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Australia 359 for 5 (Hayden 126, Martyn 67, Symonds 66) beat India 151 by 208 runsScorecard

In a performance which was, if anything, even more ruthless than the one they put up in the 2003 World Cup final, Australia crushed India by 208 runs, clinching the VB Series in style and proving, quite emphatically, that they remained by far the best one-day side in the world. In the process, they inflicted on India their second-worst ODI defeat (after the 245-run loss against Sri Lanka in Sharjah in 2000-01), and ensured that a series which had so many memorable moments for India ended in dismal fashion.The match ran almost exactly to the script that was written at Johannesburg almost a year ago. For Ricky Ponting, who smashed an unbeaten 140 in that match, read Matthew Hayden, who struck a beautifully paced 126 here. Damien Martyn played the ideal foil for the second time with a fluent 67.Andrew Symonds and Michael Clarke then gave a brutal exhibition of power-hitting in the slog overs, as 110 came off the last eight overs, lifting the total to 359, exactly as many as in the World Cup. The best India could have hoped for from there was to salvage a semblance of pride, but even that turned out to be too much to hope for as the top five were back in the hutch within the first 15 overs.The Indians were on the back foot right from the start, after Ponting won the toss and opted to bat on a shirtfront. Already handicapped by the absence of Anil Kumble and Ajit Agarkar, the Indian attack had little in their bowling armoury to challenge the might of the Australians, and showed all the fatigue of having spent three gruelling months on tour. By the time the slog overs approached, Sourav Ganguly, like in the World Cup final, could only watch helplessly and wait for the 50 overs to be bowled out.Adam Gilchrist and Hayden began in typically frenetic fashion, bringing up the fifty in the eighth over, as both Irfan Pathan and Lakshmipathy Balaji, in an attempt to cramp the batsmen for room, drifted on leg stump and were duly punished. India briefly mounted a comeback, getting rid of Gilchrist and Ponting in quick succession, but then came the 173-run second wicket stand which laid the perfect platform for the final assault.Hayden’s was a typically characteristic innings, punctuated by plenty of clunky blows at the start off the seamers – his fifty took just 37 balls – and then some meaty slog-sweeps and down-the-pitch hoicks off the spinners. Equally importantly, he nursed a circumspect Martyn back into form during the crucial middle overs, keeping the runs coming at a fair clip and allowing Martyn to find his groove by milking the attack for singles.

Realising that the pitch didn’t have much pace or bounce, Ganguly pressed the slower bowlers into service, and while that briefly reduced the run-glut briefly, regular service resumed as Hayden tonked a couple of sixes off Virender Sehwag and Murali Kartik, whose nightmare tour continued to get worse. Martyn gained in fluency too, reaching his fifty off 58 balls, and then unveiling some sumptuous square-drive and flicks.The third wicket partnership finally ended when Martyn holed out to Hemang Badani at midwicket off Pathan (230 for 3), and though Hayden went soon after, missing a too-ambitious reverse-sweep off Sachin Tendulkar (248 for 4), that proved to be a blessing for Australia, for it brought on stage Symonds and Clarke.Pulling and flicking the ball with awesome power, the pair put together a tremendous exhibition of power hitting. It wasn’t as if Ganguly didn’t try out different bowlers: Pathan, Tendulkar, Kartik, Nehra and Balaji all tried their luck, and they all disappeared for more than ten per over, as the pair added 99 in a mere 7.5 overs as the Indians became increasingly ragged in the field. Nehra finally landed a yorker on target to dismiss Symonds, but by then the demolition job had already been done to perfection.Thoroughly demoralised by the utter carnage in the afternoon, the Indians came out to bat knowing that the only question that remained was the margin of defeat. There were the odd sparks of defiance – Sehwag clipped the first ball of the innings, from Jason Gillespie, over fine leg for six, while Tendulkar played a couple of delightful flicks and punches off the back foot, but both were done the Gillespie-Lee combine – Lee, fielding at short fine leg, picked up a stunner when Sehwag attempted to hoick one to leg, and then picked up a more straightforward catch to get rid of Tendulkar.From there it went rapidly downhill for India, as 49 for 2 became 59 for 6 in the space of eight overs. VVS Laxman spooned a catch back to Lee, a dismissal which needed the third umpire to confirm it wasn’t a bump ball, Rahul Dravid was run out by Martyn’s direct hit for 0, ending a record 120-match run without a duck, Ganguly slapped a drive straight to point, and Yuvraj Singh nicked one to the keeper. The rest of the batsmen helped themselves to a few meaningless runs, but the contest was over well before Brad Williams got through Balaji’s defences to put an end to the Indian misery.

