Pride will inspire World XI improvement, says Pollock

MELBOURNE—World XI Captain Shaun Pollock said pride would inspire his side to perform better in the second one-day international against Australia following their 93-run loss in the first match on Wednesday.
Chasing 256 for victory after the world champions made 255 for eight, the highly vaunted World XI batting lineup collapsed to 162 all out with seven of the top nine batsmen failing to make double figures.
“It’s disappointing,” Pollock told a news conference. “We spent a long time discussing our roles and responsibilities and we didn’t get it right tonight”.
“I have to say that it’s now a challenge and we are going to have to play like one hell of a team to come back from 1-0 down”.
“There is a lot of pride in this team and they are hurting in the dressing room right now”.
Only Sri Lankan Kumar Sangakkara with 64 and Andrew Flintoff (38), provided any real resistance to a four-pronged Australian attack that was led superbly by Shane Watson’s three for 43 and Glenn McGrath’s two for 13 off seven overs.
“These guys are proud cricketers and no-one likes to go down like that. ...We aren’t here for the crowd or the media, we’re here for ourselves and everyone wants to win,” South African Pollock said.
Australian Captain Ricky Ponting said the manner of his side’s victory proved they were still the best in the world despite losing the Ashes to England last month.
“If you read the newspapers all of the World XI guys have been saying that we are still the best side in the world,” Ponting said.
“We have copped quite a lot since we got back (from England). Some was fair and some was unfair and I thought we showed what we could do tonight and that we are still a very good cricket team”.
“We came up against a very good side and we outplayed them”.
Ponting said he had not had to motivate his team especially for the match, merely reminding the players it was the perfect opportunity to show the Australian public what they could do.
“Everyone was up for the challenge and the motivation was there for us that this was the first chance for us to go out and express ourselves, and that’s what we did,” he said.
The second match is at the same venue on Friday and the third on Sunday before the two sides meet in a six-day test match next week in Sydney.—Agencies