COLOMBO (Reuters) – Australia’s 34-match unbeaten run in the Cricket World Cup dating back to 1999 was finally broken by Pakistan yesterday 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 raised hopes of an Australian 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.
“We certainly had a tough game today. We didn’t do ourselves any favours. I thought our batting effort was particularly ordinary,” said Ponting, who suffered his first World Cup defeat as captain. “We stuck at it really well with the ball. I thought the guys bowled really well and gave ourselves a bit of a sniff when we got them six down but not enough runs on the board.”
Yesterday’s result threw the tournament wide open as there is no undefeated team left in the competition heading into next week’s knockout stages.
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.
“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,” Umar Akmal said after finishing unbeaten on 44.
Ponting’s men struggled for momentum through out their innings after opting to bat first.
Pakistan’s pace and spin attack, backed up by sharp fielding, never allowed the Australian 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 Australian 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 Australian 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 nine and returned to clean up the tail by taking the wickets of Jason Krezja and Lee.
Fall of wickets: 1-12 2-45 3-98 4-98 5-139 6-142
Bowling: Lee 8-1-28-4, Tait 8-1-37-0 (3w), Johnson 9-1-40-1 (1w), Watson 6-0-26-0, Krejza 10-0-44-1
