Ellis revels in sowing 'a bit of chaos'

Mitchell Marsh was out with a groin injury, Josh Hazlewood is out with a hamstring strain and is yet to be replaced in the squad, and Tim David is being held back as he recovers from his own hamstring complaint, so the team only had 12 to choose an XI from. On top of which, Australia were playing Ireland at the notoriously spin-friendly Khettarama, where Ireland had pushed Sri Lanka at times, on Sunday. If all this had led to this World Cup's first upset, it would have made sense.

Australia, however, leaned on their pedigree and got through the match smartly. Travis Head slipped in as captain in Marsh's stead, and the batters got to 182 for 6 without quite hitting top gear - Josh Inglis cracking a 37 at a strike rate of 218, and Marcus Stoinis top-scoring with 45 off 29.

According to Nathan Ellis - who took outstanding figures of 4 for 12 - it all felt pretty natural and laidback.

"In terms of disruption with the team, we've got the easiest, most easygoing group in the world," Ellis said. "Travis Head stepped in as captain and his heart rate probably doesn't get above 25 at the best of times.

"It's never a great scenario for the team when you lose a captain, but it's also not great for the person who goes to bed last night thinking they're not playing and then has to come in. It wasn't spoken about too much. We just tried to hit the ground running."

And then their bowlers imposed themselves. Adam Zampa also claimed a four-for, finishing with figures of 4 for 23. Thanks largely to his efforts, and those of Ellis, Australia decked Ireland for 115 in the end, leaping neatly over an opposition they were expected to handsomely beat.

Ellis, who was the most experienced seamer on show for Australia despite having played only 33 T20Is, leaned heavily on his slower balls on a slow track. He revelled in sowing "a bit of chaos".

"I don't look at myself as the leader of the attack - it means a lot for me to be here in the Australian jersey at a World Cup, so that's probably the biggest thing," he said. "Tonight, we obviously saw that the slower balls were really effective. We saw that through our batting innings as well. So we went into our bowling innings with that feedback from our batters. And it showed tonight again that in these day games you might need a lot of spin bowling, some change-ups and a bit of chaos."

He had even bowled a slower one first up in Ireland's innings.

"I bowl at first ball some games, some games I don't, but I want to be able to pretty much bowl anything, any ball that I have, first ball of a game. I use the Big Bash a lot to challenge myself to do that."

Australia hope, though, that David will be ready to reclaim his place in the XI for the next match, on Friday.

"Tim's chomping at the bit to get a game, and he's training really well. He's hitting the ball as far as I've seen him hit the ball, he's had six weeks at home, which he doesn't often get to try and get himself fit and strong and get in the gym. He's flying - he's running and fielding. I hope we will see him in the next game. If not, maybe the game after that."