Cricket: Astle burns out after fiery start to his one-day career

By Richard Boock at the cricket World cup


EDINBURGH - They call Nathan Astle "fire-engine" over here, after a remark passed several years ago by the present England coach, David Lloyd.

The British press remember it well because Lloyd - he of the "we flippin' murdered them" quote - had told them that if Astle was an international cricketer, his posterior was a fire-engine.

Now Lloyd, or "Bumble" as he is known in these parts, was not allowed to forget his remark for quite some time as one of Astle's next acts was to crash a century against England at the 1996 World Cup, an innings which effectively consigned the English to a quarter-final showdown against the potent Sri Lankans, and an early flight home.

Lloyd might consider now, however, that his point is a still a valid one, and particularly in English conditions when the ball is tending to swerve around in the air early on, as well as doing something off the seam.

Astle left New Zealand for this World Cup tournament shortly after being ranked the seventh best one-day batsman in the world, but is in danger of returning as one of the most abject failures in the tournament's history.

When he was caught at the wicket against Pakistan at the weekend for 2, he'd brought his tally of World Cup runs to 122 from 10 innings, 101 of which were scored in that one match three-and-a-half years ago.

His scores during this tournament have been 4 against Bangladesh, 5 against Australia, 2 against the West Indies and a duck against Pakistan, which, for interest's sake, leaves him with an average of 2.75 with tonight's final group game against Scotland pending.

It has hardly helped New Zealand's cause that his opening partner Matt Horne has been in only slightly better touch, aggregating 43 runs from four innings, 35 of which were scored against Bangladesh.

Between them, the pair have forged consecutive opening stands of 5, 5, 2 and 2, although Horne was unlucky on one occasion, given out caught down the leg side against Australia when the ball appeared to glance off his hip.

Astle's problems, after lifting a drive to mid-off in the opening match, have largely resulted in his dismissal behind the stumps, with Damien Fleming having him caught at second slip at Cardiff, and Curtly Ambrose and Shoaib Akhtar inducing finer edges in his next two innings.

New Zealand's chase for Pakistan's 269 at the County Ground here on Saturday never recovered from the early damage, and when Chris Cairns and Adam Parore fell to consecutive deliveries in the 20th over, New Zealand was left scrapping to save their net run-rate - which eventually plummeted from 0.42 to 0.00.

But if the batsmen are to shoulder the blame for a run chase that tripped over on the starting blocks, the New Zealand bowlers should carry the can for putting them in that position in the first place.

Dion Nash and Geoff Allott were apparently under orders to pitch the ball up, but proceeded to dig it in short instead, at which stage Saeed Anwar and Shahid Afridi muttered their thanks in Urdu, and carved 23 runs out of the first two overs.

To give them their dues, Nash returned strongly and gave up just 23 runs off his next nine, and Allott punctuated his expensive 64-run spell with four wickets, but the loose start allowed Pakistan time to consolidate when a couple of wickets eventually fell, and set the stage for their lower order to attack.

Ijaz Ahmed (68 balls) and Izamam ul-Haq (50 balls) both scored half-centuries, with man-of-the-match Inzamam destroying the attack for the second time in the tournament's history, ending unbeaten on 73 (61 balls) after hitting 81 against Australia at Headingly.

New Zealand lost two wickets within 15 minutes of the re-start, and although Stephen Fleming - who brought up a careful 50 off 78 balls - and Chris Harris (42 off 94) added 82 for the seventh wicket, in the end their prime motivation was one of damage control rather than attempting to win.