Australia crush Pakistan

Anyone who doubted Australia’s credentials as favourites to retain the World Cup might want to reconsider that view. In circumstances as peculiar as they were difficult for the 1999 champions, Ricky Ponting’s team passed what might be their most difficult test of the preliminary round at the Wanderers on Tuesday by clobbering Pakistan by 82 runs.

The day began for Australia with Shane Warne’s withdrawal from the tournament after testing positive for a prohibited substance which, according to ”usually reliable sources”, was given to the leg-spinner by his mum.

The loss of Warne, coupled with the absence of Michael Bevan (still recovering from his groin injury) and Darren Lehmann, banned from this match for his colourful opinions of the Sri Lankans. This left Australia with 12 to choose from. They opted to leave out Andy Bichel and included Andrew Symonds, who almost certainly would not have played had Bevan and Lehmann been available.

Symond’s response was to play what is probably the innings of the tournament to date, a thunderous 143 not out that rescued Australia from a wobbly 84 for four and carried them to 310 for eight. Symond’s score more than doubled his previous one-day international best and it is probably fair to say that he batted twice as well as he ever has for Australia.

He opened his account with a couple of perfectly struck cover drives off Abdur Razzaq and then got steadily better as he destroyed a Pakistan attack that seemed at least two bowlers shy of a full hand.

Pakistan had started well enough, with Wasim Akram grabbing the wickets of Adam Gilchrist, Mattie Hayden and Damien Martyn in his opening burst and when Waqar Younis had Jimmy Maher caught at the wicket off a careless waft, Australia were peering into a dark and unpleasant pit.

But Symonds and Ricky Ponting steadied the ship with a 60-run partnership for the fifth wicket and once Ponting had gone for 53, Symonds murdered Razzaq and leg-spinner Shahid Afridi. In some respects Symonds played the type of innings for Australia that South African supporters look to from Lance Klusener, but Symonds is a more orthodox player, and on a Wanderers outfield as slick as glass, anything that pierced the inner ring ran away to the boundary.

His runs came off just 125 deliveries and included 18 fours and two sixes. He hit the ball hard, but never slogged and when Bevan and Lehmann come back Australia will have an embarrassment of middle order riches from which to pick.

Pakistan didn’t get the balance of their attack right and Waqar’s frustration boiled over in the penultimate over of the innings when he bowled two beamers and was whipped out of the attack by umpire David Shepherd. Whether further action is taken against Waqar by match referee Clive Lloyd remains to be seen, but it was disgraceful behaviour from an international captain.

To make matters worse for Pakistan, they were docked an over, but a full quota of 50 wouldn’t have made the slightest bit of difference. They simply weren’t in it. The three Australian quicks, Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee (with his second ball) picked up a wicket apiece in their opening spells while Ian Harvey’s change of pace baffled both Salim Elahi and Yousuf Youhana.

The most outrageous wicket of the day, however, was claimed by left-arm wrist spinner Brad Hogg who offered up a knee-high full toss to Younis Khan. The ball looped up to mid-on with Younis’s bat fly off to square leg. It was hard to say which travelled further.

Pakistan eventually foozled along to 228 all out in 44.3 overs, at no stage looking as if they might mount a challenge. Rashid Latif, who clunked three sixes, and Wasim Akram flailed around a bit towards the end for 33s, but never with sufficient conviction to really bother Australia. It was token slogging with the match already won and lost.

The first two days of this World Cup produced unexpected victories for the West Indies and Sri Lanka. Australia clearly weren’t in any kind of mood for nonsense like this on Tuesday.