LONDON, 17 September 2004 — Andrew Symonds blasted a quickfire 71 not out as Australia beat New Zealand by seven wickets in the ICC Champions Trophy here at the Oval yesterday.
The win puts Australia into Tuesday’s semifinals of the only major competition in world cricket to have eluded them so far where they will play either old enemy England or Sri Lanka who meet in Southampton today.
Symonds hit four sixes and seven fours in a brutal display of hitting and Damien Martyn added 60 not out. The pair put on 100 for the fourth wicket to chase down the New Zealanders total of 198-9 with 12.4 overs to spare.
Symonds came in with Australia 99-3 and immediately took the game away from the underdogs bringing up his half-century from 40 balls whilst Martyn was slightly more circumspect reaching his fifty from 63 balls with eight boundaries.
But the foundations of the victory were laid by the Australian bowlers with Glenn McGrath and Michael Kasprowicz outstanding, picking up 3-39 and 3-32 respectively.
The Australian chase got off to a rocky start when Adam Gilchrist played no shot to Jacob Oram in the first over and saw his off-stump pegged back but captain Ricky Ponting and Matthew Hayden steadied the ship with a stand of 45 for the second wicket before Scott Styris got one through the skipper’s defenses.
Hayden holed out for 47 after hitting a few muscular blows on his 100th One-Day appearance, but Martyn and Symonds took over to lead their side to a comfortable win.
New Zealand did well to reach 198 having been 89-7 at one stage and although the Australians bowled well the New Zealanders contributed to their own downfall particularly in the farcical run-out of Craig McMillan.
However Chris Harris, Daniel Vettori and Brendon McCullum dug them out of a hole and gave them a total that although below par at least prevented this ninth match of the tournament from following the trend of the previous eight and being a total mismatch.
Harris was eighth man out for 26 when he was superbly caught and bowled by Darren Lehmann but Vettori and McCullum managed to eke out a partnership of 68 for the ninth wicket and at least ensure New Zealand batted out their allotment of 50 overs. Vettori made 29 not out whilst keeper McCullum’s contribution was 47 made from 69 balls with four fours.
McGrath, took some punishment in his first four overs when he was hit for five boundaries but rallied to pluck out Nathan Astle (18) and Hamish Marshall for a second ball duck, both leg before. Styris followed, a victim of a lame steer to gully, before Kasprowicz got in on the act with three wickets of his own.
He got rid of skipper Stephen Fleming for 29, Jacob Oram and veteran Chris Cairns first ball as well as being involved in the dismissal of McMillan. McMillan had made 18 when he and Harris got involved in a terrible mix-up which ended with McMillan being run out when he was left stranded in the middle of the pitch when Kasprovicz broke the wicket from Andrew Symonds’ throw.
Kasprowicz also took a superb catch diving forward in the deep to get rid of top scorer McCullum.
TV Row Threatens Australia Tests, Warns BCCI
India’s cricket chiefs held an emergency meeting yesterday amid fears next month’s home series against world champions Australia could be canceled if a television rights imbroglio was not resolved.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India, which met in Calcutta, debated a court order that prevented it from seeking fresh bids for rights to the series until the legal dispute between rival networks, Zee and ESPN-Star Sports, was settled.
ESPN-Star, a joint venture between Disney’s ESPN and Rupert Murdoch’s Star TV networks, has challenged the BCCI’s decision to award the broadcasting rights for all international cricket played in the country for the next four years to Zee for $308 million.
ESPN-Star contended in the Bombay High Court that Zee, India’s largest listed media company, did not fulfill a requirement to have two years’ experience of telecasting international cricket matches.
