victorious Vettori eyes bigger spoils

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MORE SPOILS: Captain Daniel Vettori is confident he has the New Zealand cricket team to be serious Champions Trophy contenders in September - assuming they're not ravaged by player boycotts.

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Captain Daniel Vettori is confident he has the New Zealand cricket team to be serious Champions Trophy contenders in September - assuming they're not ravaged by player boycotts.

Fresh from their 3-1 one-day series win over England, the tourists head home on Friday after a two-match cricketing public relations trip to Aberdeen to play Scotland and Ireland, with Pakistan looming as their next serious challenge.

That's assuming they get there, with security fears over the volatile nation set to dominate cricketing discussions in coming weeks, and Sri Lanka and South Africa on standby as backup venues.

New Zealand Cricket (NZC) chief executive Justin Vaughan admitted last week that "a fair number" of players had expressed concerns to him about visiting Pakistan for three one-dayers in August and the subsequent Champions Trophy.

New Zealand Cricket Players' Association head Heath Mills went a step further yesterday.

"I have no doubt that if the tournament takes place in Pakistan a number of players will pull out. That includes New Zealanders," Mills told the Herald on Sunday.

Vaughan and the players are awaiting security reports on Pakistan from the International Cricket Council (ICC), being tabled at the current executive meeting in Dubai.

He urged New Zealand players not to make hasty decisions on their availability until the reports were seen.

Safety concerns aside, Vettori felt after his side's 51-run win victory over England at Lord's marked them as worthy No 3 side in the world on official ICC rankings.

With big-hitting opener Jesse Ryder and allrounder James Franklin still to return from injury, and Chris Martin still seen as an ODI option, Vettori felt they could make a splash at full strength.

"It's a good one-day team, we cover most of the bases with what you need in a one-day set-up; we've got some good hitters, good bowlers and we're a good fielding side on our day," Vettori said.

"We've got the makings of a team that can compete at the Champions Trophy. Now it's about time we go away trying to win these tournaments as opposed to just maintaining that third ranking."

New Zealand have their names on the Champions Trophy, their only major tournament victory when Stephen Fleming's side won it in Nairobi in 2000.

Vettori said world champions Australia were always the obvious favourites but the retirements of Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist and key spinner Brad Hogg had helped their opponents.

"Hopefully they come back to the pack but Australia always seem to have a knack of lifting for those big tournaments.

South Africa: the world's best ODI team

Durban: Cricket South Africa today lauded the national team for their win against Australia in the fourth ODI at Port Elizabeth, which have them an unbeatable 3-1 lead in the five-match series.

CSA CEO Gerald Majola said in a statement the victory confirmed the Proteas status as the world's best ODI team.

"Although it is now a dead rubber, the Proteas will be going all-out to stretch their lead in the world log even further with victory in the final match on Friday at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg," he said.

"The win is a personal milestone for century-maker Herschelle Gibbs, who has overcome several recent set-backs to reach the top again and to justify CSA s faith in him. It is also wonderful to welcome newcomers Wayne Parnell and Roelof van der Merwe into the Proteas ranks".

CSA would also like to thank and congratulate Graeme Smith and Johan Botha for their leadership and performances which have seen the Proteas beat Australia both at home and away to take top world ODI honours.

They were backed by a committed management team under Mickey Arthur, who has grown extraod inarily in stature as national coach. "The Proteas supporters, sponsors and suppliers have also been superb and the players have responded with unprecedented performances that have enhanced both their sport and their nation," said Majola. PTI

Australian blitz shatters Indian dream

Johannesburg, March 23
India’s World Cup dreams were shattered by a savage batting assault from holders Australia who reaffirmed their status as the best one-day side with a comprehensive victory in the final here today for a record third title.

Ricky Ponting led his side to a 125-run victory with a blazing captain’s knock of 140 not out that propelled Australia to its biggest-ever one-day score, a virtually unassailable total of 359 for two, also the highest in any World Cup final.