Singapore defeated Kuwait by six wickets to win the ACC Under-15 Elite Cup in Bhaktapur, Nepal. It was, however, a slightly hollow victory, as eight of the ten competing sides had earlier been disqualified for fielding over-age players, and so Singapore and Kuwait contested the final as they were the only teams remaining in the competition.The Asian Cricket Council had taken drastic action on Saturday and kicked out hosts and defending champions Nepal as well as Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Malaysia, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Thailand after its medical board reported that all the squads from those countries contained players over the stipulated age limit. Sunday’s semi-finals – Nepal v Singapore and Afghanistan v Hong Kong – were scrapped.”In instances where more than two players in each 14-man squad have been found to be over-aged, the teams have been disqualified from the competition,” an ACC media spokesman explained. He added that some teams contained as many as nine over-age players. “One hundred and forty radiology examinations have been conducted in Nepal since the team’s arrival with all the players from the ten participating teams,” he added.Ashraful Haq, the ACC’s chief executive, met team managers to explain the decision. “Our age-verification protocols have been tested and proven to work,” he said. “We stand by the results found. In the long-run, cricket in Asia will benefit. Results such as this should act an eye-opener to all our members.”The tournament had already got off to a bad start when UAE were sent home as their squad did not contain any UAE passport-holders.An ACC spokesman explained that age verification was not easy in some areas. “All countries were asked to provide the appropriate medical data on each of their players before the tournament started. They did not comply.”

Jacob Martin, the Baroda batsman who also played 10 ODIs for India, has informed his association that he is ending his 16-year first-class career.”Martin was selected to go with the Baroda team, which left here [Baroda] today for Hyderabad, for the Ranji Trophy Super League division tie from November 23-26, but withdrew from the trip last night saying he is retiring from cricket,” a spokesperson from the Baroda Cricket Association told PTI on Tuesday.Martin, 35, was a prolific batsman in the domestic circuit, scoring 8563 runs at 48.10 from 127 matches, with 23 centuries and 44 half-centuries. In the 1998-99 domestic season, Martin made over 1000 runs, a feat accomplished by only five players before him, and a couple after.The national selectors took note of his performances and drafted Martin into the national one-day squad for the three-match against West Indies in Canada. But Martin could not mirror his domestic success in ODIs. He scored 158 runs at an average of 22.57 from 10 games with a highest score of 39 against Pakistan in the Carlton and United tri-series in Australia. Martin scored 36 in his last ODI, but could not prevent India’s 70-run loss to Kenya in Port Elizabeth on October 17, 2001.Martin shifted allegiance to Railways in the 2002-03 domestic season before returning to represent Baroda for four more seasons.

Johan Botha, the South Africa offspinner, could return to international cricket soon, after his revised bowling action was examined by the ICC a fortnight ago. Russel Domingo, Botha’s coach of the domestic side Warriors, has expressed confidence that Botha’s amended action would be cleared by the ICC.”Some amendments were made and his new action has passed all the tests we have done so far,” Domingo was quoted as saying by News24. “Johan worked really hard during the winter and one can see he is hungry to start bowling. We are confident that he will be able to play a major role for us again.”Botha was called for throwing in his Test debut against Australia at Sydney in January this year, and was subsequently banned by the ICC after scientific tests in Perth proved that his action required remedial measures. Botha was assisted by Vincent Barnes, the assistant coach of the South African national team, Tim Noakes, the head of the Institute for Sports Science in Cape Town, and Shafiek Abrahams, the former South African spinner. The results of the test should be announced soon.

