Adam Gilchrist overcame Ashes nemesis Andrew Flintoff and Australia's batsmen clobbered the World XI bowling attack yesterday, scoring 328 for four in the second Super Series match.
Gilchrist plundered 103, while captain Ricky Ponting (66) and Damien Martyn (54) posted half centuries, and opener Simon Katich was three runs short of his second consecutive 50.
Andrew Symonds was unbeaten 31 off 14 balls and shared a 52-run fifth-wicket stand with Michael Clarke (17 not out) in 29 balls.
PHOTO: AFP
The World XI needs a record total against Australia to win and will need to harness all the talent in its batting-heavy lineup to acquire the 329 runs in 50 overs and keep the three-match series alive.
Australia, which won the series opener by 93 runs on Wednesday, has conceded more than 300 in a limited-overs international only seven times -- and only once in this Millennium. The record against Australia was England's 320-8 at Birmingham in 1980.
In its favor, the World XI will be facing an Australian attack missing pace spearhead Glenn McGrath, sidelined with leg soreness and replaced by rookie Stuart Clark.
Gilchrist, who struggled against Flintoff in Australia's recent upset Ashes test series loss to England, set the tone early with his 12th ODI hundred.
He reached 50 off 37 balls, hammering 20 of those runs off Flintoff's first four overs, and his 79-ball knock contained four giant sixes and eight boundaries.
He dominated a 110-run opening stand with Katich (47) and a 63-run partnership with Ponting.
Ponting and Martyn added 103 in a run-a-ball third-wicket stand before falling on consecutive deliveries.
Ponting had a reprieve on 65 when he was caught in the deep off a Shoaib Akhtar no-ball, but was run out by Flintoff next over after a mix-up with Martyn.
Flintoff bowled Martyn next ball as Australia slipped to 276-4 with 4.3 overs remaining.
The England allrounder picked up 24 wickets in the Ashes series, but so far has been targeted by Australia's batsmen. He returned 0-66 in game one and 1-64 in eight overs on Friday.
In an interesting subplot, Muttiah Muralitharan was brought on to bowl in the 11th over at umpire Darrell Hair's end. Hair no-balled Muralitharan seven times for throwing during one Melbourne test in 1995 in a standoff that polarized cricket.
There were no controversial calls against Muralitharan this time, the Sri Lankan spinner returning 1-43 in 10 overs.
Muralitharan deceived Katich with a doosra in the 20th over and part-timer Virender Sehwag (1-20 in three overs) bowled Gilchrist in the 29th.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier