Australia coach John Buchanan said Matthew Hayden had played one of the “top innings” of his career after the opener’s 158 left the reigning champions handily-placed in their opening World Cup Super Eight clash against the West Indies.Hayden — who was dropped from the one-day team after the 2005 tour of England for the best part of a year — needed 18 balls to get off the mark in overcast conditions before smashing the bowlers in a 143 ball-innings featuring four sixes and 14 fours. The 35-year-old left-hander was carrying on from his century in Australia’s previous match, an 83-run win against world number one South Africa in St Kitts on Saturday. But this innings was played on a far larger outfield and on a livelier pitch.“I think it was one of his top innings, not necessarily because of the scoreline, although that’s a pretty significant score in one-day cricket but because of the adjustment he made coming from St Kitts,” said Buchanan.“It was a wicket significantly different, a ground significantly different and a bowling attack significantly different. “We were looking for a platform from him and he gave us exactly that. I rate that very highly amongst the innings I’ve seen.”Assessing the match situation Buchanan said: “I think we’ve got our noses in front. It’s always nice to have that score on the board. But it is a two-day one-day game and we’ve got a lot of work to do to tomorrow to defend that total.” Defending seemingly impregnable totals has proved a problem for Australia in one-day cricket during recent times. The four highest scores to win batting second in one-day internationals have all been made against Australia since the 2005/06 season, including a world record 438 for nine by South Africa in Johannesburg in March last year.“It’s fair to say we’ve had some big scores chased down so first of all it’s nice to know we are making the big scores,” said Buchanan. “But if we look around the world, the game has changed and teams are finding it harder and harder to hold sides that are chasing.”
