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Formidable Australia break Lara's resistance

This article is more than 17 years old

In overwhelming West Indies by 103 runs Australia laid down the strongest possible marker for the tournament at the Sir Viv Richards stadium yesterday. Asked to make 323 runs to win after Tuesday's rain required the match to be carried over, West Indies froze and floundered against the new ball, tried to take on Glenn McGrath and suffered for it, and never recovered.

Brian Lara played a cut above the rest for 77 but when he was leg-before to Brad Hogg's left-arm wrist spin there was little left in the Caribbean challenge, although a sprightly 52 from the wicketkeeper Dinesh Ramdin, his second half-century in one-day internationals, kept things going before Shaun Tait's coup de grace with 26 balls remaining when he bowled Daren Powell.

Australia are a brilliant side who, as far as could be told from this match, have scarcely a weakness. If versatility is the key to one-day success, an adaptability to all conditions and situations, then Ricky Ponting and John Buchanan, the coach in his swansong event, have assembled a formidable outfit.

The batting is both heavyweight and delicate and goes a long way down. They field wonderfully well and are led with authority by Ponting, aided by Adam Gilchrist. With the ball, they have pace and accuracy, change of pace, left arm and right, and there is the destruction that can be caused by the cutters of Nathan Bracken on a dusty surface, plus Hogg's wrist spin allied to Andrew Symonds' off-twirlers. With four points already, and an almost certain four to come from Bangladesh and Ireland, they are semi-finalists almost certainly with five matches to go.

After the first-day pyrotechnics from Matthew Hayden, an inevitable man of the match for his brutal 158, it was the turn of the bowlers yesterday and between them, on a surface that played exceptionally well throughout, they were relentless. Tait may be erratic but in his unpredictability lies a strength, for while batsmen are looking for the bad balls he is capable of sending down something devastating, as he managed to Shivnarine Chanderpaul, all at high velocity.

Would England select such a maverick in similar circumstances, one wonders, or would they concentrate on what a player cannot do - Monty Panesar, say, or Mal Loye - rather than what he can? With Bracken producing a stifling opening spell of left-arm swing, only six runs from as many overs, West Indies felt they needed to attack the predictability of McGrath.

Big mistake. Chris Gayle, a thunderous player but one rendered strokeless by Bracken, swung at McGrath's second ball and top-edged mightily to mid-on. In McGrath's next over Marlon Samuels, in attempting to slug the bowler over the off side, succeeded only in spooning so far under a slower ball that it came close to disappearing up his own nose and threatened the International Space Station before plummeting safely into the hands of Symonds at cover. The wicket of Dwayne Bravo later brought him within one of Wasim Akram as the leading wicket-taker in World Cup history.

It was Hogg who was the surprise package for Australia, however, subduing Lara at a time when the West Indies captain had begun to flicker out an array of strokes so powerful from a slight frame that they appear to defy the laws of physics. He had begun cautiously, understandably so given that his side were 20 for three when he went in, but then the backlift, already the highest the game can have seen, seemed to touch the clouds. McGrath was blitzed square and Shane Watson, still the weakest link in the attack, was cover-driven with panache. Three successive boundaries came from deliveries from Tait to bring up a fifty stand with Ramnaresh Sarwan which was to become 71.

Even a genius such as Lara has trouble picking Hogg's wrong 'un, the ball that spins away from the right-hander but in to Lara. He tried to come down the pitch and barely kept the ball out. Sarwan immediately pulled a high full toss unerringly to Ponting at midwicket and stood in sheer disbelief.

The rapid loss of Bravo meant Lara was left fighting a lone battle, attention to run rate a priority now. However, he found staunch companionship in Ramdin, with whom he added 49 for the sixth wicket before Lara, attempting to slide the ball to third man, misjudged Hogg's spin and was lbw. His runs had come from 83 balls with eight fours and a six lofted over long off. Hogg's revenge shortly afterwards closed down the match.

Australia: 322-6

West Indies: 219

Australia won by 103 runs

Scoreboard

Australia

*A C Gilchrist c Ramdin b D B Powell 7

M L Hayden c Samuels b Bravo 158

†R T Ponting run out 35

M J Clarke lbw b Bravo 41

A Symonds c Ramdin b Samuels 13

M E K Hussey b D B Powell 9

S R Watson not out 33

G B Hogg not out 5

Extras (b1, lb9, w8, nb3, pens 0) 21

Total (for 6, 50 overs) 322

Fall 10, 76, 174, 208, 234, 297.

Did not bat N W Bracken, S W Tait, G D McGrath.

Bowling D B Powell 10-2-53-2; Taylor 10-0-67-0; Collymore 10-0-56-0; Gayle 4-0-29-0; Bravo 7-0-49-2; Samuels 9-0-58-1.

West Indies

C H Gayle c Watson b McGrath 2

S Chanderpaul lbw b Tait 5

R R Sarwan c Ponting b Hogg 29

M N Samuels c Symonds b McGrath 4

*B C Lara lbw b Hogg 77

D J Bravo c Ponting b McGrath 9

†D Ramdin c Gilchrist b Bracken 52

D S Smith lbw b Hogg 9

J E Taylor lbw b Symonds 10

D B Powell b Tait 5

C D Collymore not out 1

Extras (b1, w15, pens 0) 16

Total (45.3 overs) 219

Fall 11, 16, 20, 91, 107, 156, 172, 199, 217

Bowling Bracken 9-1-25-1; Tait 7.3-0-43-2; McGrath 8-1-31-3; Watson 7-0-31-0; Hogg 10-0-56-3; Symonds 4-0-32-1.

Umpires Aleem Dar and Asad Rauf

Australia won by 103 runs

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