Oh, Lord's! It's Aus again!

In a replay of the World Cup final at the same ground two years ago, Australia comprehensively thrashed Pakistan in the final of the NatWest series at Lord’s. Australia bettered its margin of victory on that occasion by one wicket, defeating Pakistan by nine wickets with 23.3 overs remaining.

As an event it was a total mismatch but in a cricket context it was another awesome display of Australia’s one-day prowess, while also showing Pakistan at the other extreme.

The Australians love playing at Lord’s and produced a performance to match their enthusiasm for playing at the venue. They had a plan for Pakistan and executed it to perfection.

Just like the World Cup two years ago, the Aussies saved their most complete bowling performance for the biggest occasion. It was nothing particularly earth shattering, with no individual an outstanding contributor, but it was a high-quality display of one-day international cricket with a Test strength bowling attack.

The most impressive facet of Australia’s bowling was the immaculate execution of its gameplan, which was made evident in the team selection and subsequent tactics. Australia appears to have a belief that it can implode Pakistan by applying consistent bowling pressure. Give them nothing and they will self-destruct, the theory goes, and that was exactly what happened as Pakistan succumbed to the pressure of four specialist bowlers, which was the key component of the victory.

In previous matches in various one-day competitions, Australia has frequently selected only three specialist bowlers, plus Ian Harvey, and struggled to contain the opposition by having to squeeze 10 overs out of part-time bowlers, thus applying considerably more pressure to the batting. For the NatWest final, Australia finally remembered the composition of the attack that won it the World Cup and reverted to four specialist bowlers plus Harvey as a bowling all-rounder, instantly giving its attack a distinctly more menacing look.

It made an immeasurable difference, as not only did it free the main bowlers from the responsibility of having to take wickets and keep the run rate down before the part-timers were introduced, it also denied Pakistan a pressure valve. Without having to introduce a Symonds or Martyn into the attack, there was no release of pressure, as McGrath was followed by Harvey who was followed by Lee and so on. It was unrelenting and with strength in bowling numbers, it made a huge difference.

Australia believed that scoreboard pressure induced by having a full attack to call upon would strain Pakistan to breaking point, and they were right. Pakistan’s batting cracked.

On a dry pitch that had been used previously, Pakistan won the toss and wisely elected to bat on what was a typical batting wicket. The initial overs of McGrath and Gillespie failed to reach heights of fast bowling supremacy, but against a potentially explosive opening pair they did enough to restrict Pakistan to around three runs per over and thus set the tone for the rest of the innings.

The total had been built to an unconvincing 28 when McGrath struck, dismissing Saleem Elahi for 10 with a perfectly pitched delivery outside off. Elahi had to come forward in defence, he played inside the line, and the ball came back fractionally off the pitch for the thin edge through to Gilchrist. Although McGrath and Gillespie lacked ideal accuracy, they had no appreciable swing or seam to utilise on a bright day so their efforts were better than what they appeared at first glance. Instead of the usual flurry of action, the first 15 overs saw the build up of pressure that was to ultimately destroy Pakistan.

Saeed Anwar’s first 20 runs were unimpressive, with a few edges and play-and-misses, but Pakistan’s chief strokemaker remained dangerous. Ian Harvey had replaced McGrath after six overs and was doing his job as the end of the fielding restrictions approached.

On the topic of field settings, Australia’s strategy was markedly different against Pakistan on a batsman’s pitch. Whereas they relentlessly attacked on a seamer against England, the theory against Pakistan was not to over-attack and risk Pakistan attaining a confident start, but to eliminate boundaries, restrict all scoring and force the naturally free-scoring batsmen into error. That is exactly what Harvey did against Anwar. Feeling the pressure of the low run rate, Anwar tried to hit the last ball of the first 15 overs over mid on but it was too short and he mistimed it badly, lobbing a catch to mid off from the leading edge. Anwar had picked the wrong ball to hit, falling for 27 to leave Pakistan 47/2 - Australia following their gameplan faithfully and beginning to see it pay dividends.

Yousuf Youhana, coming in at No. 3, had taken 15 balls to get off the mark and was typically edgy in his running between the wickets. In combination with Inzamam-ul-Haq, that was fatal. In the over prior to his dismissal, Youhana had attempted a non-existent run to mid off and was reprieved only by Steve Waugh’s throw. Next over he was not so fortunate.

Inzaman forced Harvey to point and took a few steps down the pitch before saying no, but by then the jumpy Youhana was too far gone. Forced to turn back, no-one was at the stumps and Ricky Ponting, swooping from backward point, had to hit the stumps and did so, brilliantly, running out Youhana for 11 to make it 60/3. If Pakistan were teetering then, Brett Lee pushed them over the edge in the same over, the 20th. Hitting his stride on the big occasion, Lee delivered one short of a length to Younis Khan who tried to work it to leg, was squared up by the pace, and consequently edged to slip. It was a dreadful shot while still on 0, as the coach would probably say he should have been playing straight.

With the run rate stagnating at three per over, Abdur Razzaq came out blazing but his attacking shots all found the fielders. With Harvey hitting a consistent line and length and no part-timer needing to be forced into service, Pakistan did not have a bowler to hit. The introduction of Shane Warne relieved the pressure, though, as he was comfortably Australia’s most expensive bowler and gave the attack-minded Razzaq some deliveries to pursue.

