Despite being pushed all the way, Australia continued their psychological hold over England when they registered their 14th win in a row over their arch-rivals with a thrilling two-wicket win in their Cricket World Cup pool A match at St George’s Park on Sunday.
The outcome — England, 204 for eight, Australia, 208 for eight in 49.4 overs — left a despairing England captain Nasser Hussain proclaiming himself to be ”bloody disappointed” at the result, while Aussie counterpart Ricky Ponting felt they maintained their edge over the English.
Australia looked on the ropes at 135 for eight before No 10 Andy Bichel joined Michael Bevan in a matchwinning partnership.”I think there were a lot of doubts creeping into their minds wondering if the Aussies were going to steal it again,” said
Ponting, ”and I do believe you can gain a psychological advantage over your opponents.”
The Aussie victory, which gave them a world record of 12 straight one-day wins to surpass the record of 11 set by the West Indies in the mid-eighties, was due largely to the inspired Bichel, who followed a career-best analysis of seven for 20 with 34 not out in an unbroken ninth-wicket stand of 73 in 12 overs with Bevan (74).
Bevan conducted the proceedings in his normal unflappable manner before Bichel broke the deadlock with a six and a four off successive deliveries off fast bowler James Anderson in the penultimate over.
”That ranks right up there with the best,” a happy Bichel, who hasn’t always been a regular in the side, said afterwards. ”This is a fantastic side and I just have to be ready and make sure I take my chance when I get the opportunity.”
Not surprisingly, Ponting had nothing but praise for Bichel and Bevan. ”The win says a lot about Bevo and the way he soaks up pressure. He wasn’t scoring as fast as he would have liked, but he knows how to control things. He understands his one-day game and as long as he was there we knew we had a chance.”
Ponting said he knew the run-chase would be tough because the pitch was too slow for a one-day game. ”We have had better pitches here and hopefully if we come back
here we’ll get something a bit harder and with a bit more pace,” he said.
He added, however, that the top-order were guilty of some big shots at the start ”which we probably didn’t have to do, and there are some areas we will have to address”.
Hussain said he thought the pitch provided for a fantastic game of cricket. ”You’re not always going to get those pitches which make for 280-300 runs and I thought this pitch was fair for both sides. And you have to play well on all types of surfaces,” he said.
Hussain said he was satisfied with England’s form duing the first phase of the tournament. ”We’ve nothing to be ashamed of and we were the first team to give Australia a run for their money,” he said.
”We’re very disappointed at the result, because we probably needed just one more wicket (at 135 for eight), but we couldn’t get it.
”It would have been nice to beat them, particularly with all the support we received here,” he added in reference to the Barmy Army and the thousands of other English supporters among the 16 000 fans.
While England may miss out on the Super Sixes because of their decision to forfeit the Zimbabwe game in Harare, Hussain said they had no regrets about that decision.
”England going to Zimbabwe is very different from other teams going there and we have no regrets at all about not playing that match in Zimbabwe,” he said. – Sapa