Australia too good for Pakistan

By Ted Corbett

LONDON, JUNE 23. Comparisons between the 1999 World Cup final and the final of the NatWest triangular one-day international tournament at Lord's today are inevitable. Once more Australia won convincingly by nine wickets, this time with 23.3 overs unused; once again Pakistan crumbled as if it was playing against, well, the best side on the planet.

This time it made just 152 in 42.3 overs even though when seven were out for 110 Wasim Akram after 30 overs led a determined attempt to bat through. In 1999 they had 132 and lost by eight wickets; today's game did nothing save confirm what the form book had already taught us.

Australia is tight, disciplined, authoritative, assertive led by Steve Waugh, a tough cookie who knows how good he is and how superlative his side is becoming. The World Cup in 2003 offers a challenge but if that championship were played now Australia might win it with its reserve side. Pakistan is distinctly second best.

Geoff Boycott has described in a newspaper column today how Australia began to rebuild soon after its eight-wicket win over Pakistan in 1999, but rebuild is hardly the right word. It has eight of the 11 from that day in its one-day squad still and only Paul Reiffel, Darren Lehmann and Tom Moody are cast away completely.

England begin to shape its plans in October when it visits Zimbabwe in October for five one-day internationals. No wonder that as the final started it called together its big- hitters committee under Lord MacLaurin, chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, to analyse what went wrong. It is a bit late, frankly, to be putting together elite squads of 25 and picking all one-day sides from that group. It is only 20 months before the next World Cup is in full swing.

Pakistan won the toss and batted in watery sunshine with a ground still not full even though the match was a sell- out. Its supporters seemed quieter but then I guess that the youngsters from the big cities cannot afford a trip to Lord's and 50 pounds sterling for a ticket after paying a similar amount to watch at Birmingham, Leeds and Nottingham.

To many the price of travelling, watching and food for the day might be a week's wage. So all that vigorous security was probably unnecessary. The people who pay Lord's prices - a king's ransom in truth - will not run onto the ground waving banners, let off firecrackers, chant incessantly and defy a police cordon.

Pakistan's batsmen defied the Aussies only briefly. Saeed Anwar let fly half a dozen big shots in 27, Inzamam-ul-Haq threatened Shane Warne with one contemptuous sweep and was lbw next ball after hitting 23 in 31 balls.

The great hulk paused for a long time at the crease after umpire Peter Willey raised his finger. He seemed to think that his long stride down the pitch merited more attention than Willey was prepared to give it but the magic television replays suggested he was out and Willey is not yet blighted by their discoveries. He is still young enough, at 51, to be the finest umpire of them all. He will never be intimidated.

When Inzamam finally consented to go six were out for 102 and in his next over Warne bowled Azhar Mahmood with a well- pitched up ball that eluded his attempts to hit it on the full toss. Finally the meaty beach boy bowled Rashid Latif round his legs and, if three for 57 is not exactly his best he had broken the back of the innings.

The Australians must have thought Pakistan's bowling deserved respect because they chose to defend rather than look for 111 in 14 as they did when they played Pakistan last Tuesday. Sixteen came off five overs, 30 off eight, 52 off 12 and 66 in 15 after Adam Gilchrist hit Saqlain Mushtaq for six; in an atmosphere so sepulchral the Pakistanis must have wondered if they had all gone deaf.

In the last five overs Pakistan hurtled from 100 to 156, as Adam Gilchrist scored his third successive fifty and Ricky Ponting raced to 35 in 23 deliveries. Mark Waugh was run out, hesitating over a third, for 34.

It was all too predictable. Is Lord's, the Mecca of cricket, the most revered place in the game, the right ground to play a one- day final? Lets take these matches to Edgbaston or Old Trafford where we can all shout our heads off, fly our flags and sport our colours. Tests are for thinking cricket lovers; one-day international finals are better in a cauldron of noise, banners aloft and fireworks crackling. Pakistan might win once in a while too.

Cricket does not need the sort of incident which will capture the headlines in this country tomorrow. As Waqar Younis was being presented with his man of the series award a man threw a full beer can which hit Michael Bevan, the Australian all- rounder on the cheek.

The police grabbed the man immediately but another glamourous event had been spoiled by the stupidity of one spectator. Just as the Lord's officials were congratulating themselves on the way their security plan had worked too.

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