MacGill arrives with a magic of his own

By G. Viswanath

SYDNEY, JAN. 19. Stuart MacGill is the uncrowned leg-spinner in Australian cricket. He is such a serious practitioner of the art who has honed his skills and has a bagful of tricks, that he does not believe he is the sporting world's `runner-up' type who will sweat and toil to displace the leader one day. MacGill fancies himself has a real competitor to Shane Warne with whom his friendship is said to be that of a snake and mongoose. He spun the ball square at the SCG pitch on Wednesday night that it virtually started a procession of the Pakistan batsmen who saw MacGill's leg breaks as spiteful as a stinging cobra.

Australia won the match by 81 runs because MacGill was the leg- spinner the Australian captain Steve Waugh played as his trump card though he made the world believe that Ian Harvey was the man he would pick for Australia's third match against Pakistan in the Carlton & United Series. MacGill walked away with the `Man of the Match' after Shane Warne turned out in a blue straight jacket to join the living legends' parade which was a showpiece of the New South Wales Cricket Association' magnificent and touching presentation of the tour of century of Australia's cricket at the interval.

MacGill's fantastic debut in one-day internationals came a couple of hours after Pakistan's captain Wasim Akram touched the magic figure of 400 wickets in 285 matches and Mark Waugh reached 7,000 runs. Abdur Razzaq was hitting the ball merrily and stunningly to all parts of the field against Glenn McGrath that for a specific span of time, it appeared that Australia's third-

highest aggregate at the SCG would be beaten.

Razzaq is a batsman who simply obeys his captain's orders. Akram has used him a stonewaller at No. 3 and also as a conventional lower-order batsman. He was sent in after the rampaging Ijaz Ahmed clobbered McGrath over long on. At the outset, Pakistan made its intentions clear that it will show all aggression against Australia's principal strike bowler. The very first ball McGrath bowled hit Saeed Anwar on the `box', but the pain and agony did not deter the left-hander from hitting a glorious cover drive.

Razzaq struck a purple patch that made his 40 a cameo- like innings. He was equal to the task when McGrath switched to around the wicket after the batsman struck him for two fours. Razzaq's front-foot slog across the pitch got him two more fours. The extra-cover drive of the fifth delivery looked elegant. Pakistan, which had made its first fifty in 32 balls and the 100 in 73 balls appeared to be going great guns, until MacGill arrived on the scene.

MacGill, who has taken 59 wickets in 12 Tests at 23.22 beat Razzaq twice, his leg-break pitching more at a fuller length and spinning across the face of the bat. The last ball of his first over was a trifle short, but it was one that turned at good height inviting Razzaq to go for the horizontal shot. The result was a catch at cover that McGrath took tumbling. He had the satisfaction of having a hand in dismissing a batsman who had thumped him before. Pakistan was never really in the run chase, especially after he took the wicket of Yousuf Youhana. He bowled ten overs and conceded just 19 runs and took four wickets. What a debut?

Wasim Akram's best first spell in four matches made almost certain he would reach the 400-wicket mark on Wednesday. He had Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting, who has now three scores of zero against his name after his 115 against India at Melbourne. Mark Waugh made some runs and Australia recovered from early setbacks. Michael Bevan was the driving force in the 90-run stand for the fourth wicket after Mark Waugh cut Akram to the point fence to reach 7,000 runs. Shoaib Akhtar dismissed the Waugh twins.

Australia's depth in batting came to the fore. Damien Martyn and Andrew Symonds came up with an effort that made sure that Australia would be close to 300 than 250. Martyn made 50 off 56 balls and Symonds showed what a wonderful striker of the ball he is with a 26-ball 47. The one-day specialists made their presence felt. Bevan, Martyn, Symonds and Shane Lee made 200 runs which was more than two thirds of the Australian total of 286.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Sport
Previous : Leko holds Anand; Kasparov maintains lead
Next     : Jadeja dazzles in North Zone's win