John Polack
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1st Final: Australia v West Indies at Sydney, 7 Feb 2001 John Polack |
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Australia innings:
West Indies innings: |
In short, this match rapidly tailed away into another comprehensive drubbing. Initiated by a respectable performance from the Australians with the bat that allowed them to reach 9/253, it was sealed with a bowling effort that ensured that only Brian Lara (35) and Marlon Samuels (24) were able to mount any sort of defiance amid a wreckage-ridden reply of 119. Which all leaves the tourists now requiring the rather improbable matter of two wins in succession over the course of the next four days if they are to claim this series.
But, while the result ultimately still managed to fall within the realms of the eminently predictable, there was a good deal to recommend this game through its early stages. For all of about sixty-five overs, in fact.
West Indies' captain Jimmy Adams had taken what looked like a gamble at the beginning of the afternoon when he invited the Australians to bat first. It has been just under thirteen months since a team batting second last won a one-day international at the Sydney Cricket Ground, and as many as seven of the last nine one-day internationals at the venue have been claimed by the team which batted first. Also potentially looming as a significant factor was the memory of Australia's compilation of the record score of 7/337 in the corresponding match last season.
It soon proved to be a heady decision, nonetheless. Sydney has been affected by poor weather for much of the last fortnight and the pitch responded accordingly. There was zip, there was bounce, there was pace, and a hint of sideways movement on offer too. Strokemaking was difficult enough in the conditions, but the tourists accentuated the fact with a disciplined, accurate display with the ball.
New ball bowlers Nixon McLean (1/47 from ten overs) and Cameron Cuffy (2/45 off ten) set the tone well and, for once this summer - against Australia at least - the fielders and the remainder of the attack chimed in. Mark Waugh (10) fell to an edge to slip in just the tenth over to ensure that the home team produced only its second sub-fifty opening stand of the series and there was nothing earth-shattering to follow in the way of the conception of sizeable partnerships. Australia's final total assumed healthy rather than imposing proportions.
Only Adam Gilchrist (44), Steve Waugh (38), Ricky Ponting (33) and - in the dying stages - Ian Harvey (47*) looked genuinely capable of producing an authoritative individual hand. As things transpired, it was a measure of the extent of pressure applied by the West Indians that, of those four, only the freewheeling Harvey was able to see things through to a satisfying conclusion.
In an explosive cameo from Lara, the West Indians continued to find a method of fighting the Australians' fire with some of their own. With their enigmatic left hander in scintillating touch and with their score at 2/58 in the fifteenth over, the assumption that the West Indians might have been able to conjure an exciting struggle did not look unreasonable. Lara even gave the impression that he was in the mood to make the Australians pay a high price for a stream of invective that appeared to be fired by Michael Bevan from mid on after the second delivery that he faced smashed into his helmet.
But it all unravelled rapidly from the moment that Lara sent a thick outside edge flying hard to Gilchrist's right as he drove at Damien Fleming (2/34 off seven overs). Gilchrist's spectacular diving, one-handed interception - an absolute stunner - ushered in a horror period for the tourists, from which they were simply unable to recover.
Yet another procession ensued. Adams (9) looked like a man with his mind elsewhere as he wafted at a Fleming delivery without moving his feet. Samuels (24) was needlessly run out as Bevan pounced athletically from square leg to effect a direct hit that ensured that the youngster's mix-up with Ricardo Powell (3) was fatal. Powell himself fell after wildly playing across the line at a straight ball from man of the match Harvey (2/5 from six overs). All-rounder Laurie Williams (1) hooked ambitiously at McGrath; Mahendra Nagamootoo (8) tried to swing an Andrew Symonds (2/18 from five overs) off break out of the ground; and McLean (0) failed to clear mid off with another slog at Symonds. A patient Sylvester Joseph (18) was the last man to go, holing out when he lofted a Shane Warne (1/28 off 9.2) leg break high into the air to allow the Australian to compensate for a mistake he had made in trying to complete a similar caught and bowled in his previous over.