The 1983 champions India, handicapped with the first-over dismissal of Sachin Tendulkar, fought hard till the 40th over but managed only 234 runs. Virender Sehwag kept India in the hunt for some time with a sparkling innings of 82 but the target proved too much.

The Indian pace attack, which had been highly impressive in this tournament, let the team down in the most important match after Saurav Ganguly had elected to field on a pitch that offered substantial help to the seamers.

The trio of Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra, who have a combined tally of 49 wickets in this tournament, were together plundered for 211 runs from 27 overs without any success.

Apart from Ponting, who smashed eight sixes and four fours in his 121-ball knock, Damien Martyn and Adam Gilchrist also helped themselves to fine half-centuries. Martyn, who was associated in a record 234-run unbeaten partnership with Ponting, made 88 not out while Gilchrist scored 57 from just 48 balls.

Matthew Hayden, who made 37, was the only batsman not to have registered a half-century in Australia’s run-feast which saw the team emulating the West Indies in winning back-to-back World Cup titles.

Australia remained unbeaten in this tournament, an unprecedented achievement, and extended their one-day winning streak to 17. Faced with a target that has never been chased before, the Indians were under pressure right from the start. Their biggest shock came in the fifth ball of the first over when Tendulkar, who had amassed 669 runs in this tournament from 10 previous innings, was dismissed by Glenn McGrath for just four runs.

Tendulkar, who struck a boundary in the fourth ball of the over, miscued a pull shot in the next delivery to give a simple return catch to McGrath, who finished with three wickets for 52 runs.

Sehwag and Saurav Ganguly lived on the edges in a 54-run partnership for the second wicket with India, who had successfully chased two 320-plus totals last year, looking totally helpless by the enormity of the task.

Both of them survived some close calls, with Sehwag even being caught off a no-ball, but continued with their policy of attacking the opening bowlers, McGrath and Brett Lee. Ganguly hit three fours and a six in his 25-ball 24 before skying a Brett Lee delivery to Darren Lehmann at mid-on. A third-ball dismissal of NatWest final hero Mohammad Kaif, who failed to score, reduced India to 59 for three in the 11th over.

Sehwag, who struck 10 fours and three sixes in his 81-ball innings, kept India’s slim hopes alive with some big hitting when the Australians, sensing rain, introduced Bradd Hogg and Darren Lehmann in a bid to quickly complete 25 overs, the minimum required for a valid match.

Rain did interrupt the proceedings with India placed on 103 for three in 17 overs but only for 23 minutes as sun came out again much to the disappointment of the partisan Indian crowd at the stadium which was frantically hoping that rains would wash out today’s play forcing the match to be played all over again on the reserve day tomorrow.

But that was not to be and play resumed without any reduction in the number of overs. Sehwag and Rahul Dravid, who made 47, put together a 88-run partnership for the fifth wicket in 13 overs before Sehwag was run out while going for a quick single.

The dismissal of Sehwag also dashed India’s hopes as a defeat became inevitable. PTI

SCOREBOARD

Australia:

Gilchrist c Sehwag b Harbhajan 57

Hayden c Dravid b Harbhajan 37

R. Ponting not out 140

D. Martyn not out 88

Extras: 37

Total: (2 wkts, 50 overs) 359

FoW: 1-105, 2-125.

Bowling: Zaheer Khan 7-0-67-0, Srinath 10-0-87-0, Nehra 10-0-57-0, Harbhajan Singh 8-0-49-2, Sehwag 3-0-14-0, Tendulkar 3-0-20-0, Mongia 7-0-39-0, Yuvraj Singh 2-0-12-0.

