Australia extended their lead at top of the Carlton & United Seriestonight with a comprehensive 81-run win over Pakistan at the SydneyCricket Ground
Rick Eyre19-Jan-2000Australia extended their lead at top of the Carlton & United Seriestonight with a comprehensive 81-run win over Pakistan at the SydneyCricket Ground. Pakistan were dismissed for 205 in 45.2 overs afterAustralia made 286 in 49.4 overs. Stuart MacGill was named man of thematch on his ODI debut, taking 4/19 in his ten overs.Steve Waugh won the toss and Australia batted first in the sixth gameof this year’s series. Brett Lee was rested with MacGill coming intothe team. Azhar Mahmood came into the Pakistan side replacingWajahatullah Wasti.Mark Waugh and Adam Gilchrist opened the batting as usual forAustralia in hot, sunny conditions, against the bowling of the oldfirm of Wasim and Waqar. Akram opened tidily but Waqar gave up 15 runsin his three over spell and was quickly replaced by Abdur Razzaq.With the score at 23, the Pakistan captain struck twice at the startof the ninth over of the day. Gilchrist (13) attempted a cut outsideoff but didn’t have the correct line and gave an edge to Moin Khan.Acting Australian vice-captain Ricky Ponting came to the crease andwas trapped plumb lbw first up with a ball pitching on middle andleg. Ponting completed his third consecutive duck of the Carlton &United Series. It is worth remembering that he broke a string of threeducks in Test innings earlier this season by knocking up 197 in hisfollowing knock against Pakistan at the WACA.The double blow gave Wasim Akram his 398th and 399th wickets of hislong ODI career as he gave Pakistan an early initiative.Michael Bevan survived the hat-trick ball by taking a legbye. Laterthat over, Mark Waugh played a lofted square cut to the boundary tobring up his 7000th ODI career run, the first Australian to reach themilestone.Bevan and Mark Waugh consolidated for Australia. Their third-wicketpartnership was worth 90 runs before Waugh lost his wicket on the lastball of the 25th over. At the half-way mark, Australia were 113 forthree.Steve Waugh became Shoaib Akhtar’s second victim of the day at the endof the 29th over. Beaten for pace attempting a cover drive, theAustralian captain lost his off stump after scoring six.Bevan continued to play superbly, surpassing his career average of58.99 in only his fourth career ODI fifty at his home ground.Bevan’s fine innings of 77 came to an end when the New South Walesleft-hander, promoted to No 4 fell just two runs short of his highestODI score on his home ground. Bevan fell in the 38th over to AzharMahmood. Having smashed the Pakistani all-rounder for his seventhboundary of the innings, he lofted the very next ball to long-on whereShoaib Akhtar took a simple catch. The extrovert Pakistani speedsterwaved to the crowd as they rose in acknowledgement of Bevan’s innings,in which he faced 97 deliveries.Exceptional batting in the late overs by the Australians, especiallyAndrew Symonds, assisted by indifferent fielding, saw the home sideadd 101 runs in the last ten overs before being dismissed for286. Slow bowling by the Pakistanis, which saw the innings run 18minutes overtime, meant that they were docked one over when it came totheir turn to bat. Match referee Cammie Smith made allowances for thehot conditions earlier in the afternoon, which otherwise could haveleft Pakistan facing around 47 overs.Amidst the Australian onslaught, an unprecedented career highlightfell Wasim Akram’s way as he became the first bowler to take 400career ODI wickets when he dismissed Damien Martyn. The Pakistanicaptain received a standing ovation from the SCG crowd. He has taken110 wickets more in his fifteen-year career than the second leadingODI wicket-taker, Waqar Younis (290).Martyn and Symonds added 68 for the sixth wicket before Martyn skied aball to Ijaz Ahmed, having completed 50.Symonds (47 from 26 deliveries) played an innings of rare brutality,which included one of the shots of the season, when, facing ShoaibAkhtar, he backed away to leg stump to smash the ball through mid-offfor four, picking up the line of the ball with rare speed. Symonds hittwo sixes, one to long off from Saqlain Mushtaq, and one flicked withremarkable ease off the hip over backward square leg off Abdur Razzaq.Symonds fell when he lofted Razzaq to Azhar Mahmood. Shane Lee (26from 13 balls) played a bright late-order cameo, but Fleming wentfirst ball and MacGill was run out going for a quick