The West Indians had genuine cause to be annoyed about Umpire Simon Taufel's highly dubious lbw decision to which opener Daren Ganga (0) lost his wicket. Television replays clearly suggested that the offending Glenn McGrath (2/25 off ten overs) delivery had also traversed a thick inside edge en route to Ganga's front pad. Of the complete collapse of their middle and lower order, no such misfortune could be proclaimed.
The tourists had made it through to this phase of the series by combining a mixture of instinct and knowhow in three crucial encounters with Zimbabwe. But tonight's result continued to underline the inescapable truth that has haunted them all summer - that they fail to produce anywhere near acceptable results against Australia in pressure situations. They need to find a way of upsetting home team's applecart, its rhythm and its suffocating aura of superiority. They have precisely one match left in which to do it.
With their enigmatic left hander in sparking touch and with their score at 2/58 in the fifteenth over, the prospect that the West Indians might be able to conjure an exciting struggle did not look unreasonable. But it all unravelled rapidly - from the moment that Lara sent a thick outside edge flying hard to Gilchrist's right as he drove at Damien Fleming. Gilchrist's spectacular diving, one-handed interception - an absolute stunner - ushered in a horror period for the tourists, from which they have been abjectly unable to recover.
Just five overs later, captain Jimmy Adams (9) seemed a man with his mind elsewhere when he failed to move his feet and drove loosely at an unremarkable Ian Harvey delivery. The result was another catch for Gilchrist and a worsening of West Indies' position to 4/74.
Only two deliveries after the captain's exit, Marlon Samuels (24) was on his own way back to join the list of victims in the dressing room. After a steady hand, his end came when a mix-up with Ricardo Powell (3) over a possible single to square leg resulted in slight hesitation. A direct hit from Michael Bevan produced the kind of clinical result that did not need verification on the part of the third umpire.
With the noose tightening ever more firmly around the tourists' metaphorical neck, Australian captain Steve Waugh had started to move in for the kill by this point. His field settings were becoming increasingly aggressive and, with them, so the mere act of survival seemed to be becoming a more alien concept for the batsmen too.
Powell was the next to depart. He played wildly across the line at another Harvey delivery, failed to make contact and was struck in line with the stumps on his back pad.
Against the searing accuracy of Glenn McGrath, Laurie Williams (1) was another who failed to last long. Ambitiously, he attempted a hook at McGrath and the ball merely ballooned high in Ricky Ponting's direction at backward point instead. It was the wrong idea, issued at the wrong ball and at the wrong time. Following a very encouraging start to the match, there has been much wrong with the West Indians' play tonight.
Already, Lara has produced a number of brilliant strokes and looks to be more than willing to meet any Australian fire tonight with fire of his own. The brilliant left hander was forced to walk to the middle with his team in desperate trouble at 2/0 only nine minutes into the innings. But the purposeful gait with which he headed to the middle seemed to imply that something might be afoot. When Michael Bevan appeared to test his patience in a fiery altercation that developed from just two deliveries into his innings, the possibility seemed irresistible.
After a steepling Glenn McGrath delivery crashed past Lara's best attempt to defend it and into his helmet, words appeared to come in the batsman's direction from Michael Bevan at mid on. An unimpressed Lara's mood was then further disturbed when the same fieldsman sent a bullet-like return whizzing past him from the very next delivery. Further invective seemed to ensue, and a clearly angered Lara sought Umpire Taufel's intervention from his position at the bowler's end. It made for a nasty few moments and opened the way for a stream of glorious attacking strokes off each of the opening bowlers, especially square of the wicket.
For the most part, there does not seem to have been quite as much in the way of life from the wicket through the early stages of this innings than there was in the one that preceded it. But there was certainly more in the way of early fortune for the bowling side. By as early as the third over, the home team appeared to gain a massive break when Daren Ganga (0) was adjudged lbw to McGrath after, as television replays subsequently confirmed, appearing to play into pad off a thick inside edge. Umpire Simon Taufel nevertheless showed little hesitation in making his decision.
There was not nearly the same level of doubt - in fact, there was none - about the legitimacy of the demise of Ridley Jacobs (0). He perished when he was lured into following a Damien Fleming delivery which was slanted well across him and attracted a healthy outside edge on its way into the gloves of Adam Gilchrist.
