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Pakistan almost there

Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath produced a devastating spell of fast bowling to destroy Pakistan8217;s top-order as Australia won Friday8217;s...

By: Reuters
Sydney | February 5, 2005 12:00 AM IST

3 min read

Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath produced a devastating spell of fast bowling to destroy Pakistan8217;s top-order as Australia won Friday8217;s opening one-day final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground by 18 runs.

The pair captured three wickets each as the world champions defended a modest total of 237 by restricting the tourists to 219/9. Pakistan looked to be in with a great chance after bowling the home side out in the 49th over before Lee and McGrath swung the match back Australia8217;s way. 8216;8216;We came up a little bit short with our batting but our new ball bowling was outstanding,8217;8217; Australia captain Ricky Ponting said.

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8216;8216;We8217;re nowhere near our best yet but we still came away with a good win.8217;8217; Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq responded: 8216;8216;I thought we bowled very well and 237 was definitely a good total to chase. We wanted to see off the new ball but we lost too many early wickets.8217;8217;

Lee trapped Salman Butt lbw for a duck on the second ball of the Pakistan innings and also captured the wickets of Yousuf Youhana for two and Inzamam for 51 to finish with 3/23.

McGrath took 3/34, taking his career tally past 300 One-Day International wickets, as Pakistan stumbled to 27/4. Inzamam and Shoaib Malik 66 rebuilt the innings with a fifth-wicket partnership of 91 but Pakistan8217;s slow start caught up with them as the required run-rate started to climb.

Andrew Symonds made a superb 91 to win the Man-of-the-match award and Damien Martyn scored 53 to help Australia post a modest total after two separate batting collapses.

Australia dropped out-of-form opener Matthew Hayden and promoted Michael Clarke to open with Adam Gilchrist.

BRIEF SCORES

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Australia: 237 D Martyn 53, A Symonds 91; Naved-ul-Hasan 2/50, Afridi 2/50, Razzaq 3/33. Pakistan: 219 Inzamam-ul-Haq 51, Shoaib Malik 66; Brett Lee 3/23, Glenn McGrath 3/34, Jason Gillespie 2/47.

Maximum for Afridi

Shahid Afridi set a new world record of most sixes in limited overs international cricket when he hit second six off the bowling of Shane Watson at Melbourne today. It was his 189th six in 198 ODIs. Sanath Jayasuriya held the previous record of 188 sixes in 333 one day internationals.

THE TOP SIX HITTERS IN ODIs

8226; Shahid Afridi: M-198, Runs-4325, Sixes-190

8226; Sanath Jayasuriya: M-333, Runs-9896, Sixes-188

8226; Sourav Ganguly: M-266, Runs-9914, Sixes-168

8226; Chris Cairns: M-198, Runs-4628, Sixes-142

8226; Sachin Tendulkar: M-342, Runs-13497, Sixes-142

S Pervez Qaiser