When Lee relieved Harvey, Pakistan threatened to reverse the momentum for the first time as catchers were pushed back and Razzaq began to dictate. But tragedy struck for Pakistan when the positive Razzaq was bounced out by Lee for 24. After throwing some of the pressure back on Australia, Razzaq received a short ball from Lee that was angled into his body, he mistimed the pull shot, and scooped the ball to mid wicket. Lee celebrated the crucial wicket accordingly, but he may as well also have been celebrating his own return to form, as his two wickets were also matched by control.

Warne was Australia’s least impressive bowler yet ironically claimed the most wickets. He captured his first when he had a stunned Inzimam trapped lbw for 23 stretching well forward to a straight ball. After having a similar appeal previously turned down, umpire Willey this time decided it was out. Although there was enough time after the ball pitched to determine it was straight, Inzimam had made such a massive stride forward that even a fractional deviation would have made it impossible to give out. Certainly Inzimam could not believe it, frozen to the crease for several moments before laboriously departing.

Pakistan were 110/7 when Azhar Mahmood fell all over a straight ball from Warne while trying to play it to leg, bowled for 1. A 41 run partnership between Rashid Latif and Wasim Akram followed, Pakistan’s highest of the innings, with Wasim batting in risky fashion and Latif frequently employing the fine sweep. Latif was eventually brought undone by the shot when bowled around his legs by the last ball of Warne’s spell. Pitching full and outside leg, Latif failed to cover the line in attempting another sweep and the ball turned back to bowl him.

Gillespie returned to the attack and dismissed Akram in his first over. The ball was angled across Akram, who defended with a diagonal bat and dragged it back onto his stumps. Harvey then finished the demolition in the 43rd over by having Waqar trapped on the crease by a looping slower ball for 0, leaving Pakistan all out for 152.

For Pakistan it was a repeat of their woeful batting in the World Cup final, while Australia had again produced its best cricket at the perfect time with a superb and disciplined team performance. Placed under concentrated pressure, Pakistan had been forced to react instead of control the tempo, causing their demise.

With 13 wickets in his past two matches, Pakistan captain Waqar Younis needed to produce another special display to inspire his side. Without early wickets Pakistan were doomed, but with no swing or seam on offer and openers Adam Gilchrist and Mark Waugh eschewing risks, it became apparent early that, like most finals in any sport, this was a disappointingly one-sided anti-climax.

Conscious that they could only be beaten by losing wickets, Waugh and Gilchrist adopted a professional attitude to ensure Australia were not placed under threat in the early overs. Wasim and Waqar were accurate but with the ball not doing anything in the air, the openers were largely untroubled. Waqar unsuccessfully campaigned to have the ball changed and after being twice picked off by Waugh when drifting down the leg side, replaced himself with Saqlain Mushtaq for the 12th over. Gilchrist was lucky that another top-edged sweep fell safely but for the most part sensibly refused to hand Pakistan an opening.

The bowlers had no margin for error, as Waugh and Gilchrist concentrated on capitalising on the bad balls when they lapsed into error in pursuit of wickets. Akram was economical but rarely as threatening as required while probing around off stump, eventually replaced by Razzaq. The longer the opening partnership lasted the more Pakistan began to fray at the edges. Australia reached 66/0 after 15 overs without purposefully attacking the bowling, but rather taking what they had been given.

Saqlain, asked to produce a miracle, did not offer enough flight to tempt Gilchrist down the pitch, generally bowling too short and flat and allowing him to defend with more certainty than he might otherwise have done. The partnership was broken at 78 only by a rare running mix-up between the pair that saw Waugh unfortunately depart for 36 through little fault of his own.

Waugh turned Saqlain to deep mid wicket and Gilchrist, seeking a third run, came a third of a way down the pitch and convinced Waugh he was running, until stopping short. Waugh turned back too late, his dive for the crease fractionally short as Latif collected Youhana’s throw and removed the bails.

Ricky Ponting resumed his battle with Saqlain, Gilchrist lashed a wayward Razzaq and before long it was all over. Gilchrist reached his third consecutive half-century, all of them on truer pitches while batting second, as he and Ponting expedited the end with a series of fine shots. Pakistan had to keep the field up and Gilchrist and Ponting drove right through it, the rout completed in 26.3 overs when Gilchrist steered a waist-high Mahmood full toss through slips for four.

The match had finished two hours of ahead of schedule with another triumph for Australia in the one-day arena, reinforcing their status as the world’s premiere one-day team. Like two years ago in the World Cup final, Pakistan had been out-thought and then comprehensively outplayed. Imagine if Australia selected five bowlers more often?

In the wider cricket world, however, this final may be forgotten in the aftermath of other events. Unfortunately - or perhaps, if it eventually proves the catalyst for improved player safety, it may one day be seen as fortunately - the NatWest series will be remembered for the appalling behaviour of a minority of Pakistan supporters.

After three pitch invasions during the preliminary games that again brought the issue of player protection to the forefront, the final at Lord’s had appeared free of spectator interference. This was quite possibly due to the greater security measures in place at Headquarters, as all horns and flags were banned, and searches of fans entering the ground were reportedly stricter. Naturally there was a ground invasion at the end, but everything had seemingly gone relatively smoothly until, incredibly, the presentations on the Lord’s pavilion.

Just as the Pakistanis had finished receiving their runners-up medals, a full can of beer was thrown from the crowd and struck Michael Bevan in the face. It could have hit anyone, and indeed may even have been aimed at a Pakistani player by a disenchanted fan. The Pakistani players could not believe the disgraceful act, which immediately prompted an Australian walk-out, ending the presentations.

Once again, at the end of series marred by crowd trouble, it is this incident that is likely to create headlines rather than the comprehensive Australian victory. How safe can players ever feel if they are under threat even while collecting the winners’ trophy on the Lord’s balcony?

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