WT20: Bailey says ‘silent hero’ Hussey pivotal to Oz hopes of winning maiden title

Colombo: Australia captain George Bailey believes the decision to move Mike Hussey to the number three position in the batting line up has paid off well and the veteran batsman is slowly killing the opposition teams without making a major fuss.

Without drawing much attention to himself, Hussey has accumulated 137 runs and been dismissed once in four innings leading into tonight`s semi-final against the West Indies. Hussey has made these runs in Shane Watson`s shadow but is still striking at 120 runs per 100 balls. “That`s exactly why we`ve given him the role at No. 3,” a leading Australian daily quoted Bailey, as saying. “Probably a little bit like (Mahela) Jayawardene, he`s just so dangerous. He is someone who you might not be feeling like he`s hurting you but suddenly you look up at the scoreboard and he has just ticked along,” he added. “It`s a bit of bluff. For what his strike-rate is, he`d be pretty damaging. When he does need to, he`s very, very good at finding boundaries. What he`s really good at is making them look less risky than the rest of us,” he said. Hussey was pushed up to No. 3 in the Caribbean earlier this year, in a break from the finishing role in which he built his reputation as one of the world`s most dangerous limited-overs players. Bailey added: “He has done a lot of his T20 batting for Australia at six but, in terms of what we want from him, if he can bat around a Davey Warner or a Shane Watson, the way he builds his innings and builds a partnership, it makes perfect sense.” Australia face West Indies on Friday in the second semifinal of the Twenty20 World Cup, and the winner would face host nation Sri Lanka in the final. ANI