Lara's own rate of progress was stemmed when leg spinner Shane Warne was introduced - and soon began to gain appreciable turn from the wicket - in the eighth over. But, as long as he remains at the crease, his team still has a genuine chance of causing an upset in this match. A very genuine one.
West Indies' captain Jimmy Adams had taken what looked like a gamble at the beginning of the afternoon when he invited the Australians to bat first. It has been just under thirteen months since a team batting second last won a one-day international at the Sydney Cricket Ground, and as many as seven of the last nine one-day internationals at the venue have been claimed by the team which batted first. Also potentially looming as a significant factor was the memory of Australia's compilation of the record score of 7/337 in the corresponding match last season.
But it soon proved to be a heady decision. Sydney has been affected by poor weather for much of the last fortnight and the pitch here responded accordingly. There was zip, there was bounce, there was pace, and a hint of sideways movement on offer too. Strokemaking was difficult enough in the conditions, but the tourists accentuated the fact with a disciplined, accurate display.
New ball bowlers Nixon McLean (1/47 from ten overs) and Cameron Cuffy (2/45 off ten) set the tone well and, for once this summer - against Australia at least - the fielders and the remainder of the attack chimed in. Mark Waugh (10) fell to an edge to slip in just the tenth over to ensure that the home team produced only its second sub-fifty opening stand of the series and there was nothing earth-shattering to follow in the way of the conception of sizeable partnerships. Australia's final total assumed healthy rather than imposing proportions.
Only Adam Gilchrist (44), Steve Waugh (38), Ricky Ponting (33) and - in the dying stages - Ian Harvey (47*) looked genuinely capable of producing the sort of authoritative individual hand that generally marks Australian innings these days. As things transpired, it was some measure of the extent of pressure applied by the West Indians that, of those four, only the freewheeling Harvey was able to maintain any real sense of command.
Gilchrist fell to a needless run out when attempting a second run to Daren Ganga at deep backward square leg in the seventeenth over. And Ponting succumbed in the twenty-third when he attempted, unsuccessfully, to clout a Mahendra Nagamootoo (1/55 from ten overs) delivery over the head of Sylvester Joseph at deep mid wicket. They were crucial dismissals which allowed the tourists to restrict the Australians' rate of progress through the middle stages and to apply more clamps to it than normal toward the end.
Waugh was later left to trudge back to undoubtedly increasingly unhappy dressing rooms when he unleashed a cross-batted slog at the fast medium pace of Laurie Williams (2/55 off ten). Michael Bevan (23) was also unable to make a typically feisty impression, falling when he mistimed an attempted glide at Williams. Similarly, the Australians' other recognised batsmen, Damien Martyn (18) and Andrew Symonds (8), generated only meagre contributions, the former also failing to profit from the one dropped catch of the innings - by Adams at cover when he had thirteen alongside his name.
Having laboured their way through the entire summer against the Australian attack, a fascinating examination of the extent to which the West Indians have improved the quality of their batting on this tour now awaits us tonight. For once, they are not without hopes of producing a triumph against the odds, albeit that those odds are still stacked against them reasonably heavily. It is a difficult assignment but not so daunting as to be impossible.
Despite a gradual acceleration of their opponents' run scoring rate through recent overs, though, the tourists continue to acquit themselves in honest fashion with the ball and in the field.
Confirmation of the renewed vigour and enthusiasm they are bringing to this match came in stunning manner in the seventeenth over, for instance, when Daren Ganga produced a stunning direct hit run out to remove dangerman Adam Gilchrist (44).
Following a comparatively restrained start by his standards, Gilchrist had appeared on the verge of producing something spectacular with the bat when he decided to chance a second run on Ganga's arm from deep backward square leg. It was a fatal mistake. Third umpire Darrell Hair was pressed into action but wasn't presented with an especially difficult decision; the ball had crashed into the stumps with the Australian vice captain still clearly short of his ground.
After a shift to an all-spin attack that soon had Ricky Ponting (33) producing the shot of the afternoon with a magnificent slog sweep for six at Mahendra Nagamootoo, even more encouragement came the West Indians' way seven overs later. The Tasmanian stepped back and tried to pull another Nagamootoo offering over the short boundary on the eastern side of the ground but failed slightly in his execution. Sylvester Joseph was left to complete a comfortable catch just inside the rope at deep mid wicket.
