five-wicket spell destroyed England’s hope of a win over their arch-rivals at the historic Lord’s ground on Tuesday and the pacer revealed he would treasure his performance forever.
Behrendorff had suffered from many injuries and was also in rehab for a while. Recalling those tough days, he said it was very pleasing to produce such a spell at a historic ground.
“Some days, especially during all the rehab periods, I would question myself whether I would be able to get back and play for my country,” he said following the 64-run win at Lord’s.
“As a kid I always dreamed of playing for Australia, and then to come here and play at Lord’s, my first time here, is amazing. And being able to come up with such a spell is something special.”
The pacer could not contain his excitement and thrill after his spell.
“This is something I’ll treasure for sure,” he added. “Again, it’s something that you don’t play cricket for the accolades, but to play at Lord’s and to take five today was really special.”
Speaking on being able to bowl with two of the finest pacers, Behrendorff is delighted that he is benefiting from partnering with Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins.
“The really positive thing is that both Mitch and Pat have played quite a lot of one-day cricket, so to be able to chat to them on how they go about it, especially through the middle overs, is a bonus for me,” said Behrendorff. “It would be nice to grab a few tips from Mitch on how one can look to continue to take wickets. But yeah, it is really important to be able to work together and to be able to hold those plans and execute them out in the middle.”
This 29-year-old left-arm pacer seemed quite level-headed, especially when he was asked if his was the team to beat now.
“I don’t think so,” he replied. “I think the competition is still very open. England are still a great side. They are probably still favourites, the home country. Something that we aspire to is just to continue playing good cricket. So I don’t think we’re favourites, that’s for sure.”
So when he was told that is his team are a mere two wins away from lifting the World Cup, his response was: “Momentum is a huge thing when we play a tournament. We’ve got two big games coming up as well. So ideally another couple of wins there, and then head into the semi-finals with some great momentum.”
