The unputdownable Aussies

They went in with the team-sheet stacked against them: No Warne, Bevan and Lehmann out injured and McGrath with a dodgy back. So no middle-order and a depleted attack. Indeed, Australia were having a bit of a wobble in the top order when Symonds joined his skipper, Ricky Ponting at 86 for four. It needed someone with a calm approach to help restructure in the innings and carefully work the ball around a bit. As Symonds is known as a big hitter in Gilchrist mode, anything could happen.

What did happen during the remaining 34.1 overs of the innings was an Australian revival as the runs grew from a trickle to a small stream and later a flood. Exuding confidence and oozing flair and style needed in the often frenetic limited-overs arena, Symonds knows how to turn it on when needed. He is variously described as a big hitter and a slogger: frankly the first description gives more credibility to the man8217;s ability to turn an innings around.

After all, hitting sixteen sixes in an innings is a world record and he has done that for the English county Gloucestershire. Just the sort of batting tactics needed to relaunch a career after being in the shadow of Lehmann and Bevan in recent Australian seasons. He is a bit of an all-rounder, and his best score before today was sixty-eight, with two half-centuries and an average in the low twenties.

When Ponting went Symonds, if you look at the Australian order, needed to nurse the innings through to at least a competitive total. With Brad Hogg and Ian Harvey he did just that. There was not a lot of big hitting in it either, just calculated strokeplay and smart judgement as he rushed to a century off ninety-two balls and then laid into the bowling with added gusto as the runs flowed.

Symonds, with an unbeaten 143, took Australia to their highest World Cup score of 310, an amazing recovery when you think of where they were after being sent into bat on a pitch where the ball ducked around off the seam. There was some quite sharp bowling from Wasim Akram and Younis as well as Shoaib Akhtar.

Waqar, however, having earlier seen Akram rip a hole in the Australian top order with a two-wicket burst, decided to give Symmonds a taste of a little aggression and let rip with two beamers. The first hit the Australian on the helmet and drew a warning from the English umpire David Shepherd. When Waqar pinned the batsman with a second successive beamer, Shepherd stepped in ordered him out of the attack.

In a sense, Waqar8217;s behaviour seemed to rub off on the Pakistan batsman and the innings barely raised its game to any level except for a defiant 33 from Rashid Latif. He attacked the Aussie bowling with an idea of putting the boot in where he could and strike a few blows.

The result was a Pakistan total of 228 in response to 310 for nine; not quite the result the crowd wanted. They do not enjoy the Australians in this part of the world, but they will need to get used to them this World Cup while Pakistan need to revisit their gameplan.