England beat Australia twice on November 10. At rugby union at Twickenham and, whisper it softly, at cricket too. The cricket victory came in the Hong Kong Sixes, and was by the whopping margin, for a five-over game, of 77 runs. There's a catch, of course: with Australia's domestic season in full swing the states couldn't spare any current players, and it was an elderly Australian team that made the trip.

Dean Jones, once the world's best one-day batsman but now a grey-templed 40, skippered the side, which also included David Hookes, who had to bend his 46-year-old knees and keep wicket; Craig McDermott, 36; mop-topped Greg Matthews, 41; relative youngsters Tom Moody, 36, and 31-year-old Brendon Julian, both from Western Australia and recently retired … and elder statesman Kim Hughes, 47. Local reports didn't quite make it clear whether Hughes shed any tears over the England disaster.

England's own side was a much more representative bunch. Matthew Maynard's team included three of the one-day team that whitewashed Zimbabwe recently – Paul Collingwood, Andy Flintoff and Ben Hollioake. The other players were Ian Blackwell, Dougie Brown and Mark Ealham.

With that line-up it wasn't surprising that England (109 for 0) walloped Australia's less-than-masterly old masters (32 for 3). But the Aussies surely hadn't bargained for two drubbings by the United Arab Emirates.

For all that, England couldn't make it into the final at the Kowloon Cricket Club. Defeat to Pakistan in their group game meant a semi-final against the other group winners, South Africa. England never recovered from a bad start, and their 68 for 2 was overhauled by South Africa with five balls to spare.

Pakistan overcame Sri Lanka in the other semi-final, and they outplayed South Africa in the Nov 11 final. Pakistan, captained by Wasim Akram after Rashid Latif went down with flu, knocked up 98 for 3 in their five overs, then restricted South Africa to 87 for 1.

So Pakistan walked off with the $80,000 winners' cheque. Wasim, the Man of the Tournament, said afterwards: "I get a high from winning. I'm addicted to it – there's no alternative to winning. The buzz will keep me going for another two days."

Final
Pakistan 98 for 3 (Imran Nazir 30, Wasim Akram 23); South Africa 87 for 1 (S Elworthy 24, LL Bosman 31 ret). Pakistan won by 11 runs.

Semi-finals
England 68 for 2 (BC Hollioake 25*, PD Collingwood 22*); South Africa 72 for 2 (S Elworthy 35 ret). South Africa won by 4 wickets.

Pakistan 107 for 1 (Imran Nazir 27, Wasim Akram 36 ret, Shahid Afridi 20*); Sri Lanka 73 for 1 (SI de Saram 29*, CM Hathurusingha 27). Pakistan won by 34 runs.

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