Subsequently, it has been local favourites Michael Bevan (23*) and Steve Waugh (17*) who have continued to keep the score moving at a healthy rather than electrifying pace. Early in his innings, the former enjoyed the distinction of becoming only the sixth Australian in history to register 5000 one-day international runs and has been content to play in the manner that essentially allowed him to reach the mark. While his captain has already reached the boundary twice, Bevan has simply eased, caressed and worked the ball into gaps in the West Indian field. The tourists need his wicket quickly if they are continue to maintain their good early momentum.
Unlike some of the tourists' other efforts on this visit to Australia, they have helped create a beginning to this battle which has been tight, competitive and tense. Capitalising on some early bounce and movement - the degree of which was not necessarily expected before the game - the new ball pairing of Nixon McLean and Cameron Cuffy has performed particularly well, rendering the task of quick run scoring a complex one.
McLean has enjoyed a good tournament and has illustrated some of the reasons for that with a six-over spell which featured not only a metronomically good line and length but also sharp pace. Although he was initially frustrated in his search for a wicket, Cuffy also opened in intelligent style in the conditions, only rarely dropping short or straying from an off stump line.
A wicket might have come in the seventh over when the calling of Australian openers Adam Gilchrist (38*) and Mark Waugh (10) became confused after the latter had dabbed a ball away on the off side. Gilchrist wanted a quick single but Waugh did not - initially at least. If Mahendra Nagamootoo had cleanly collected a bullet-like throw from Sylvester Joseph toward him at the stumps at the non-striker's end, a struggling Waugh (then on 4) might well have been on his way back to the pavilion.
Another unfortunate moment for the tourists came in the following over when Ricardo Powell frantically slid into the square leg boundary in an attempt to prevent another Waugh shot from making it all the way into the fence. Powell's left leg appeared to buckle slightly as he began his sliding motion and ended its journey by crashing forcefully into the guttering underneath him. It ushered in a long and worrying delay as both umpires and the entire West Indian team gathered around the stricken fielder in an attempt to ascertain the extent of the damage.
Powell eventually clambered to his feet and managed to walk off the ground with the assistance of a trainer. And, metaphorically, his apparent escape from what looked like it might result in a far more serious injury seemed to lift his teammates around him; from the opening ball of the following over, Cuffy induced Waugh to nibble a catch to Brian Lara at slip and Australia was suddenly 1/28.
Although it was later tarnished to an extent by two fierce square cuts, a cracking pull, and a contemptuous cover drive from Gilchrist and a glorious hook shot from number three Ricky Ponting (11*) which nearly landed a Cuffy delivery in the O'Reilly Stand, the disappearance of Waugh capped a promising start from the visitors.
Nonetheless, as we count down the moments to the start of the first of this best-of-three deciding series between Australia and West Indies, there's potentially much to which we can look forward. Despite the Australians' unbeaten progression through this series, chinks in their armour potentially emerged in the closing preliminary match of the series - when they just held on to defeat Zimbabwe by one run in Perth. History also counts against them; in five meetings against West Indies in the finals of this tournament, they have been unable to conquered them so much as once. The excellent recent form of Nixon McLean and Brian Lara must also renew the tourists' optimism.
Perhaps it's the combination of the overcast conditions and McLean's good touch which has been the guiding factor behind Adams' decision to invite the Australians to bat. Perhaps it's also the realisation that the tourists have some problems at the top of their own batting order. This is a notion highlighted by their persistence with Daren Ganga (who averages just nine in the series and five in his one-day international career) in one of their opening positions and the recall of Sylvester Joseph, who has played just once to date on this tour.
Whatever the case, it's Australia to bat first - with Mark Waugh and Adam Gilchrist to lead the way. Lower down the list, Darren Lehmann (averaging 197 in the series no less) is the unlucky man to miss out on a spot in the batting line-up, while Nathan Bracken is the bowler to have been excluded.
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Date-stamped : 08 Feb2001 - 06:25