UFO Info Week-End

The Pakistanis will have hoped it might have brought them victory

The Pakistanis will have hoped it might have brought them victory. Wasim Akram’s shoulder had kept him out of the game and Shoaib Akhtar showed in his opening overs when he bowled regularly at 95mph, once reaching 97.7mph, that Lee has something to aim at.Shoaib’s pace was too much for Gilchrist, but he was soon put in his place by Ponting, who was in great form. After bowling five overs Shoaib went off with a recurrence of his stomach troubles and was taken to hospital. Ponting and Mark Waugh put on 92 cultured runs for the second wicket and then after they had departed, Steve Waugh and Bevan put on an unbroken 116.They both passed 50 and saw Australia home with 4.2 overs to spare.

The Australians had played some grand cricket.SOPHIA GARDENS SCOREBOARDPakistan won tossPAKISTAN Saeed Anwar c Warne b Harvey 35 Shahid Afridi c M E Waugh b Lee 11 Abdur Razzaq st Gilchrist b Warne 9 Inzamam-ul-Haq st Gilchrist b Warne 0 Yousuf Youhana not out 91 Younis Khan lbw b Harvey 13 Azhar Mahmood c Gilchrist b Warne 0 Rashid Latif run out 66 Waqar Younis c Warne b McGrath 14 Saqlain Mushtaq run out 2 Shoaib Akhtar c M Waugh b McGrath 1 Extras (lb3 w6 nb6 pens 0) 15 Total (49.5 overs) 257Fall: 1-14 2-44 3-45 4-65 5-83 6-85 7-209 8-241 9-254.Bowling: McGrath 9.5-2-22-2; Lee 10-1-85-1; Harvey 10-2-39-2; Warne 10-0-52-3; Martyn 4-0-21-0; Symonds 4-0-23-0; Bevan 2-0-12-0.AUSTRALIA M E Waugh c Khan b Abdur Razzaq 47 A C Gilchrist b Shoaib Akhtar 13 R T Ponting c Razzaq b Saqlain Mushtaq 70 M G Bevan not out 56 S R Waugh not out 54 Extras (b6 lb3 w3 nb6 pens 0) 18 Total (for 3, 45.4 overs) 258Fall: 1-20 2-112 3-142.Did not bat: A Symonds, D R Martyn, I J Harvey, S K Warne, B Lee, G D McGrath.Bowling: Waqar Younis 7-0-41-0; Shoaib Akhtar 5-0-41-1; Azhar Mahmood 8-0-37-0; Abdur Razzaq 9-0-42-1; Saqlain Mushtaq 8.4-0-45-1; Shahid Afridi 8-0-43-0.AUSTRALIA WON BY SEVEN WICKETSUmpires: A G T Whitehead and P Willey TV Replay umpire: R Julian Match Referee: B F Hastings.. It was meant to be the encounter that even England revivalists were fearful of after Australia had mauled Pakistan, a side who had just eaten Alec Stewart’s men for breakfast. But, in the Bristol sunshine, England showed they could almost live with Australia, albeit one in experimental mood and resting Michael Bevan, their best batsman.Chasing 269, Australia won the match with three balls to spare, the best match of the NatWest series so far. That fact, although small consolation for an England side missing three key players ­ Michael Vaughan withdrew with a bruised finger which will be X-rayed this morning ­ means that this was their seventh successive one-day defeat, their worst ever sequence equalled only by losing runs in 1993 and 1999. But if there have been stinkers, this was a close match illuminated by a superb century from Ricky Ponting and a stirring stand for England of 70 from 45 balls between Ben Hollioake and the debutant Owais Shah.Shah, whisked from a benefit match down to Bristol on Friday, batted alongside Hollioake with nerveless invention after Vaughan’s injury had given him his chance.

His lofted cover drive for four off Shane Warne and a fine paddle off Ian Harvey, were shots of both youth and confidence, a combination that tends to be frowned on in the county game Their stand gave England’s total respectability. Indeed had Alec Stewart showed more nous when batting ­ he dragged his feet when England should have been accelerating ­ and set closer fields to prevent singles at the death, England might have won. Instead they need to beat Pakistan at Lord’s tomorrow to have any chance of making the final in a fortnight’s time.Unlike Australia, who bat without fear of losing, Stewart was hoping for human error to ease England’s passage. Instead, with 11 runs wanted off seven balls, Harvey, on a ground almost as familiar to him as the MCG, struck Hollioake for a towering six over extra cover. As grand gestures go this was huge and it effectively made it game, set and match with Steve Waugh doing the necessary in the final over.Before that, Ponting had given advanced warning ahead of the Ashes that he is a much improved player from the one England encountered in Australia two years ago. His century, which lasted 116 balls and contained two sixes and nine fours, was his eighth in one-day internationals.A batsman who prefers pace on the ball, Ponting was well set by the time Stewart brought on Robert Croft. A clean striker of fast bowling, he even outscored the fluent Mark Waugh after Adam Gilchrist’s early departure, caught at midwicket off Darren Gough.Waugh’s demise for 46, bowled playing across a straight one from Dominic Cork, might have allowed England to create new pressure, but neither Ponting nor Damien Martyn took a backward step as the pair added 97 runs before Martyn was bowled by Alan Mullally.