Australia v Pakistan, World Cup 2011, Group A, Colombo

Pakistan shine to remove Australia for 176

shane watson

Pakistan produced an outstanding bowling and fielding display as Australia were hustled out for 176, their lowest completed World Cup total since 1992, on a tricky pitch in Colombo. Brad Haddin top-scored with 42 in a brittle performance from the current champions who have not been beaten in a World Cup match since May 1999. The wickets were shared around with Umar Gul taking three and Abdul Razzaq a crucial brace.

Whoever wins this match will finish top of Group A, which has a bearing on who they play in the quarter-finals and in which country. The first half couldn't have gone much better for Pakistan as all the bowlers played their part in keeping Australia under wraps while their fielding display reached rarely seen levels of excellence. Kamran Akmal had a good day behind the stumps with three catches, while the variety in the attack meant a host of wicket-taking options.

Australia have been saying how they wanted a test after easing through most of the group stage but the batting wasn't up to it on a difficult surface that offered spin and a touch of uneven bounce. Two batsmen desperate for a substantial innings, Ricky Ponting (19) and Cameron White (8), both struggled leaving the lower order exposed to spin and reverse swing.

Pakistan had an early scare when Gul pulled up at the start of his second over with a knee problem and needed attention from the physio. Whatever treatment was provided worked wonders because he produced a lovely nip-backer to beat Shane Watson's ambitious drive.

It was hard work for Australia to find momentum as Gul maintained a testing line and Abdur Rehman, the left-arm spinner, varied his pace nicely after being given the new ball. Haddin briefly broke free when he used his feet against Rehman to loft him straight for six, but it wasn't until the ninth over that the innings got a kick as Gul sprayed five wides before being pulled through midwicket.

Ponting has been scratchy during the tournament and was again unconvincing although he didn't have a huge amount of strike when he arrived. His first boundary came from a fortunate top edge after he was comprehensively beaten by a Wahab Riaz bouncer, but three balls later he produced a sweet cover drive.

Not for the first time, though, spin brought his downfall when he tried to cut Mohammad Hafeez, who produced a superb 10-over spell for 26, and got a thick edge that Kamran did well to take in the webbing of his right glove. However, it was originally given not out and the DRS was needed to overturn the decision in Pakistan's favour. Meanwhile, as the players waited for the TV umpire, there was an altercation between Haddin and the Pakistanis.

Haddin has been consistent during the tournament without reaching the three-figure score the top order needs and he couldn't convert here when he pushed at a delivery from Wahab to give Kamran his second catch. Misbah-ul-Haq missed an opportunity to run out Michael Clarke but made no mistake when his next chance came around when his throw to Kamran found White short after a laboured stay.

In Clarke and Michael Hussey, Australia had two of their in-form players together but even they found scoring tough as Shahid Afridi mixed up his bowling options. Razzaq was held back until the 35th over and made an immediate impression when Clarke missed an ugly heave against a well-disguised off-cutter which trimmed the off bail.

Hussey couldn't perform a rescue-act, either, when he chipped a simple catch to midwicket and the innings was coming off the rails as Razzaq produced a nippy delivery to find Mitchell Johnson's outside edge. Jason Krejza was defeated by Gul's lethal reverse swing and Steve Smith, having tried to see out the overs, chopped into his stumps against Afridi before Brett Lee carved to cover with 20 balls unused.

Openers steer Australia to easy win

Openers steer Australia to easy win
Shane Watson hit the longest six of the World Cup

Shane Watson smashed four sixes

By the time Shane Watson and Brad Haddin were launching the ball with frightening regularity into sparsely populated stands at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Australia had taken control of a game that extended their unbeaten run in World Cups to 34 matches, and vaulted them from fourth to first in Group A. Though the margin of victory - seven wickets with 91 balls to spare - was huge, they did not have it easy throughout. Canada ambushed them with the bat, and then created some chances with the new ball. Australia's pace and power eventually swamped them but Ashish Bagai's team exceeded expectations in their final World Cup appearance.

