INDOOR
CRICKET WORLD
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World Cup 2002
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RESULTS |
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GAME 6 MEN AUSTRALIA vs ENGLAND
Result (Teams mentioned in the order they batted):
Coming off a disappointing game against New Zealand yesterday, England took the court against the Australians in the first game of Day 2. Johnson and Raverty, the Australian openers, didn't lose a wicket in their first game (vs India). They continued that standard through their partnership in this game, even though England had them on third-ball immediately (which they survived). England bowled and fielded well throughout the partnership, gaining two more third-ball situations, but the Australian openers survived them too and walked off the court with a very solid 34 run partnership. England's stuggle to convert third-balls to wickets was continuing. England's fortunes changed somewhat during the second batting pair (Nelson and Gray). In their first over, bowled by Roberts, Gray was bowled and a third-ball was finally converted to a wicket, the over scoring -7. England managed to contrive one further third-ball for this pair, but the Australians survived it. However, England kept the pressure on, giving up 10, 3 and 4 in the remaining overs of the partnership (one catch and one runout). The Australian pair were restricted to just 10 runs, and England had done well to keep Australia to 44 runs after 8 overs. As in yesterday's game against New Zealand, England then bowled 8 overs without taking a wicket. The third pair of Mills and Butler, although they were on third-ball three times, kept their score-sheet clean of wickets and came off the court with a very solid 44 run partnership, thereby doubling their team's half-way score. Australia were now at a much more comfortable 88 after 12 overs. Otto and Slocombe finished off the Australian innings, and effectively finished off England's chances of a victory. Totally avoiding any third-ball situations, the Australian pair failed to score from only 4 balls, and jealously kept their wickets intact. They scored only 8 singles, meaning they scored 2 or more on 15 balls. Add to that the 5 wides bowled, and the Australian pair walked away with a 58 run partnership. Both batsmen scored 29 off their own bat. From 44 after 8 overs, the Australian had charged to a total of 146. Their last 8 overs cost them no wickets and 102 runs. Spasic and Walton opened for England and made an outstanding start, taking 14 runs from the first over (Butler). Slocombe gave away only five singles in the second over, and Mills went for 10 in the third. England had survived two third-balls and were 29 after three overs, well placed to take the first skin. But Corey Otto came on to bowl the fourth over, and he and the Australian fielders killed the game in the space of 8 balls. There were four runouts in the over, plus Spasic was bowled off the last ball. Otto had plundered -18 from the over, and England slumped to a first partnership of 11.
Windscheffel and Wyld batted second for England, and were immediately in trouble. A converted third-ball, a runout and one bowled gave an over of -15 runs, and the result was then definitely beyond doubt. England were back to a total of -2, and needed more than 13 runs an over for next 11 overs to win. Windscheffel and Wyld showed great courage to not lose another wicket, and fought back superbly. They took 16 from the next over (Slocombe), survived 2 third-ball situations, and scored 28 runs from their last 3 overs. But that one over cost them dearly, and they walked off the court with a partnership of 15. They had taken the skin (15 to 10), but England were only 26 after 8 overs. The third pair of Breakspear and Roberts did not face a third-ball, and although they took 11 runs off the 10th over (Nelson), they lost 4 wickets in total (2 runout, 1 bowled, 1 caught) for a partnership of 11. Still more than 100 runs behind, the last pair of McDonogh and Walker took to the court. Despite losing a wicket on their second ball (runout), the final English pair batted extremely well and did not lose another wicket. They did not get into any third-ball situations either. Taking 11 runs off Raverty, 13 off Butler and 5 from Johnson ( a fine over which gave only singles), the last England pair scored a very solid 30 runs, for a team total of 67. England lost 13 wickets to Australia's 4. England again earned itself a good number of third-balls, but they again lost important opportunities by failing to convert enough of them into wickets. They had the Australians on third-ball 8 times, but only managed to convert one of them to a wicket. Australia didn't do as well in the third-ball department, only managing to have England on third-ball 5 times for one conversion |