single.Wasim Akram (3/40) was the best of the Pakistan bowlers. ShoaibAkhtar and Abdur Razzaq took two wickets each.Pakistan launched into their innings with all guns blazing as theypursued the 287 for victory. Glenn McGrath, who had taken 4/8 from hislast ten overs on this pitch last Friday, came in for specialtreatment from Saeed Anwar and Ijaz Ahmed as Pakistan registered theirfirst 50 runs in 5.2 overs.The first ball of the innings saw Anwar struck amidships by McGrath,but from then Pakistan launched a ferocious onslaught as theyattempted to make amends for a substandard effort against Australiaduring the afternoon.Ten runs off McGrath’s first over were followed by 19 off hissecond. Ijaz slugged McGrath over the long-on fence before beingdropped by Bevan off a skier which swirled in the gusty wind. The nextball was smashed to the mid-off fence.It was left to Damien Fleming from the southern end to make the firstbrreakthrough of the innings in the fourth over. Ijaz went for anotherslog which was lofted to Steve Waugh at mid-wicket. Ijaz made 23 fromjust eleven deliveries, the opening stand 34 from 3.2 overs.With McGrath’s first three overs going for 36 runs, Waugh made anextremely unexpected bowling change in bringing on DamienMartyn. Eleven runs later and Martyn’s one-over spell came to anend. McGrath returned to replace Martyn, but the first ball of hissecond spell saw Saeed Anwar run out, the result of a brilliant returnfrom the outfield by Martyn, uprooting middle stump. Anwar made 23from 25 deliveries.At the end of the tenth over Pakistan were 74 for two with AbdurRazzaq and Inzamam ul-Haq the men at the crease.It was a tough evening at the office for McGrath. His fifth over ofthe match, and the eleventh of the Pakistan innings, saw Abdur Razzaqdespatch each of the first five deliveries for four. McGrath was dulyput out of his misery with figures of 5-0-61-0.His replacement at the northern end was MacGill. The leg-spinnerstruck with the final ball of his first over. Abdur Razzaq failed topick the spin, and lofted a cover drive straight to McGrath, makingamends for his bowling failures earlier on. Razzaq faced 38 balls forhis 40.At the end of 15 overs, with the fielding restrictions coming to anend, Pakistan were 3/105.The Pakistani run-rate began to fall as MacGill took control, but thenext wicket to fall was claimed by Shane Lee, who trapped Inzamamul-Haq (12) plumb lbw. MacGill claimed his second wicket when he hadYousuf Youhana (10) caught behind by Adam Gilchrist at the start ofthe 21st over.MacGill claimed his third wicket of the innings when he removed AzharMahmood for just one run. Azhar lobbed a cover drive taken by ShaneLee in a simple overhead catch.McGrath was switched to the southern end following a tidy spell byMark Waugh, and struck from the sixth ball of his new spell, Moin Khan(13) popping a simple catch to Symonds at mid off.MacGill claimed his fourth wicket of the night in the 29th over.Saqlain Mushtaq (2) attempted a sweep shot to a ball pitching in frontof leg stump. The ball struck him on the pads and though there wassome turn from the leg, umpire Steve Davis adjudged that the ballwould have collected the stumps.The Australians were now in total command but the match dragged outinto an exercise in maximising the net run-rate for Pakistan after thefall of the eighth wicket, Wasim Akram (23) and Waqar Younis (37)actually putting together the best partnership of the innings, 43 in9.2 overs.Waqar survived a third umpire call on 18 when he played the ball lowto Steve Waugh at mid-wicket. The Australian captain was unsurewhether he had taken the catch, and none of the TV replays gave aclear view.Akram was the ninth wicket to fall when he lofted Shane Lee tomid-wicket for MacGill to take the catch.The last wicket stand dragged on for seven overs, as encouraged by theplaying conditions surrounding calculation of net run-rates, ie, thelonger Pakistan batted, the more favourable the net run-rate. WithSteve Waugh using everyone bar himself, Ponting and Gilchrist asbowlers, the end came when Waqar was trapped lbw by AndrewSymonds. Waqar’s 37 represented his highest score in 179 one-dayinternationals. Shoaib Akhtar remained unbeaten on 3, taking his ODIcareer average against Australia to 49.MacGill, who finished his first one-day international with 4/19 fromten overs, won the man of the match award for his efforts. Shane Warnemay not be needed back so quickly.Pakistan now travel to Hobart to play India on Friday.