BOMBAY, 19 October 2006 — West Indies’ fast bowler Jerome Taylor recorded a hat trick yesterday to take defending champions West Indies to a thrilling 10-run win over Australia in their Champions Trophy Group A match.
Taylor bowled Michael Hussey for 13 and Brett Lee for a duck off consecutive balls as the world champions, needing 21 off 13 balls to overhaul West Indies’ 234 for six, crumbled under pressure.
With the first ball of the following over, Taylor bowled Brad Hogg for 10. At the end of their 50 overs Australia were 224 for nine with Taylor taking four for 49.
Adam Gilchrist led Australia’s challenge with a measured 92 before he was run out.
West Indies owed their challenging total to Runako Morton (90 not out) and captain Brian Lara (71). Gilchrist and Michael Clarke shared in a 101-run stand for the fifth wicket after Australia had slumped to 81-4 in 20 overs.
But vice-captain Gilchrist’s dismissal, run out while aiming for a quick single with the side needing 53 off 50 deliveries, was a severe blow. It also saw West Indies slowly regain control in the tension-filled final overs.
Paceman Dwayne Bravo, reintroduced into the attack, dismissed Michael Clarke caught and bowled for 47, deceiving him with a slower one.West Indies were led by vice-captain Ramnaresh Sarwan in the absence of Lara who did not take the field after suffering cramps while batting.
They were without strike bowler Corey Collymore, who returned home during the weekend to be with his wife for the birth of their first child, and Fidel Edwards, who sat out of the match due to a leg injury.
Injury-hit West Indies called on Bombay cricketer Vinayak Samant to field as 12th man.
The West Indies had slumped to 63 for four before 28-year-old Morton, playing instead of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, and Lara hauled the side back into the match with a 137-run stand for the fifth wicket after opting to bat in the day-night match. The wickets were shared by the Australian attack as Wavell Hinds, Chris Gayle, Dwayne Smith and Ramnaresh Sarwan fell in quick succession. The 37-year-old Lara, batting at No. 6, took 31 balls to score his first boundary before opening up with a series of breathtaking strokes.
Lara clubbed seven fours and two sixes en route to his 61st one-day fifty.
Morton had a reprieve on 41, dropped by skipper Ricky Ponting at mid-off when he gave Nathan Bracken the charge. The tall right-hander collected seven fours and a six as he compiled his fifth one-day half-century.
Pakistan Appoint Intikhab,
Lawyer for Drug Inquiry
In Karachi, former Test captain Intikhab Alam and lawyer Shahid Hamid have been appointed by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to a tribunal for strike bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif after their positive tests for the steroid nandrolone.
“We will also name a specialist doctor on the committee which will decide the case and give its recommendations in two weeks’ time,” PCB Chairman Naseem Ashraf told reporters yesterday.
Hamid represented former Pakistan captain Salim Malik on match-fixing charges.
Shoaib and Asif, who were sent home from the Champions Trophy in India on Monday, could be banned for two years if their B samples are also positive.
