Bollinger, mates all fired up to rattle Gayle once more: Nielsen

Sydney, Feb.12 : Australian cricket team coach Tim Nielsen has revealed a dressing room secret on the eve of the day-night clash between Australia and the West Indies at the SCG.

He has admitted that pace spearhead Doug Bollinger and his team mates are revelling in making West Indian captain Chris Gayle eat his words about not knowing Bollinger was in December.

Bollinger keeps channelling Alfred E. Neumann from Mad Magazine with his typically laidback what-me-worry responses to Gayle's failed attempt at intimidation, but the man is a professional athlete who was stung, or at least had his pride nipped, when one of world cricket's more revered figures talked up Mitchell Johnson but declared before the Adelaide Test in December: 'What's the other guy's name? Bollinger?'

Since then, the other guy has cleaned up Gayle four times in as many matches, the most recent being a first-ball humbling of the Windies skipper at the Adelaide Oval on Tuesday.

According to the Sydney Morning herald, Gayle now possesses an intimate knowledge of Bollinger's prowess and, to the showboating visiting skipper's credit, he has started referring to himself as Bollinger's bunny.

A cult hero at the SCG, Bollinger is expected to have the honour of taking the new ball for Australia on his home patch of turf tonight, and Gayle is likely to face it.

Asked if Bollinger was motivated by Gayle's remark more than he was letting on, Nielsen replied: 'I'd be lying if I said people don't buy the papers or watch the news. Players are aware of what's going on, and I'm sure it's been discussed in the middle as well.

'He'd take some satisfaction from the fact that someone has questioned where he sits in the structure, and now he's proven he's a bona fide member of international cricket.

'Dougie is enjoying it at the moment. He's bowling beautifully, we gave him a spell for a week, he came home and came back to us fresh. He's firing and bowling fast and fulfilling the role we want him to every time he's got the ball. He gets early wickets, comes back in the middle and gets wickets and can bowl at the death for us. He's enjoying the whole thing. The fact that a senior player [Gayle] is talking about him in that regard now is a real pat on the back for him.'