India:

Tendulkar c and b McGrath 4

Sehwag run out 82

Ganguly c Lehmann b Lee 24

Kaif c Gilchrist b McGrath 0

Dravid b Bichel 47

Yuvraj c Lee b Hogg 24

Mongia c Martyn b Symonds 12

Harbhajan c McGrath b Symonds 7

Zaheer c Lehmann b McGrath 4

Srinath b Lee 1

Nehra not out 8

Extras: 21

Total: (all out, 39.2 overs) 234

FoW: 1-4, 2-58, 3-59, 4-147, 5-187, 6-208, 7-209, 8-223, 9-226.

Bowling: McGrath 8.2-0-52-3, Lee 7-1-31-2, Hogg 10-0-61-1, Lehmann 2-0-18-0, Bichel 10-0-57-1, Symonds 2-0-7-2.

Fantastic spinner .Muttiah Muralitharan

.Muttiah Muralitharan, after a fantastic display in the second Test against South Africa in Colombo, managed four consecutive ten-wicket hauls for the second time in his career. No other bowler has done it even once. Is he the greatest spinner of all time? In the June issue of Cricinfo Magazine, Mukul Kesavan investigated.

Normal people don't think about sportsmen, they watch them. The thinking comes later, it's a second-order pleasure. There are those of us who add Virender Sehwag's latest score to his aggregate and divide by the number of innings played (minus the not-outs) to work out how many decimal points his career average has risen, but we do this in secret because we know that it is, like picking one's nose, a furtive pleasure that not everyone is likely to understand. To understand Muttiah Muralitharan, to appreciate what he means to cricket, we should begin, not with his statistics, but his Presence.

The difference between the great and the very good is that the great ones have an aura. Sometimes, first-rate players are undervalued because they lack that je ne sais quoi. Among batsmen, Ken Barrington, Dilip Vengsarkar, Andy Flower, Jacques Kallis, even Rahul Dravid, come to mind as extraordinary players who aren't given their due because of a certain anonymity, whereas Viv Richards, Sunil Gavaskar, Javed Miandad, Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar, Sehwag, even Mahendra Singh Dhoni, walk the field swaddled in an aura that magnifies them and their doings. Among contemporary bowlers, Anil Kumble suffers most in this area, forever typed as a dogged striver, a wonderful senior pro, but not a Master of the Universe, whereas Imran Khan's cricketing record is lacquered into immortality by his charisma. Glenn McGrath, without question the most dangerous bowler of the modern era, doesn't get his due because his sour glower - either natural or cultivated - and the mean parsimony of his manner make him hard to like or even admire.

Murali lucked out in the business of Presence. He is naturally theatrical, a television camera's delight. That bobbing run-up, the whiplash speed of his arm action, the helicopter wrist, the eyes huge with effort at the point of release, the conspiratorial smile at his team-mates as he returns to his bowling mark, the radiant joy in playing and competing, reach out to the spectator and draw him in. Murali lacks Shane Warne's confidence that every ball bowled might have taken a wicket but for the obtuseness of umpires, or the fiendish luck of batsmen; nor does his body language assert, as Warne's does, that he has an answer to every problem. Sri Lanka have lost too many matches, and Murali lived through too many ambushes, for that kind of swagger. To the spectator, Warne's minimalist, impassive walk-up implies magic; Murali's animation suggestsel ectricity.

Sachin Tendulkar best century breaker

The Master Sachin Breaks the record of another master Brian Charles Lara on October 17th in a test match at Mohali against Australia making 88.Conicdentely it was Anil Kumble 's Birthday and the man with him at non striker end was Sourav Ganguly who was also with him when he break record of most test centuries.Sourav Ganguly was batting on 39 at the other end after playing the supporting role to Tendulkar to perfection when Sachin broke Sunil Gavaskar record of 34 test centuries.His father Ramesh Tendulkar, a Marathi novelist named him after his favorite music director Sachin Dev Burman. He was encouraged to play cricket by his elder brother, Ajit Tendulkar. He has 2 more siblings - brother Nitin Tendulkar and sister Savitai Tendulkar. Nitin's son Rohan Tendulkar born in 1990 is also a cricketer and represents Mumbai in junior cricket tournaments