Windies upset world champions Australia in thrilling match

MUMBAI, Oct 18: Speedster Jerome Taylor produced a match-winning hattrick as West Indies sprung a major surprise by upsetting world champions Australia with a nerve-wracking 10-run victory in a thrilling Champions Trophy Group-A league match here tonight.

Chasing a target of 235, the Australians were cruising to victory before Taylor completely changed the complexion of the game with his late burst to trip the world champions in the fag end of a pulsating floodlit contest at the Brabourne stadium.

The 22-year-old fast bowler scalped Michael Clark, Michael Hussey and Brad Hogg off three successive balls to not only become the first West Indian to claim a hattrick in one-dayers but turn the game on its head in the tense final overs.

It was a remarkable performance by the title holders who stopped the Australians at 224 for nine through a spirited bowling display after an unbeaten 90 by Runako Morton and a composed 71 by captain Brian Lara helped them post a competitive 234 for six.

With most of their recognised batsmen back in the pavillion, the Aussie tailenders found it hard to score the required runs on the slow track.

Taylor’s heroics offset the good work done by Adam Gilchrist who curbed his natural strokeplay to play a reponsible knock of 92 which took his team close to the winning target but his departure opened up the floodgates.

The 35-year-old Gilchrist displayed remarkable temparament as he played an unsually subdued innings which contained 11 boundaries and came off 120 balls.

The Aussies were reeling at 81 for four at one stage before the flamboyant wicket-keeper batsman began salvaging the situation without taking too many ricks.

Gilchrist found an able ally in Michael Clark (47) as the duo put on 101 runs for the fifth wicket to very nearly take the game away from the Carribeans who seemed to run out of steam and ideas once both the batsmen had settled down.

The run out of Gilchrist turned out to be the turning point as none of the other Australian batsmen could hang around for long which resulted in the asking rate climbing steadily.

The Aussies, who have never won the Champions Trophy yet, were made to work hard for the runs on a track which was not too conducive for strokeplay but was definitely better than the pitches where the first two low-scoring matches were played.

Required to score at a rate of 4.7 at the start of the innings, the world champions got off to a disastrous start as they lost Shane Watson (0) and captain Ricky Ponting (1) cheaply to be reduced to 17 for two by the fifth over.

Damien Martyn (17) looked quite comfortable in the middle but he perished to Ian Bradshaw while Andrew Symonds (18) could not last for long too.

Earlier, electing to bat, the West Indies recovered from a top order collapse through a defiant partnership by Morton and captain Lara.

The 28-year-old Morton hit 7 fours and a six in his 103-ball knock and added 137 runs with lara (94b, 7x4, 2x6) to pull their side from a precarious 63 for 4 .

Creditably for West Indies, the title holders, they scored the highest total at this venue so far in three matches, overhauling New Zealand’s 195 all out against South Africa two days ago.

The Morton-Lara partnership came as a shot in the arm for the West Indies after another poor top-order batting display, this time on a pitch that had no devil in it in the first half of the match, threatened to derail their innings for the second match running.

West Indies, who were shot out for a paltry 80 by Sri Lanka at this very venue last week, were down in the dumps once again after opting to bat first against some disciplined Australian bowling display.

The pitch one of the three that had not been used so far - was not a batsman’s paradise, with a few balls behaving abnormally after pitching, but was also not unplayable.

The absence of senior player Shivnarine Chanderpaul, suffering from food poisoning, gave a golden chance to Wavell Hinds to go up the order and launch the innings with his earlier regular partner Chris Gayle, but failed.

Hinds hung his bat out to dry against gangling Australian left arm pace bowler Nathan Bracken, who opened the bowling with Brett Lee, and was caught by skipper Ricky Ponting at second slip in the fourth over to make it 10 for one.

Dwayne Smith, promoted to number three ahead of Ramnaresh Sarwan, hit two attractive boundaries to the off side before trying to flick Lee off his hips and was unable to keep the ball down. Brad Hogg brought off a diving catch at backward of square leg to leave West Indies at 25 for two in the 7th over.

Gayle, after an initial slashed four to the point fence, struck three more boundaries before getting out to a silly shot. He tried to steer Shane Watson to third man and managed only to snick the ball to wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist after making 24 in 26 balls to leave West Indies at 47 for three in the 12th over.

Worse was to follow when Ramnaresh Sarwan, who started in an impressive fashion by straight-driving Lee for a four off the first ball he faced, departed when he failed to pick the line of an arm ball from Michael Clarke and was trapped leg before for 21 to leave the Caribbean islanders gasping at 63 for four after 15 overs.

Another collapse similar to the one against Lanka looked imminently possible but was avoided through diligent and clever batting by Morton and Lara as they saw off the quick bowling changes rung in by Ponting to unsettle them and worked the ball nicely for runs. (PTI)