Good bowling, brilliant fielding saw Australia through

Ricky Ponting started New Zealand’s slide with a typically brilliant piece of fielding. He is so quickly into position that he is able to get a good look at the target before he throws and consequently he has a high percentage of direct hits. After he’d run out Nathan Astle in that manner, Damien Fleming grabbed an lbw decision and then Tom Moody displayed great athleticism to pull off a very good caught andbowled.

Try as hard as he might, Stephen Fleming wasn’t able to resurrect the New Zealand innings after these early setbacks. The skipper is in good form with his flowing drives hitting the middle of a bat he allows to swing freely through his shots. Early in his innings, he scored freely but eventually, the regular fall of wickets wore him down and he was becalmed. His problems were exacerbated by some good spin bowling as Warne and Gavin Robertson blended well. Even at half throttle the New Zealanders find Warne difficult.

Because of his sore shoulder, he bowled mostly skidding top spinners and there wasn’t a hint of a big turning leg-break. Nevertheless, he still managed to take two wickets in the one over as the New Zealand batsmen in their frustrated state kept hitting balls straight down the throat of Australian outfielders. This allowed Warne to maintain his strike rate of a little more than two wickets per international against New Zealand.

Robertson bowled tidily and was rewarded with thewicket of Fleming. Having used the full face of his bat to score the bulk of his second successive half-century, Fleming unwisely opened the blade of his bat to run a ball to third man and was bowled. Fleming’s dismissal broke the New Zealand spirit and his Australian namesake swooped for the kill. Damien has re-discovered his best form since joining the tour and he is once again swinging the ball at a lively pace and using his variation cleverly.

Australia’s controlled bowling and athletic fielding had left the batsmen with a relatively easy task on a slow low pitch.

This they proceeded to do as Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting climbed into the under-manned New Zealand attack. Ponting continued to play as he did in India with authority as he waited for the ball to come to him and then dealt with the loose stuff. As a man interested in a bet, he is now well equipped for the job having hit a ball through the MRF sign and then lofted a six onto the drinks cart to win himself a $ 1,000 US in the space of twominutes work. He would have been quick to recite the punters prayer to his team-mates, “You have to speculate to accumulate,” as he added a potential fastest fifty to his winnings.

Gilchrist struggled after a first up half-century in India, but watching Ponting’s form from close range seemed to inspire the left-hander and he quickly regained his timing. It helped that Chris Cairns fed him a few short-pitched deliveries early in his innings and he pounced on them, pulling them hard through mid-wicket. He looked a disappointed player when he was caught in the outfield as it appeared he had set himself to be there at the end.

However, there were no great alarms as Australia won the match with 79 balls to spare, gaining the two points and a good advantage should the finalists be decided on net run rate. For this to be a factor, the New Zealand top order batsmen apart from Fleming are going to have to show a remarkable improvement in form.