Western Australian medium pacers Damien Martyn and Kade Harvey have combined to lift their team to a two-run victory over Tasmania in a thrilling Mercantile Mutual Cup encounter between the teams here at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart today. It was a stunning triumph which not only capped another of the cliff-hanger finishes that have loomed large over this season’s competition but which also came after the home team had appeared to be well in command.More than anything else, this will be remembered as a day of heartbreak for the Tasmanians. Plagued by a poor history of results in one-day cricket, and a habit of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, they allowed both maladies to come back and curse them again. Through long periods of the match, they had seemingly held the upper hand; by its conclusion, though, success had escaped their clutches once more.”We should have won the game,” bemoaned home skipper Jamie Cox following the defeat. “They didn’t actually win the game; we lost it.””We had two blokes playing nicely. But for some reason, we didn’t keep our heads … which is really disappointing.”Having amassed what could be described as no more than a competitive score of 8/246 from their fifty overs (on a beautifully true pitch) and then watched as the Tasmanian batsmen made exemplary progress toward the target, the Warriors, by contrast, could barely believe their good fortune. With their opponents only four wickets down and requiring just twenty-six runs off the final six overs, the act of revival engineered by Martyn (2/12 off three overs) and Harvey (1/67 from ten) was little short of spectacular. They conjured a remarkable turnaround which saw Shaun Young (70) and Dene Hills (20) hit catches high into the leg side and permitted only a tentative twenty-three runs to be added to the total. The Western Australians’ jubilation by the end was about as palpable as the gravity of the Tasmanians’ stumble.”It was a bit tense, wasn’t it?” beamed Martyn after the match. “There wasn’t any plan, really; luck was on my side.””We know they’re young guys,” he said of the inexperienced pairing of Andrew Dykes (5* off ten deliveries) and Scott Kremerskothen (6* from eight balls) that was left to attempt to lift the Tigers to victory as the wheels rapidly began to come off around them.”It’s hard batting at the end anyway and once we got the two experienced guys (Young and Hills), we felt we were a real big chance,” opined the current international one-day player.Martyn’s two wickets and Harvey’s concession of six runs from his closing spell of two overs allowed them to walk away with most of the individual plaudits. But the visitors also owed an enormous debt of gratitude to youngster Simon Katich and the experienced duo of Tom Moody and Jo Angel.It had been Katich (73) and Moody (68) who had provided the batting impetus to an innings that had otherwise been devoid of momentum through the morning. Until finally the victim of a mistaken decision to attempt a fourth run from an off drive in the forty-sixth over, the left handed Katich continued a love affair with Bellerive that has seen him amass runs here voraciously over recent seasons. Particularly strong through the off side, his driving from the front foot was a feature.At the other end in their rapid-fire stand of 125 for the fifth wicket, Moody was also in sparkling form. He was more productive off the back foot than his partner but also played a number of crunching cover drives. Crucial in the final analysis was the duo’s capacity to capitalise on a bizarre decision from Cox to throw part-time spinner Hills the ball in the forty-fourth over. In such a tight match, the twenty-one runs that were smashed from Hills’ six deliveries of naked turn assumed critical importance.Around the dismissals of Adam Gilchrist (5), Ryan Campbell (13), Justin Langer (17) and Martyn (31) through the opening half of the morning session, the Tasmanians had in fact held a very firm upper hand initially. Leading an attack which rebounded strongly from the hammering that it received at the hands of New South Wales last week, Young (1/36 off ten overs) and teenage paceman Brett Geeves (1/23 off seven) stood out, but the Tigers’ general accuracy and control was impressive throughout the early stages.Although unable to make any more than one incision – the caught and bowled of Michael DiVenuto (13) – Angel (1/25 from ten overs) later produced his own brilliant spell of bowling, without which the Warriors would well and truly have been on their way to defeat. Relying on impeccable length, the veteran right hander conceded a mere nine runs from the opening seven overs of the afternoon at the River End. At a time when his teammates were being savaged by the likes of Young (70) and Cox (61), it was a performance which did enough to keep the Western Australians in with a glimmer of a chance. And in the end, the lifeline that he had thus thrown his team proved decisive.

