SYDNEY, 7 February 2005 — Glenn McGrath demolished Pakistan’s batsmen to steer Australia to a 31-run win in the second one-day final at the Sydney Cricket Ground yesterday and clinch the best-of-three series 2-0.
McGrath ripped through the Pakistan top-order then mopped up the tail to finish with figures of five for 27 as the tourists collapsed to be all out for 208 in the 46th over.
“We haven’t played anywhere near our best but we’ve still managed to win thanks to some outstanding bowling from our fast bowlers in particular,” Australia captain Ricky Ponting told a news conference.
“We’ve been in hard, tough fights and we’ve managed to scrape through without being at our best — that’s the sign of a very, good side.”
Needing to win the match to force a series decider after their 18-run loss in Melbourne on Friday, the Pakistanis bowled and fielded tightly to restrict Australia to 239 for nine before their batting let them down again.
“I think we bowled very well in the last two games but we didn’t take our opportunities,” Pakistan skipper Inzamam ul-Haq said.
“The Australian tour is always very tough, they play their cricket hard. We didn’t play well in the tests but we were better in the one-dayers so hopefully our guys will have learnt a lot from this.”
Pakistan made a bright start to their reply, surviving the first eight overs without loss when the wheels suddenly fell off.
Opener Taufeeq Umar skied a catch off man of the series Brett Lee to McGrath in the outfield then McGrath, named man of the match, made more inroads with the ball.
The lanky paceman, playing in his 201st One-Day International, had Kamran Akmal caught behind for 12 and Mohammad Hafeez caught by Michael Clarke for six. He then trapped Inzamam leg before wicket for a duck.
The tourists were in deep trouble at 38-4 and although Yousuf Youhana hit a defiant 51 off 57 balls, Abdul Razzaq chipped in with 43 and Shahid Afridi made 31, Australia comfortably won the match.
McGrath was reintroduced to the attack with eight wickets down and quickly finished off Razzaq and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan to claim his seventh five-wicket haul in limited-overs internationals.
Australia had made a flying start with Adam Gilchrist (40) and Clarke (38) blasting 55 runs off the first nine overs for the opening wicket. Captain Ricky Ponting made a brisk 41 and Damien Martyn top scored with 43 before the middle-order collapsed.
Darren Lehmann was bowled by Afridi for six, Simon Katich was run out for five after a terrible mix-up with Martyn, all rounder Shane Watson was caught in the deep for 21 off a full toss from Rao Iftikhar Anjum and Brad Hogg was clean bowled by Naved-ul-Hasan for 13. Naved-ul-Hasan also bowled Jason Gillespie for a golden duck and was unlucky not to claim a hat-trick when his first ball to McGrath clipped the inside edge and raced to the boundary, giving the Australian his 100th one-day run after 12 years of international cricket.
Afridi and Razzaq also captured two wickets apiece but Razzaq was banned by umpire Rudi Koertzen from completing his final over after bowling two beam balls at Lee.
The first struck Lee on the backside and the second would have hit him high on the shoulder had he not fallen to the pitch. Razzaq apologized to Lee but Azhar Mahmood was told to finish his over.
