By Adam Cooper
February 9th 2010 @ 2:04am
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Australia chasing unbeaten summer
Australia believe they are within reach of an unbeaten home summer for the first time in nine seasons and will use that as a spur in the one-day series against the West Indies.
Australia have not been defeated in any form of the game in 2009/10 and have won 12 of their 13 games against all comers, with the drawn second Test against the West Indies in Adelaide in November the only match they did not win.
They beat the Windies 2-0 in the Test series, whitewashed Pakistan in three Tests, five one-dayers and a Twenty20 game and inflicted more pain on Chris Gayle’s side on Sunday night, with a 113-run win in the first one-dayer at the MCG.
Not since the summer of 2000-01 have Australia gone through a home summer without losing a game, and fast bowler Doug Bollinger said on Monday a repeat was within reach, although he was focused on Tuesday’s second one-day game at Adelaide Oval.
“I think we could,” Bollinger said.
“There’s a great feeling around the guys and that would be the ultimate.
“We’ll take Adelaide as Adelaide and then we’ll go from there, but an unbeaten summer, that would be great. It would be fantastic.”
The last time Australia remained unbeaten at home, they beat the West Indies 5-0 in the Test series and won all 10 one-dayers in the triangular series against the West Indies and Zimbabwe.
Allrounder Shane Watson said skipper Ricky Ponting had raised the incentive of chasing a perfect season earlier in the summer.
“Unfortunately we weren’t able to (win) in the Adelaide Test,” said Watson, the man of the match on Sunday.
“But throughout the rest of the Tests and the one-dayers we played some really good cricket and some cricket good enough to be able to get over the line at times.
“Things have really played out well this summer.”
Sunday night’s win was Australia’s 21st from their past 25 one-day internationals over the past five months, with just three losses and a no-result in that period.
This summer they play four more one-day matches and two Twenty20 games against the West Indies.
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