When Bagai chose to bat, the probability of an early finish in Bangalore increased significantly, but Australia's inevitable supremacy was delayed by an extraordinary attack from 19-year-old Hiral Patel, who batted fearlessly to score a rapid half-century off the world's fastest bowlers. After the labour against Kenya, Ponting had said he wanted to win this convincingly but it wasn't until the 29th over, by which time Canada had reached 150 for 2, that Australia began to dominate.

Their surge was led by the wayward Shaun Tait, who had Bagai edging to Haddin. The ball was now scruffy and had begun to reverse. In his next over, Tait wasted a review on an unsuccessful lbw appeal for the second time, not spotting an inside edge from Zubin Surkari. He floored Surkari, though, with his next two balls, a toe-crushing yorker followed by a full toss that struck the batsman painfully on the thigh. Rattled, Surkari attempted a flamboyant drive after getting back on his feet, and inside-edged on to middle stump.

Between those wickets, Jason Krejza dismissed Jimmy Hansra, whose attempted hit down the ground landed in long-on's hands. Brett Lee, who bore the brunt of the early onslaught, returned to uproot Rizwan Cheema's middle stump with a slower ball. Canada lost four wickets in four overs, and five for 19, and were soon dismissed for 211. Having struggled in the field with his injured pinky, Ponting was unhappy, and his frustration showed when he collided with Steve Smith moments before catching Harvir Baidwan. Ponting flung the ball into the ground after taking the catch.

The build-up to the game was quiet: the Wednesday crowd was thin, the atmosphere sedentary. And then Patel woke everybody up. Using Lee's width and pace, he played two cuts. By the time you blinked, the ball had reached the boundary. He took a third four off Lee's first over with a drive through extra cover. Against Tait, who had focused on bowling full and fast without success, Patel moved back and slammed a length delivery over the cover boundary. After three overs, Canada were 33 for 0.

There was no memorable swansong for 40-year-old John Davison, who was playing his final game. After three attacking boundaries, he gloved a slower bouncer from Lee to Haddin, ending the opening stand on 41, Canada's best of the World Cup.

Davison's dismissal did not deter Patel. He brought up Canada's 50 off 4.4 overs by edging an attempted loft off Mitchell Johnson so hard that it cleared third man. Realising Patel was at ease with balls in his half, Lee unleashed several short balls and even wanted a chat, but Patel did not bite. And when Lee bowled one short ball too many, Patel hooked, and cleared deep-backward square leg. He reached his half-century off 37 deliveries, and after the mandatory Powerplay, Canada were 77 for 1. Patel's innings ended when, in the 12th over, he went hard at Watson and Johnson held the catch on the edge of the third-man boundary.

Australia slowly brought the run-rate under control. It finally dipped below six in the 19th over. Surkari and Bagai, however, batted steadily during their 68-run association. They steered Canada towards a commendable position before Australia's fast bowlers came back strongly - Lee finished with 4 for 46 - and set the stage for their batsmen.

Haddin and Watson both survived uncertain moments against the new ball before settling in to score at a steady pace. They were tested by Henry Osinde, a well built Uganda-born fast bowler who got the ball to bounce at pace and beat both Haddin and Watson with short balls. Harvir Baidwan could have dismissed Watson on 2 but Rizwan Cheema dropped the lofted mis-hit at mid-on. Haddin could have been dismissed on 23 but Ashish Bagai decided not to review an unsuccessful lbw appeal from Baidwan. Replays showed it was likely to have been overturned.

Thereafter opportunities for Canada were few. Haddin and Watson dominated the bowling during the batting Powerplay - 41 runs between overs 21 and 25 - and were soon finding the boundary at will. Both batsmen missed their centuries, though, holing out to catches in the deep, leaving the finish to their mates in the middle order.

Sri Lanka v Australia

Sri Lanka v Australia 

Sri Lanka v Australia, Group A, World Cup 2011, Colombo

Title contenders clash in 2007 final replay

Shane Watson

Match Facts

March 5, Colombo
Start time 2.30 pm (0900 GMT)

The Big Picture

The last time Australia were scheduled to take on Sri Lanka in a World Cup match in Colombo was in 1996, when Australia pulled out citing security concerns leading to plenty of rancour even before the tournament started. The last time the two teams did meet in the World Cup was in the final of 2007, when a farcical ruling over bad light provided an inept end to a much-maligned tournament.

Saturday's encounter, nestled somewhere midway through the competition, will lack the drama of either of those two events, and given the utter woefulness of the smaller teams in Group A, will have only a marginal impact on the tournament, though it is being billed as a 'big game'. The four Test nations in the group are near certainties to make the quarters, so any time two of them clash in the league phase, the result is more a battle for how high in the top four they end up, which will decide how tough their quarter-final opponent will be.

One reason to look forward to the match is that in a game increasingly dominated by the bat, where 300 is no longer a safe score, two of the best bowling line-ups in the tournament will face up. On the one hand Sri Lanka have their much-trumpeted, freakish trio of Malinga, Murali and Mendis, and on the other is Australia's old-school fast-and-furious trio of Lee, Tait and Johnson.

The match is also a stage for Sri Lanka to justify their billing as one of the favourites, particularly after defeat to Pakistan. And for Australia, the game is the first big challenge to check how healthy their chances of a fourth straight title are.

Form guide

(completed matches, most recent first)
Australia WWWWW
Sri Lanka WLWWW

Watch out for...

Tillakaratne Dilshan has the task of getting Sri Lanka bursting out of the blocks, a job he's accomplished in all three matches this tournament by sprinting to at least 40 each time. Sri Lanka will hope his stand-and-thwack-it method works against the Australian pace battery and takes him to the big score that has eluded him so far.

A few months ago, Brett Lee's international career seemed to be over after being sidelined for a year due to an elbow problem. Not only is he back, but like that other oft-injured tearaway, Shoaib Akhtar, he's showing he's lost none of his pace even in his mid-thirties. He was in cracking form in Australia's previous match, tormenting New Zealand's top order, though he didn't get the handful of wickets his spot-on bowling deserved.

Team news

Australia have had a week's rest since thumping New Zealand, so they will be no need to "manage the workload" of any of their players. They are almost certainly going to stick to the same XI.

Australia (probable) 1 Shane Watson, 2 Brad Haddin (wk), 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Clarke, 5 David Hussey, 6 Cameron White, 7 Steve Smith, 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Jason Krezja, 10 Brett Lee, 11 Shaun Tait.

Sri Lanka have a couple of decisions to make regarding their bowling. Do they persist with Nuwan Kulasekara or bring back the pacy Thisara Perera, who also provides a big-hitting option lower down the order? Also, the second spinners slot 'remains a toss-up between Rangana Herath and Ajantha Mendis.

Sri Lanka (probable) 1 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 2 Upul Tharanga, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (capt & wk), 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Thilan Samaraweera, 6 Angelo Mathews, 7 Chamara Silva, 8 Nuwan Kulasekara, 9 Lasith Malinga, 10 Ajantha Mendis, 11 Muttiah Muralitharan

Pitch and conditions

It pelted down on Friday evening in Colombo, and there's light rain forecast for Saturday as well. If the weather stays clear, the teams will likely have to deal with a sluggish pitch, the same surface that was used for the Kenya-Sri Lanka match. Malinga's explanation of his array of toe-crushers against Kenya: "This is a slow pitch and bouncers will not work so I decided to go for yorkers." Expect more of the same.

Stats and Trivia

• Australia have lost only one of the seven completed World Cup matches against Sri Lanka - the 1996 final
• Ricky Ponting has the most number of World Cup catches (27), more than twice as many as any other current player. The next highest tally of a player in the tournament is Paul Collingwood (13)
• Lasith Malinga has an astonishing World Cup record: 9 matches, 24 wickets at 13.41

Quotes

"It certainly hasn't spun anywhere near as much [as last time we were in Sri Lanka] and the teams that have batted second have had a bit more of a chance in the game than before."
Ricky Ponting assesses the conditions in Colombo