Inevitability reigns as Australia secures tournament
There are times in cricket when the weight of inevitability can be so crushing that the script can more or less be easily nominated in advance. And there has probably rarely been a season to match the 1999/2000 version in Australia in that respect. That yet another thumping triumph for the home team should come at its very end - an almost cruel demolition of Pakistan by the margin of 152 runs in the Second Carlton and United Series Final - indeed served as very little surprise at all.
In normal circumstances, the sheer extent of the triumph which clinched Australia its ninth successive success (and, hence, a 2-0 win in the Finals) would probably have meant that this match would ordinarily have been celebrated as an oddity, an aberration in the normally tight and competitive confines of one-day international cricket. That it brought with it the country's highest ever total with the bat in this form of the game possibly may not receive the plaudits it might otherwise have deserved too. But given that this victory unfolded in a fashion like so many before it, there were no great shocks in store for any of the 38,123 hardy fans who attended the encounter.
This battle had the Australians winning the toss and batting first in warm and sunny conditions, and upon a SCG pitch that only offered the occasional sign of sideways movement and capricious bounce. And, following some excellent early new ball bowling from both Wasim Akram and Shoaib Akhtar which had the Australians defending for the most part, a poor mistake from Yousuf Youhana then proved the catalyst for another rollicking exhibition from the home team. Youhana's error came in the middle of the sixth over when he spilled a juggling attempt at square leg to intercept a slightly mistimed Adam Gilchrist (then on 7) hook shot at Akhtar. That set the tone for a simultaneous explosion in Gilchrist's strokeplay, a complete breakdown in the Pakistani fielding, and an afternoon of sheer torment for the entirety of his team's attack.
As the visitors began to lapse in both demeanour and confidence, so the Western Australian unleashed a pyrotechnical array of shots. Just to compound Youhana's embarrassment, he thumped the next delivery imperiously to the cover boundary, and the tempo only increased from there. Sixteen runs came from the next over in the form of four boundaries from Akram's bowling; power and timing evident in considerable measure as the ball met the fence at square leg, mid on, point and cover in bewildering succession.
More sparkling strokeplay ensued as he clouted all-comers in the attack, his half century raised in a mere forty-nine minutes, from thirty-nine balls and replete with eight boundaries and a five. That overthrows and several basic mistakes in ground fielding were contributing to his cause all the while only exacerbated the Pakistanis' problems in trying to contain him. They did manage to dismiss him reasonably early in the innings - when he launched an awful hook shot at Azhar Mahmood's bowling in the eleventh over with the total at 74 - but, even by that stage, the die was close to being cast.
The one hope that remained for them was that they could continue to take wickets quickly. But, once Ricky Ponting was able to survive a few narrow early shaves and another shocking miss from Youhana as he hooked a Mahmood ball over the fieldsman's head at deep mid wicket with his score at 14, things became extremely dim.
From there, the Australian batting became ruthless in its execution, challenging in its audacity and, above all, devastating in its effect as it careered toward a final mark of 7/337. In an exhibition in which shots flowed even more freely than a series of basic ground fielding errors, Ponting (78), Mark Waugh (53), Andrew Symonds (45), Steve Waugh (37) and Damien Martyn (23* off 17 balls) all kept the scoreboard ticking along at a frightening pace. So adequately did they score collectively, in fact, that not even forty-six overs had passed by the time that they raised the highest ever total for a team in a one-day international at this venue. It was then only a matter of time before Australia's previous best of 3/332 (against Sri Lanka at Sharjah in 1989/90) was overhauled, and this duly transpired in the final over to a deafening roar from the crowd. That it had, by this moment, also already exceeded the best total (their own 5/329 against India earlier in the series) in the history of the Carlton and United competition only deepened the pall of gloom that had descended over the bedraggled tourists.
In what amounted to another exercise which did not require too much crystal ball gazing given the size of the task ahead of them, resistance was then just as short-lived from Pakistan's batsmen as it had been from its side's bowlers. Around some exotic strokeplay, Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee seized four wickets in the first six overs and that was that. Youhana (41), Moin Khan (33) and Mahmood (27) delayed the finish admirably, but there was not even a suggestion of a genuine contest in reality.
And so ended a competition and a season which, in tandem, emphasised Australia's brilliance and underlined the inability of both Pakistan and India to appropriately find a way of upsetting the home team's rhythm. One should, of course, feel privileged to have watched the Australians in action this summer for they functioned superbly as a unit and the quality of their play throughout was tremendous. Ricky Ponting led what was a remarkably resilient batting unit - one that rarely failed. And Glenn McGrath spearheaded a remarkably consistent attack - even if it has, at times through the latter phase of the season, looked somewhat unremarkable on paper. Tribute should also be paid to Steve Waugh, whose general leadership has been impressive in his first season in the role at home.
Nonetheless, one should also feel cheated and depressed in another sense too for this was certainly not a season to appease fans of tough, tense, and most of all competitive, cricket. For the latter group, the only hope which lingers at the very end is that Pakistan's upcoming series with Sri Lanka and India's contests with South Africa adopt more engrossing postures than their respective tours here have done and that Australia's visit to New Zealand is rendered significantly more difficult too. But one can, of course, only hope.
