Mahmood Ahmad
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5th Match: England v Australia at Manchester, 14 Jun 2001 Mahmood Ahmad |
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Australia innings:
Pre-game: England innings: |
Incidentally, England’s previous lowest ODI total – 93 at Headingley in 1975 – also came against the arch-rivals Australia.
After being reduced to 26 for 3 in 10th over, Trescothick and Owais Shah took the score to 40, before three wickets fell without any addition to the score.
Owais had scored 9 when he edged a Gillespie delivery to his pads on way to second slip for a simple catch for Ponting. Next to go was Trescothick, bowled by McGrath with the pace man coming in from round the wicket. Trescothick got 15 (43 balls).
Pace men’s quota of overs having completed, Warne came on for the 19th over, and had Hollioake stumped on the last ball. The lanky all-rounder failed to get off the mark after facing 7 balls.
There was a slight respite for England after that, as Cork entertained the crowd with a couple of lovely boundaries, bringing up the fifty of the innings in the 21st over.
He hit one more boundary on way to 17 off 18 balls, before being caught by Hayden at square leg off Symonds, the wicket falling at 65. Four more runs and Symonds struck for the second time, getting Collingwood (9 off 26) caught on his own bowling.
Gough stayed for 12 balls, getting 2 before being adjudged lbw off a Warne flipper; the wicket falling at 69 in the 25th over.
The last wicket pair of Caddick and Mullally kept the spinners at bay for as long as about 8 overs, adding 17 in the process, before medium pacer Harvey was introduced into attack, and he got Mullally caught at the wicket for 6 (22 balls). Caddick remained not out on 8 (13 balls).
Warne and Symonds bowled shared equally the 14 overs after the initial burst by the pace men, getting two wickets each for 16 and 24, respectively. Harvey bowled just 4 balls and got one for 6 runs.
Jason Gillespie, who really started the rot and ended up with 3 for 20, was duly awarded the man of the match.
It was pace bowling at its best, with McGrath and Gillespie running in with four slips and testing the batsmen with a nagging off stump line, beating the batsmen on, it seems, innumerable occasions.
Yet success kept alluding them, at least for the first eight overs. With luck playing its part, both openers – Trescothick and Knight – got away with a number of loose shots – some going over the fielder's head, others falling a bit short.
It was during this period that some runs came England’s way. After getting just one wide off the first 25 balls, Knight got under way by hitting Gillespie to long on for his first boundary – the first runs to come off the bat. Trescothick was soon to follow, executing a perfect cover drive for four off Gillespie.
However, as soon as England’s luck ran out, the scenario completely altered, with Australia grabbing three wickets in two overs and bringing the home side down from 25 without loss to 26 for three.
First to go was Knight (12 off 28), caught at the wicket off a highly organised McGrath. Then came Gillespie, and he got rid of Stewart and Vaughan with consecutive deliveries – Stewart caught at mid-on off a mistimed pull and Vaughan clean bowled, with both going for nought.
Owais Shah arrived next and just managed to avoid a hat-trick. He has so far stood firm, having got two lucky boundaries to reach nine off 21 balls. Trescothick is looking composed at 13 (37 balls, 1 four).
McGrath and Gillespie has bowled all 15 overs so far. McGrath has one wicket for 19 in eight overs, while Gillespie has two for 17 in seven, of which four were maidens.
The two having settled down, the runs came to flow comparatively easily; Australia reached 150 in the 37th over – the seven overs after the 30-over stage bringing 34.
Having reached his 43rd ODI fifty off 73 balls, the Aussie skipper looked set for big things when Gough produced a perfect in-dipper that trapped the batsman in front of the wicket. Waugh got 64 off 83 balls, which contained seven boundaries.
Martyn and Symonds had begun looking ominous, having added 27 in about four overs when Mullally struck twice in one over. After having Symonds caught in the deep for 11 (15 balls), he induced the next man, Ian Harvey, to top-edge the very first ball for an easy catch to Trescothick; Australia were reduced to 189 for six after 44 overs.
The 47th over brought up the 200 for Australia and fifty for Martyn off the same ball. The ninth ODI fifty for the Aussie all-rounder came off 78 balls, which included five hits to the fence.
Australia moved to 208 for seven at the end of 48 overs, when the downpour restarted, forcing the players off the field. At that stage, Martyn had reached 51 (79 balls) and Shane Warne, having already hit one four, had 14 (13 balls) against his name.
For England, Mullally was the pick of the bowlers, getting three for 50 in ten overs. Gough and Caddick got two each for 31 and 45 in nine and ten overs respectively.
Rain seemed to have dampened England spirits, as they clearly lost their momentum after the resumption. Offering too much width to the batsmen, they allowed Bevan and Waugh to find boundaries at will, adding 45 in nine overs, having scored just 35 in the first ten.
After getting nine off Caddick’s second over after the 45-minute break, Bevan hit two boundaries off Cork to post the fifty of the innings in the 14th over.
Waugh was quick to follow suit, viciously cutting Cork to the deep point boundary, with the fielder failing to reach the ball due to its sheer pace.
Allan Mullally bowled considerably better, permitting minimum liberty to the two batsmen to find runs, and for this, he was soon rewarded.
Applying a nagging off stump line, he induced Bevan to edge one down to Stewart behind the stumps; Australia were reduced to 93 for four in 23 overs, with Bevan contributing a fine 37 off 50 balls with four boundaries.
Mullally almost had his second wicket when a Steve Waugh slice went just past Trescothick at third slip.
However, the Australian skipper lived on, bringing up the 100 in the 26th over, bowled by Hollioake.
With Hollioake and Mullally bowling really tidily, Australia’s progress after Bevan’s wicket has been quite sluggish, with only 23 coming off the next seven overs.
Caddick and Gough, making the most of overcast conditions, struck at regular intervals to get rid of Hayden, Gilchrist, and Ponting in the first nine overs, reducing the world champions to 27 for three.
Steve Waugh and Michael Bevan are at the crease, trying to avert any further blows, having added eight for the fourth wicket.
Hayden, opening the batting in Mark Waugh’s absence, went for a duck in the very first over, caught at long leg by Gough, a fine catch considering the fielder was unsighted by the floodlights.
Ponting and Gilchrist added 23 for the second wicket, before the latter cut at a Gough delivery and was well taken at gully by Hollioake. Continuing with his poor form, the Australian vice-captain hit five off 22 balls.
Ponting, on the other hand, looked in good touch, having got off the mark with a first ball boundary. He hit three more boundaries before being undone by a leg-cutter from Caddick that took the edge of the bat and went to Knight at second slip.
So overcast is it that the lights had to be switched on even before the start of the match.
Keeping up with the so-called ‘rotation strategy’, the visitors rested Mark Waugh and included Michael Bevan. Jason Gillespie, the right-arm paceman is also back in the side in place of Brett Lee, having fully recovered from injury.
England have made one change, with Paul Collingwood coming back in place of Mark Ealham.
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Date-stamped : 15 Jun2001 - 02:54