Australia’s 34-match unbeaten run in the Cricket World Cup dating back to 1999 was finally broken by Pakistan on Saturday when Ricky Ponting’s team were beaten by four wickets.
Australia, who have won the last three World Cups during the run and were unbeaten in five matches in Group A in this tournament, were skittled out for 176.
Pace bowler Brett Lee was on fire at the R. Premadasa Stadium and raised hopes of an Australia fightback when he got rid of opener Mohammad Hafeez in the third over, but his haul of four for 28 could not prevent Pakistan from cruising to victory with 54 balls to spare.
Abdul Razzaq (20 not out) finished off the match in style by slamming spinner Jason Krezja for two consecutive fours to end on 20 not out. Pakistan finished on 178-6.
Saturday’s result threw the tournament wide open as there is no undefeated team left in the competition heading into this week’s knockout stage.
Australia had already qualified for the quarter-finals, but will now finish third in the group rather than top, a place now occupied by Pakistan.
Asked to reveal how his team finally stopped the Australia juggernaut, Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi said: “We made some good plans against these guys and I think the boys all stuck to these plans. We didn’t try to take some wickets early on, we tried to bowl maiden, good overs ... and all the bowlers did a great job. The credit goes to the bowlers.”
“It’s a different sort of enjoyment playing against Australia. They may be world champions, but there was no pressure on us so we pulled it off today,” added Umar Akmal, who finished unbeaten on 44.
Ponting’s men struggled for momentum throughout their innings after opting to bat first.
Pakistan’s pace and spin attack, backed up by sharp fielding, never allowed the Australia batting to settle down.
A 63-run second wicket stand between Brad Haddin (42) and Ponting (19), who failed once again with the bat, was the only notable partnership in the Australia innings.
Michael Clarke (34) and Steve Smith (25) were the only other batsmen to make any worthwhile contributions on a difficult surface that offered spin and some uneven bounce, which the Australia batsmen failed to cope with. Paceman Umar Gul (3-30) bowled superbly with both the new and the old ball for the 1992 champions, who were the last team to defeat Australia in a World Cup match in 1999.
Gul made the first breakthrough by bowling Shane Watson for 9 and returned to clean up the tail by taking the wickets of Jason Krezja and Lee.
? Zimbabwe V Kenya
Reuters, ,KOLKATA
Kenya wilted under the pressure of chasing a huge total as the Zimbabwe spinners skittled them for just 147 runs to hand them a thumping 161-run loss in their final World Cup Group A match yesterday.
Kenya flunked their final chance to register a win in the World Cup as they succumbed meekly in just 36 overs, looking to chase down a steep 309-run target for victory at Eden Gardens.
The Zimbabwe spin battery of Ray Price, Prosper Utseya, Greg Lamb and Graeme Cremer put the Kenya batsmen on the mat by picking up wickets regularly on a -batting-friendly pitch.
Earlier, the Zimbabwe batsmen made merry against an insipid bowling performance as Tatenda Taibu (53), Vusi Sibanda (61) and Craig Ervine (66) notched half-centuries to take their team to 308 for six after opting to bat first.
Neither team qualified for the quarter-finals and both now return home.
Taibu and Sibanda laid the foundations for Zimbabwe with a 110-run partnership for the third wicket after they had lost both their openers inside the first 10 overs.
Ervine then added 105 runs for the fifth wicket with skipper Elton Chigumbura to take Zimbabwe toward a solid total.
Greg Lamb and Prosper Utseya finished the innings in style, adding 32 runs off the last two overs to take the total past the 300-run mark.
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