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Untitled Document
 World Cup: Australia thrash Scotland
15th Mar 2007 08:56 IST
Agencies
Three-time champions Australia sounded an ominous warning to their World Cup rivals with a thumping rank outsiders Scotland by a record 203-run margin in the Group 'A' encounter at Warner Park in Basseterre, St Kitts on Wednesday.
The Aussies, smarting under a five-match losing streak and dethroned as world's number one one-day side, posted an imposing 334 for six which centred on a majestic century by captain Ricky Ponting.
The Scots simply crumbled under the weight of the mammoth target and they never recovered after losing their top five batsmen for 42 runs within 16 overs.
They were eventually all out for 131 in 40.1 overs. The margin of victory was the second biggest in World Cup history.
The absence of key players Andrew Symonds and Brett Lee was hardly felt by Australia as Ponting played a vintage knock.
The 32-year-old struck a 93-ball 113 to become only the fourth batsman to score four hundreds in the quadrennial event.
Glenn McGrath, seeking to surpass Wasim Akram's record tally of 55 scalps, then claimed 3/14.
For Scotland, wicketkeeper-batsman Colin Smith was the Rock of Gibraltar with a defiant 51. It was Smith's maiden ODI half-century and contained seven boundaries.
Ponting simply bludgeoned the Scottish bowling. The 32-year old Tasmanian hammered nine fours and five sixes on the way to his 23rd career one-day hundred.
He joined former teammate Mark Waugh and India's Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly as the only batsmen to have scored four centuries at cricket's showpiece event.
Ponting also went past the 1000-run mark in World Cup with his opening scoring shot, a boundary.
His innings was built on the foundation laid by Adam Gilchrist (46) and Matthew Hayden (60) who put on 91 runs for the opening stand.
And when the Scots put the shackles around the Aussies after their captain's departure, Brad Hogg stepped up the gas with a blitzkrieg 40 not out that came from only 15 balls.
Hogg, in the company of Shane Watson, plundered 39 runs from the last two overs to see the three-time champions gallop past the 300 mark.
Watson remained unbeaten on 18 from 11 balls with three fours.
Gilchrist started with a flourish but he missed out on the party when he became the first wicket to fall in the 17th over, leg before to Dougie Brown.
Hayden was at his belligerent best, smacking six fours and a six in his 73-ball innings.
His walk down to smack pacer Paul Hoffman for a six over the straight showed the old bully in him.
The Queensland left-hander fell leg before to Majid Haq's off-spin when he pushed at a delivery that held its line and was rapped on the pads.
Ponting punished the Scots for the half-chance he received on 23 by hammering the average attack all-round the attack.
But Ponting's dismissal, bowled by an in-cutter from Craig Wright, infused fresh blood in the Scots.
With some tidy bowling and tight fielding, they checked the run flow.
A brief spell of showers that held up play for 25 minutes also made the wicket damp and stroke making difficult and suddenly 300 seemed a mirage.
But Hogg and Watson, who made 18 off 11 balls, smashed six boundaries and three sixes between them to see their side past the milestone.
Scotland could have played the lower order first when they chased.
As it were, the sixth wicket partnership of 47 runs between Smith and Brown alone was more than what the top five could muster.
After making a cautious start with Fraser Watts (9) and Haq (16) adding 21 runs, the Scotland innings nosedived.
McGrath then drove a wedge through their top order and his first four overs read three for eight.
Smith, who had earlier produced a reflex stumping to see the back of Michael Hussey, played some audacious shots. At times, he made the stereotyped pace bowling of Watson look inadequate.
The 34-year old right-hander was also at ease against the slow bowling of Hogg and showed some temerity to play reverse sweep against Hodge's off-spin.
The best among his repertoire of strokes, however, was the back-foot punch between point and gully against Shaun Tait.
Ponting was adjudged the Man of the Match. |
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