Waugh attributes defeats to poor cricket

Australian captain Steve Waugh has refused to over-analyse his team's poor performance which has seen them drop to the bottom of the points table in their current triangular one day series.

"The bottom line is we just haven't played well," Waugh said at a press conference in Melbourne ahead of Tuesday's must-win match against New Zealand.

"As I said at our team meeting today, you can over-analyse things and worry about too much stuff," he said.

"There's far too many theories floating around at the moment, too many experts out there and it's pretty simple -- we've just got to play better cricket."

Even though Australia have not beaten New Zealand yet this summer Waugh stopped short of praising his opposition, attributing their losses to his own team's poor form rather than any special tactics from New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming.

"They're not coming up with anything startling, we're just playing poor cricket and perhaps we're worrying too much -- reading too much into their plans," he said.

"I've played for 16 years and the opposition always has plans against you.

"It's how you counteract those plans and overcome them that make you a good side and make you a good cricketer."

Australia have made two changes to their side ahead of Tuesday's match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Ian Harvey and Brett Lee come in to the side replacing Andy Symonds and Jason Gillespie.

Australia must beat New Zealand on Tuesday to have a chance of a place in the series final next month.

Mail Cricket Editor