Thursday, September 13, 2007

And the Australians are Defeated!!!!


Yesterday i saw a match which was more than a cricket match.It was one of the preliminary match of ICC 20-20 world cup and It was a night to remember for cricket fans everywhere except for Australia.
Zimbabwe played out of their skins, Australia looked rusty, and, after the drama of a rain delay with Australia ahead on Duckworth-Lewis, Zimbabwe, who had been wobbling when the rain hit, edged to a memorable, wonderful five-wicket win off the penultimate delivery. Two years ago to the day Australia lost the Ashes at The Oval. This game might have lacked the importance of that one, but it was a damn sight more embarrassing for them.
And lest anyone think this was a fluke, it was not. For almost the entire game Zimbabwe were, almost unbelievably, on top.The hero of the chase was Brendan Taylor, a fiery character whose international career seemed to be over a month ago after the latest of many run-ins with the Zimbabwe board. He anchored Zimbabwe's response with an unbeaten 60 off 45 balls.
And yet still Australia had their noses in front. Zimbabwe needed 12 off the last over. Taylor flicked the first ball for four past the grope of short fine leg. It came down to four off two as Ricky Ponting - who has said this format is not one he takes seriously but admitted afterwards "we've just got to start respecting the game now" - looked as stressed as anyone as he frantically marshalled his field. Nathan Bracken, so reliable, bowled full on leg stump, it brushed Taylor's pad and bobbled agonisingly slowly towards fine leg where it just had the legs to beat Stuart Clark's despairing slide. The Zimbabwe players were racing on to the pitch even before the ball hit the boundary markers.

What was remarkable was that it was Australia who crumbled under pressure. Their batting, with the exception of Hodge, lacked fluency; their bowlers were too wayward; their fielders fumbled and gave away overthrows. Zimbabwe, on the other hand, threw themselves wholeheartedly into everything.

The final scorecard read Zimbabwe 139 for 5 (Taylor 60*, Clark 2-22) beat Australia 138 for 9 (Hodge 35*, Chigumbura 3-20) by five wickets

1 comment:

Vishal Gupta said...

source : http://www.cricinfo.com

ye bhi likh deta !