Dutch Washout Helps Pakistan Qualify

Javed Akhtar, Arab News

AMSTELVEEN, 24 August 2004 — Pakistan qualified for the final of the Videocon Cup tri-series cricket tournament yesterday as the league match between world champions Australia and India was abandoned as a draw due to heavy rains. Australia and India shared the six points for the match and have three points each. The win over India on Saturday has given Pakistan the maximum of six points including a bonus point and India cannot overtake them, having finished their two league matches. In theory, Australia can overtake Pakistan if they win the league match tomorrow and will then qualify to meet Pakistan. Also talking theoretically, a big win by Pakistan over Australia, by about 200 runs, will take India into the final but that appears a very remote possibility. When rains halted play in the last over of the Australian innings, they had reached 175 for seven in 31.4 overs. For the second match in a row, play was delayed because of rains and was reduced to 32 overs per side at the VRA cricket ground here as a drizzle in the morning soaked the outfield and made it unplayable. After two inspections, umpires Steve Bucknor and Jeremy Lloyds announced that play would begin at 3 p.m. And after play was stopped in the 32nd over, it started raining heavily and the umpires declared that the match was abandoned. Australia were struggling on a slow wicket with low bounce after Ricky Ponting won the toss and opted to bat. Newcomer Brad Haddin was all at sea against the Indian seamers and was snapped up at mid-off by Lakshmipati Balaji as he drove Ashish Nehra but failed to keep the ball down. He made five. Matthew Hayden and Ponting appeared to steady the innings, Ponting hoisting Nehra over the long on fence and Hayden driving forcefully on both sides of the wicket. But Balaji struck two deadly blows in his second over dismissing both of them. He had Hayden driving uppishly to Ganguly in the covers and trapped Ponting leg before as he tried to put him away and missed the line. Australia were 70 for three in the 15th over. Virender Sehwag and Anil Kumble tied the batsmen down with their spin bowling as the ball came slowly off the pitch, making strokeplay difficult. Kumble had Andrew Symonds snicking to wicketkeeper Rahul Dravid. Soon after Sehwag clean bowled Damien Martyn as he stepped out and missed the line. It was Michael Clarke who batted brilliantly to give the Aussie total some respectability. But Darren Lehmann became Kumble’s second victim as he was brilliantly caught by Rohan Gavaskar who had to cover a lot of ground to take a difficult low catch. Clarke was in full flow as he cut, drove and pulled to smash six boundaries. It was an unbelievable one-handed catch by a leaping Sehwag on the boundary line that dismissed Clarke off Balaji as he tried to clear the ground. He made the top score of 42. Balaji was once again the most successful bowler taking three wickets for 20 runs while Kumble’s two wickets cost him 37 runs. Indian captain Saurav Ganguly gracefully accepted the fact that rain denied it the chance to beat Australia and stay in the race for a berth in the final. “We needed to win today to stay with a chance of qualifying for the final but there is no point blaming the weather,” he told reporters. In response to a question if he considered the event in the Netherlands as a mere warm-up for the matches in England Ganguly said: “We came here to play well and win this tournament but not to use this as preparation for the Natwest Challenge against England to the ICC Champions Trophy,” he said. India will take a day’s break and get back to nets at the Kampong ground in Utrecht on Wednesday, shifting their focus on the assignment in England. The team is hoping that the players in the sick bay — Sachin Tendulkar and Ajit Agarkar — will regain fitness and become available for selection for the first game against England on Sept. 1. Asked if his team would have liked to go to England ahead of the three-match Natwest Challenge series against the home side next month rather than stay till Sunday, Ganguly said: “It is the price we have to pay for not playing well against Pakistan. We didn’t play well against Pakistan and don’t deserve to be in the final.” The Indian captain was happy that Balaji showed a lot of character in coming back after a bad time in the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka. “He didn’t bowl too well on the flat wickets in Sri Lanka but I am happy he has worked hard,” Ganguly said.