Adelaide: Brett Lee produced his best match figures to silence his critics and help Australia beat New Zealand by an innings and 62 runs. Lee had a dismal series of India in the backdrop of a failed marriage and as expected personal reasons were also attributed to below par performance. At the Adelaide Oval, Lee showed he still had fire in his belly.
After going through a broken marriage, Lee opted out of the one-day series against Bangladesh. He gave a decent showing in the West Indies, but on arrival in India, his first Test series in the country, he was a let down as the Indians took the attack to the visitors.
With Stuart Clarke and Mitchell Johnson out-performing him, it was expected that Lee would be rested soon. With figures of 9 for 171 Lee has kept at bay those baying for his blood, at least for the time being.
"I lost a lot of strength," Lee said. "It only feels now over the last couple of weeks that the strength has come back. The results show that as far as pace and wickets. I'm ecstatic to get nine wickets in a Test." Cricinfo quoted Lee as saying on Monday.
The wicket at the Adelaide Oval was rather flat and Lee bowled ten overs on the trot. At one point he had taken four wickets giving away just 14 runs. He worked up a good pace and beat the bat on more than one occasion.
What made this a special performance was that for the first time in a while Lee looked like he was enjoying his time in the middle. During different phases in the India tour Lee looked like he was trying too hard and the pressure of expectation was getting to him. He also lost his cool during one point when Ricky Ponting kept him out of the attack in an effort to improve his over rate. The captain and the strike bowler were seen having a heated exchange in the second innings in Mohali.
At 32, Lee wouldn't have been blamed for throwing it all away and worrying about his personal problems. But Lee refused to be cowed down. Even since Glenn McGrath retired, the onus has been on Lee to deliver the good at all times.
"I've been improving every match. That just goes down to strength," Lee said. "The next couple of weeks are going to do me a lot of good I think, being back in the gym, having a great strength programme, putting back on the kilos that I've lost. I'm getting really close, although bowling ten overs straight wouldn't have helped today," he was quoted as saying.
Ponting was obviously relieved after Australia's most convincing win in a while. "Realistically that New Zealand team is probably not the strongest team we've ever come up against and they are probably the first to admit that," Ponting said. "We are not kidding ourselves; we've got a long way to go if we want to stay the number one team in the world."
