Results from the Big Test
Well the results are in from the Big Test: early indications are, it’s business as usual. But the scores don’t tell the whole story, in one of the games at least. Australia made no mistakes in defeating the West Indies, despite needing two days to do it due to heavy rain after Matt Hayden smashed another brutal century in a total of 322/6. Australia seem well aware how important the net run rate might turn out to be by keeping above a run a ball. When the West Indies got out to bat the following day, they never really looked in the hunt after a slow and disastrous start. Gayle, Chanderpaul and Samuels were all dismissed cheaply. Brian Lara top scored with 77 and shared in a useful partnership with Ramdin (52), but the damage had already done as the run rate spiralled out of reach. The Windies were finally dismissed for 219, 103 runs short. It’s hard to take anything away from the Aussie performance which was clinical. The West Indies have a chance make amends and regain some form when they face New Zealand on Thursday.
South Africa didn’t have such an easy passage through their first game of the Super 8. Opting to bowl first against Sri Lanka, South Africa’s bowling attack had a much easier time of it than their previous outing. Langeveldt took full advantage of it and bagged himself a 5fer including the big wickets of Jayasuriya and Jayawardene at the top of the innings, returning 5 for 39 off his 10 overs. Shaun Pollock was remarkably quiet and was perhaps still recovering from the beating he received at the hands of Australia. Sri Lanka fairly limped to 209 all out as the last 5 wickets were gifted away for only a handful of runs. With such a low target, the win for South Africa seemed inevitable but they did make a small meal of it. Despite always being ahead of the required run-rate, regular wickets meant that some good work from Sri Lanka could have brought them back in to contention. And Lasith Malinga was the man to do just that. At 205/5, South Africa needed just 5 more to win. But some inspired bowling from “the slinger” saw him become the first man to take 4 wickets in 4 balls in International cricket and reduce South Africa to 206/9 and Sri Lanka were back in it. Unfortunately for them, however, they were unable to get that last elusive wicket and Peterson managed to get the South Africans over the line. But Graeme Smith’s heart would have been beating fast for a while there.
What does this tell us about the Super 8’s? Actually, not a lot. Australia looked in as good as form as they have throughout the tournament and rightly favourites to lift the trophy. South Africa nevertheless got the two points and will likely put their performance down to a lack of concentration from which they can easily bounce back. But it shows that the like of Sri Lanka are well capable of playing the type of cricket that will see them through to the semi-final stages. The first test of the “minnows” comes on Friday when Ireland take on England.
Tags: Australia, cricket, lara, lasith-malinga, slinger, south-africa, west-indies, World-Cup-2007Related Stories
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