Having dominating world cricket for over a decade during the 90s and 00s, Australia are now feeling the pain of mediocrity after being hammered by England in the second test of the Ashes. A 2-0 series deficit now means a third Ashes defeat in a row is very much the cards, which is a prospect that would have been unthinkable during the glory days of Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne. However, it's not just Andy Flower's side who smell blood in the water and one of cricket's minnows also fancies their chances of rattling the Aussies.
The Cricket Germany Twitter account, managed by national team manager Brian Mantle, trolled Australia nicely over their official Twitter account's 'optimistic' use of the #returnthe(Ashes)urn hashtag during the second test.
“#Ashes #ReturnTheUrn” slightly optimistic with that hashtag chaps. If you fancy a competitive game we are only an hours flight from London
— Cricket Germany (@Cricket_Germany) July 21, 2013
Dear Australian fans, was only a joke #mytweetnotyourbatting
— Cricket Germany (@Cricket_Germany) July 21, 2013
Now in an interview with The Telegraph, Germany captain and software engineer Asif Khan boldly states that his side could beat the former World Cup champions, "In a three-day game we'd probably manage a win". Despite being ranked 37th in the world in a sport which only has nine teams deemed good enough to be granted test status and recently tasting defeat against the Republic of Vanuatu, Germany are not intimidated by a side ranked 33 places above them.
Their Scottish coach Keith Thompson claims to have spotted technical and mental weaknesses which his Motley Crue of waiters, airline chefs, IT consultants and a forklift truck driver could exploit. “We’ve noticed (opening batman) Shane Watson always gets lbw,” he says. “Javed Iqbal is Germany’s opening bowler, has been for seven or eight years. He’s our most experienced campaigner and he bowls a mean inswinger. He’d have Shane Watson in his sights...Australia’s mindset seems to be pretty frail ... I’m not sure they’re going into any game of cricket at the moment with a whole lot of confidence. On our day we fancy a crack at them.”