All Today’s Yesterdays – August 6 down the yearsAugust 5| August 71998
Lucky numbers for Mark Butcher, who scored his maiden Test hundred in his 13th Test, against South Africa at Headingley. It was a vital contribution: England won by only 23 runs to take the series 2-1.1997
Sanath Jayasuriya’s date with destiny. He woke on 326 not out, within 50 of the highest score in Test history, against India in Colombo. But Jayasuriya added only 14 before he fell to Rajesh Chauhan for 340. There were a few other records though: Sri Lanka stormed to 952 for 6 – the highest score in Test history – and Jayasuriya and Roshan Mahanama batted throughout two full day’s play. In all they added 576, a record for any Test wicket. Pity poor Indian spinner Nilesh Kulkarni. He nabbed Marvan Atapattu with his first ball in Test cricket – and ended with figures of 70-12-195-1.1999
The day Peter Such got a standing ovation – for a duck. Such had survived 51 balls and 72 minutes against New Zealand at Old Trafford – and helped Mark Ramprakash add 31 – but his reception summed up the desperate, almost blackly comic, mood of English cricket. Rarely has it got any lower than this. England didn’t lose this Test, but their first-innings 199 came off a buttock-clenching 109.1 overs, and then New Zealand took 496 pieces of candy off a desperate England attack. Rain gave England a reprieve … but only for two weeks. Thirteen days later, at a dark, dank Oval, England lost the match, the series – and became the worst team in the world according to the Wisden World Championship table.1953
Slow left-armer Iqbal Qasim was born. Often partnered by Abdul Qadir, he took 171 wickets in 50 Tests for Pakistan and his 7 for 49 against Australia in 1979-80 is in the Wisden 100.1994
In a drawn match at Headingley, South Africa’s Peter Kirsten scored his only Test century at the age of 39. His half-brother Gary Kirsten was also in the team. The next Test at The Oval, which England won to square the series, was Peter’s last.1985
A captain’s innings of 146 not out by Allan Border saved Australia from defeat at Old Trafford after England had led by 225 on first innings.1966
Opening batsman Peter Lashley took the ball and dismissed Geoff Boycott with his third delivery in Test cricket, the only wicket he took for West Indies, whose win at Headingley sealed the series.1933
Birth of Indian batsman Kripal Singh, who scored 100 not out in his debut Test innings, against New Zealand in 1955-56, but managed only another 322 runs in the rest of his 14-Test career.Other birthdays
1911 Norman Gordon (South Africa)
1947 Tony Dell (Australia)
1965 Vince Wells (England)
1969 Simon Doull (New Zealand)
1971 Piyal Wijetunge (Sri Lanka)

Mumbai’s Brabourne Stadium will not be hosting any of the matches of the Indian Premier League after the league and Reliance Industries, owners of the city franchise, found unacceptable the conditions imposed by the Cricket Club of India (CCI), to whom the stadium belongs.The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) had enquired whether the CCI could stage matches at the Brabourne; the CCI’s executive committee decided to offer the ground but not the clubhouse and the club members’ children’s enclosure.These conditions were unacceptable to both the IPL and Reliance Industries Limited, the owners of the Mumbai franchise, since the agreement between the franchise and the IPL states that 80% of all categories of seating must be available to the franchise, and the remaining 20% to the concerned local association, in this case MCA, the BCCI, and the IPL.”If the [club] members are not able to watch the match, we won’t have it. It’s an inherent right of the CCI member to watch the match and not pay for it and this is mentioned in the by-laws of the club,” Raj Singh Dungarpur, the CCI president and former BCCI president, said. Hosting future international matches, he said, would not, however, be an issue.”There is no confrontation between us, our issue is that just the staging authority wouldn’t be able to watch the match and that’s not right. There is no misunderstanding and we will continue to host matches for the board [BCCI].”The move puts the MCA in a quandary, since the local associations are responsible for finalising the stadiums for the eight city-based franchises of the IPL. Mumbai is slated to host a total of ten matches, including the seven home games of the Mumbai Indians, and more importantly the semi-finals and final of the inaugural edition. The Brabourne Stadium had been tipped to host the semi-finals and final.However, with it being ruled out, the options left are the DY Patil Stadium and the Wankhede Stadium; renovation work scheduled for the latter may now have to be postponed till the end of the IPL.

The Sri Lankan board plans to erect permanent floodlights at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium in time for England’s arrival in November.A dry-zone region located 87 miles north of Colombo, Dambulla will become only the second venue in Sri Lanka to have permanent floodlights. This means that all three one-day internationals on England’s tour of Sri Lanka will now be day-night matches. Dambulla will host the first match, while the last two games will be played at the Premadasa International Stadium in Colombo.The BCCSL hopes that the floodlights, which will cost approximately US$250,000, will allow Sri Lanka to host more ODIs. They will also increase the value of television rights because of better viewing times in England.The bill for the new lights will be paid for after an agreement with CricketAustralia, under which Australia will play two extra ODIs when they tour Sri Lanka in February-March 2004. They will now play a five-match series.

