Cricket: It's manna from Bevan on menu

Australians hail their hero. RICHARD BOOCK reports from Melbourne.

They are calling it the miracle at the MCG over here and it would be no surprise if the man at the centre of it all is shortly accepted for canonisation.

It came in Australia's darkest hour, when the old ground's turnstiles were clicking furiously with the sound of people leaving, and will remembered as one of the finest rescue acts in one-day international history.

Michael Bevan will play many more fine innings before his career is over, but he will not easily better his performance late on Tuesday night, when a counter-attacking century propelled his team to a desperate two-wicket win over New Zealand.

Although it is not the first time he has played the role of saviour - his unbeaten and match-winning 78 against the West Indies at Sydney six summers ago also rating highly - the innings at Melbourne has been widely accepted as his best yet, particularly given the extreme anxiety surrounding his team's plight.

Reaction yesterday was predictable. The most popular nationwide breakfast television show opened with the Hallelujah chorus from Handel's Messiah, and showed Bevan in a jubilant pose.

The Sydney Morning Herald also considered the feat divine, headlining its front-page story, "Fans feast on manna from Bevan," with a photo of him punching the air after Andy Bichel's winning four.

Australian captain Steve Waugh called it "one of the greatest innings of all time in one-day cricket," and the Herald Sun in Melbourne simply headlined it "Miracle."

The Herald Sun said: "Australia's one-day Houdini, Michael Bevan, conjured up an amazing comeback."

The Today morning show on the Nine television network went from the Hallelujah chorus straight into news co-host Steve Lieberman's blow-by-blow recounting of the winning runs.

On the front page of the national broadsheet The Australian, a headline and colour photo that covered most of the top of the front page said "Simply the best: Bevan sinks Kiwis."

Bevan, whose measured 102 not out brought Australia back from the brink of elimination, said afterwards that for most of the time he had not even considered playing the match-winning hand.

"It just seemed like too big a task, I suppose," he said after emerging from an ecstatic Australian dressing-room. "One of the goals I had set myself before today was to try to score 100 off 100 [balls] and be there at the end - which I hadn't managed in the past four matches.

He said the extra edge to the game made the victory all the more memorable.

"We needed to win our last two matches and I'm not too sure in the last game that there was the same pressure involved."

The left-hander's fifth century off 95 balls boosted his one-day average above 56 from 169 games and underlined why he is classed as one of the greatest exponents of the shortened game.

Steve Waugh did not mince words when asked to rate the innings, which left his team in second-equal place on the points table and still with a chance of making the finals.

"You saw one of the greatest innings of all time in one-day cricket," Waugh said. "We needed someone to stand up ... and we'll get some momentum from this.

"We're not going to waste it, we're going to be hard to beat from now on."

Given the circumstances and the white-hot pressure on the Australian side as a result, Waugh said the win rekindled the feeling in the dressing-room after the heady World Cup victories at Edgabston and Headingley in 1999.

"The feeling in the room was great," he said. "It was almost as if we'd won the final.

"It really was a final for us, though, so the guys are really happy. I was just very pleased with the way Michael played."

Bevan still harbours hopes of another chance in test cricket, admitting that he was disappointed not to be in the squad to tour South Africa.

He took hope from seeing fellow 31-year-old Darren Lehmann recalled after three years on the outer.

"It's great that someone like Boof [Lehmann] has been picked, from my perspective anyway, because it means that they are picking guys of that age regardless and you just have to have the runs on the board," Bevan said.

"It's a positive for me, I think.

"I've scored as many runs as possible for New South Wales, I can't do any more, it's out of my hands really. I still hope I can play test cricket one day. I believe I'm good enough to and I think I'm a better player now than what I was in the past couple of years."