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The Men who will matter
Over the past two seasons, Matthew Hayden has been Australia's leading batsman. He has been a prolific run scorer both in Test and one-day cricket.
Over the past two seasons, Matthew Hayden has been Australia's leading batsman. He has been a prolific run scorer both in Test and one-day cricket. After a slow start to his international career in both forms of the game, he has matured and he has become a permanent fixture in the Australian batting line up.
He appears to be well settled and comfortable in the role he has been asked to play.
He is a big man, very strong, who has a long reach and he has the power to hit the ball very hard especially in one-day cricket. He is not afraid to hit the ball in the air and he is very severe on any short bowling — he hooks well.
Being a left handed batsman, any bowler straying onto middle and leg will see the ball dispatched with ease through mid wicket or over mid on. He will come down the pitch with good footwork to the spinners and attack them on both sides of the wicket.
Hayden bats with purpose and at times this brings about his downfall — he can be too aggressive by playing some adventurous shots. However, once he settles, he has an appetite for runs and his concentration improves to play some big innings.
His record is improving all the time with a batting average of 44 and a strike rate of 77.25.
He has scored two hundreds and 15 fifties but is capable of scoring many more one-day centuries. He should enjoy South African conditions. (GE Features)
