Cricket: Super-quick Aussies on top of the world

By Richard Boock

At the World Cup


LONDON - It was a measure of the margin of their win that Australia were being blamed for ruining a perfectly good World Cup tournament at Lord's yesterday.

Pakistan were so completely dominated in the final that the match was killed off after only 59.1 overs, leaving Steve Waugh's men the undisputed champions of the world, Australian and Indian fans alike jubilant, and the BBC twiddling their thumbs for two-and-a-half hours.

There was almost time for a best-of-three. Australia took New Zealand's idea of placing the Pakistanis under pressure a step further by actually putting it into practice, and in the exacting atmosphere of a World Cup final the eight-wicket margin was a fair representation of how they reacted.

The match-hardened Aussies, eight of whom had played in the previous World Cup final, completed a miraculous turnaround with their most emphatic win of the tournament, first routing Pakistan for 132, and then capering to victory in just 20.1 overs.

It represented a seven-match unbeaten stretch from the Neighbours and an unbelievable comeback from legspinner Shane Warne, whose four for 34 not only earned him his second consecutive man-of-the-match award and took his tournament wicket-tally to 20 - alongside New Zealand's Geoff Allott - but also included his 200th one-day international wicket.

Dropped from the test side during the tour of the West Indies earlier this year, Warne demonstrated a complete recovery by producing his full repertoire yesterday (including a rare post-op wrong 'un), and in the process carried his total World Cup wickets to 32, only two short of record-holder Imran Khan.

And he managed to produce another one of "those" deliveries along the way. People in these parts vividly recall the so-called ball of the century when he defeated Mike Gatting at Old Trafford in 1993, and he produced something similar (pitching leg, hitting top of off) to send back Herschelle Gibbs in the epic tie at Edgbaston last week.

Yesterday it was Ijaz Ahmed's turn, although he hardly helped matters by sitting on the back foot, becoming Warne's first victim of the day and plunging Pakistan into deep trouble at 77 for four. Warne then spun out Moin Khan and Shahid Afridi, and equalled Allott's world-record when Wasim Akram slogged his legspinner to mid-wicket.

Australia's fielding was as impressive as their batting and bowling, and apart from one straightforward chance being missed by Glenn McGrath, they were all over Pakistan in the field.

Mark Waugh began the show with a superb diving catch in the slips to send back Wajahatullah Wasti, his brother snared a sharp catch at extra-cover to end Abdul Razzaq's innings, and Ricky Ponting swam through the air at gully to end the match with a superb one-handed take.

Pakistan will not care to be reminded, but the 25 extras represented the largest contribution to their innings.

From then on it was only a matter of how long it would take Australia to get the runs and that question was answered pretty quickly as well, with Adam Gilchrist blasting 54 off just 36 balls as Australia charged through to 75 without loss after just 10 overs.

Shoaib Akhtar - after all the press this week - may well have been a tad over-hyped and was carted for 23 off three overs before Wasim took him off.

The Rawalpindi Express returned after Gilchrist's departure (at 77 for one) but was smashed for 14 off his fourth over and was promptly retired to the outfield.

The win was sweet for all the Australians but particularly so for Steve Waugh, whose selection in the one-day side was questioned several times before the tournament, not least by one of our own former New Zealand captains, and who was under pressure to prove he was just the man for the job.

He was all of that. His unbeaten 120 against South Africa in the Super Six phase breathed new life into Australia's title hopes and he again played a major hand in the semifinal. Waugh was not only the man for the job, he was their saviour.

That they managed to scrape through to the semifinals had an awful lot to do with his title-saving century at Headingley, and - in a perverse, cruel way - the catch that Herschelle Gibbs squandered early in the innings.

As the Guardian wondered at the weekend, could there ever be more hurtful sledge than "what's it like to drop the World Cup, Herschelle?"