Martin Snedden is moving from the decision-making bunker out into the front lines – he will be going to Pakistan with the New Zealand team next week. Snedden, who has been easily the most beleaguered cricket administrator in New Zealand’s history, had always intended to be in Pakistan for the last two matches.He has faced a string of unusual situations that many sports administrators would never face in a career. These include not only the international disasters which have affected tours, but also domestic problems, most notably last summer’s players’ strike.Snedden, who was on the scene as a player when New Zealand first experienced frustrations to tours caused by bombs, in Sri Lanka in 1987, is taking a “see-it-for-yourself” stance by opting to travel with the team when it returns to Pakistan next week.He met with the team’s officials in Auckland today after their return from India and discussed the prospect of John Bracewell, New Zealand’s coach, also returning to Pakistan with the team.

Injury-hit and inexperienced, the USA may not be thanking the International Cricket Council for the charming experience they have had at the Champions Trophy. New Zealand may have flattened them, but at least that occasion bore some passing resemblance to a cricket match.This, on the other hand, was something else entirely. Australia, ruthless as ever, stuck USA in on a damp pitch under cloudy skies with a stiff Southampton breeze blowing across the Rose Bowl. Rohan Alexander and Mark Johnson walked out to ironic cheers from a crowd of a couple of hundred. Then and there, they had no chance whatsoever.But there was one team at the ground that could have given the Aussies a decent run for their money. All you needed to do is nip up to the commentary box, and you could have put together a team on which you could wager the odd pound. An early bird into the commentary boxes was Nasser Hussain, and he’d get onto the list just for the manner in which he got up Australian noses for his entire career. Once Nasser had picked up his coffee and settled in to work, the others began to trickle in.Ian Chappell arrived soon after, and you can pencil him in to your teamsheet. For orthodoxy and some limpet-like batting in tough conditions, there was Sanjay Manjrekar. India had a second representative in Arun Lal, and his opening partner would have to be the irrepressible Michael Slater.For sheer elegance and batting excellence Greg Chappell joins his brother in the team. The media squad on the day was Australia-heavy, but then again who better to dish it out to the Aussies than a few of their own. Dean Jones, that old master of the shorter game, shoehorns into a packed top order. Sri Lanka’s Ranjit Fernando, safe yet unspectacular, has to keep wicket.The problem for this broadcasters’ XI is the bowling department. Whispering Death himself, Michael Holding, leads it magnificently, but there isn’t any back-up. This would force the team to dip into the press box and persuade Angus Fraser to start that seemingly endless uphill trudge one more time. While we’re sneaking bowlers into the side we’ll have to drag in Ravi Shastri for his left-arm spin, though he had just left the Rose Bowl to do another game elsewhere.Ian Chappell wins the captaincy, ahead of his brother, mostly on his ability to spin a yarn and slug a beer or five. And that is just what Richard Staple and his team needed soon after they were blown to smithereens by Australia. Brett Lee gave them a vigorous shake at the top of the innings and Michael Kasprowicz, whose international career was as good as over not a year ago, tucked in. Kasprowicz bagged 4 for 14 – including a scything period in the middle overs when he snagged four wickets in just 15 balls – and sent America crashing to 65 all out, a total that was padded generously by 14 extras. Steve Massiah made 23, including a pull and a pleasing on-drive, but none of his colleagues reached double figures.The Australian batting, aka Murder Part 2, was a joyous romp, and the game was done and dusted before it was time for lunch. Australia knocked off the runs in under eight overs, for the loss of one wicket. As one fan put it: “Twenty20 matches last longer than this.” And they’re easier on the eye, for no cricket fan likes to see a group of players outclassed in such embarrassing fashion.Broadcasters’ XI
1 Michael Slater, 2 Arun Lal, 3 Greg Chappell, 4 Ian Chappell (capt), 5 Dean Jones, 6 Sanjay Manjrekar, 7 Nasser Hussain, 8 Ravi Shastri, 9 Ranjit Fernando (wk), 10 Michael Holding, 11 Angus Fraser.