Standing between England and a place in the Super Sixes of the ICC World Cup cricket tournament is a crunch match against Australia at St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth on Sunday. And no one knows that better thanbeleaguered England captain Nasser Hussain after his side was well beaten by 82 runs by India in their
crucial match at Kingsmead on Wednesday.
A saddened Hussain, whose side was always on the back foot after India’s Sourav Ganguly had won the toss and elected to bat, said: ”After our experiences down under before our trip to the World Cup we are aware that someone has to beat Australia some time. And that some time could well be this weekend.”
The England captain said that the winning of the toss was always going to be decisive as it was clear that the Kingsmead wicket had the ball nip about a bit under lights.
”It definitely seamed quicker”, he said, while taking nothing away from man of the match leftarm seamer Ashrish Nehra who swept into the World Cup record books with a stunning return of six for 23 in his 10 overs.
Hussain said that England had lost the plot when it looked at one stage that India might be restricted to a 220 total. ”We let them get 30 too many at 250 for nine.”
Ganguly admitted that he was always going to bat first once the coin had come down right. He said: ”India have been playing good cricket and this result takes some of the pressure that may have prevailed in our match against Pakistan at Centurion next week.
”It gives us a great chance of qualifying now,” he said: ”Yes, we did well to score 250 so I am very happy the way things turned out in the long term.”
Ganguly said of Nehra that it was the best spell of fast bowling he had ever seen since he started playing for India in 1992. Nehra said he was not troubled by the injury to his ankle which twisted when bowling against Namibia at the Maritzburg Oval last Sunday. ”It was a great feeling to take those wickets against England. The Kingsmead wicket was a good one on which to bowl and I attribute my effort here to my general improved fitness. I set out to bowl line and length and with pace having based my style on that of my cricket hero Wasim Akram.”
Akram claimed his 500th wicket in one-day cricket against Holland at Paarl earlier in the week. Pupil and master will now cross swords for India and Pakistan at Centurion. That should be a great duel no matter now you look at it in the context of this World Cup. – Sapa