Australia vs Chinese Taipei – Initial Impressions

Chinese Taipei 4 – Australia 1

After watching the game which ended up in favour of Chinese Taipei, I came to a few conclusions. Australia has to re-evaluate its selection policy. Choosing veterans over up and comers has proven to be successful in the past, but I don’t think it is a sustainable selection policy going into the future. I will discuss this further in future. Also tactically Australia failed to match Chinese Taipei.

Tactical Problems

The Australian team did not go deep in the count agaisnt Chien-Ming Wang. With the pitch count restrictions in the first round (65 pitches), Australia should have attempted to prolong their at bats. Wang is a major league quality pitcher no doubt, but to let him pitch the bare minimum through each inning was probably our downfall. He pitched 6 Innings while Chris Oxspring Pitched 2.2.

Australia also hit into many double plays, as opposed to Chinese Taipei. As soon as CT had a runner on board they bunted him over. Australia should learn a lesson from this. At the international level small ball is key, we only have to look at Japan’s success over the last two WBC’s.

The Positives

Stefan Welch (1-3, HR)

Welch is probably the most legitimate prospect Australia has at the moment and it showed. He went long once and almost hit another long ball.

Corey Adamson (1-1)

He looked good throughout his limited appearance, gaining a hit and making a diving catch in RF. Will probably take over from Snelling if he can’t recover in time for the next game.