Watson, bowlers propel Australia to title by Rohit Sakunia

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Scorecard:	Australia v New Zealand
Player:	MJ Guptill, KD Mills, CL White, SR Watson
Event:	ICC Champions Trophy 2009/10

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DateLine: 5th October 2009

 

If there has been one team which notches it's own game a couple of steps higher in a final, it has always been Australia. They again did the same. The Aussies who have time and again proved that they are the masters of big finals came into this title game having lost none thus far in the tournament and though the tournament till now belonged to the underdogs, when it came to coming between the Aussies and the title, none of the Black Cap magic worked.

 

It was only one team which looked like winning and apart from the first fifteen overs of the Aussie batting, at no other time did the Kiwis did anything special to instigate fear in the minds of the defending champions. Yes the Black Caps were without their regular skipper Daniel Vettori but then it wasn't Australia's fault and in any case even if he had been there, his impact on a Aussie chase of a meagre 201 looked doubtful considering the Aussie grit.Shane Watson who scored a century in the semi-finals against England continued his good run with the bat scoring another ton to propel Australia to another big tournament win by 5 wickets and plenty of balls to spare. Chasing a meager 201 to win and keep the Champions Trophy title with themselves, Australia did everything to give the Kiwis more than a mere sniff of an upset. First Tim Paine and then Ricky Ponting got out in quick succession leaving the defending champions tottering at 6 for 2 at one stage, and then Shane Bond and Kyle Mills stifled both natural stroke makers, Shane Watson and Cameron White. From 17 for 2 after 6 overs, the Aussies could only reach 19 in the next five overs as Mills and Bond kept bowling maidens after maidens. Such was Mills immaculate line and length that his first seven overs yielded only 9 runs for the taking.

 

But unlike the Aussies, the Kiwis second line of control wasn't as good. Though Butler got his length correct after an awry first over, Franklin struggled with the leather and from here both Watson and White got the little leeway that they badly needed. Watson especially assaulted the Black Caps second line of attack and placed Australia in command soon after Bond and Mills finished their first spells.

 

The only way New Zealand could have reduced the onslaught or would have stopped it from happening was if Brendon McCullum would have caught an easy one of White. He missed it and this was before Watson went for the carnage. Had he held on to the top edge off Butler's bowling, Australia would have been reduced to 41 for 3 in 17.3 overs and then under pressure things could have changed.

 

But it was not to happen and both White and Watson were destined to create history. Both bided their time in the middle because New Zealand score allowed them the time and then when the next set of bowlers were introduced such was the ruthlessness of the duo that all the three went for boundaries in their first overs itself.

 

The duo added 128 runs and made Australia sit in a position of total control. Seeing that none of his bowlers have anything to offer on a flat track, McCullum went back to Mills who again delivered skittling White's timber and not long after that even sent back Mike Hussey but it was too late till then. Australia were firmly in grip of the game and with Watson holding one end strongly, they looked clear favourites from here.

 

The final formalities were completed by Watson in company of James Hopes. Watson notched up his fourth ODI century alongside the Aussie win with a huge six over mid-wicket.

 

Earlier in the afternoon, stand-in Black Caps skipper Brendon McCullum won the toss and decided to bat first on a track were 280-300 on first look, looked a possible score to scale. The Aussie pacers though went about their task in the most clinical manner possible. Lee, Johnson and Siddle were fast, accurate and on the batting all the time. Even Nathan Hauritz, an otherwise very average bowler seemed to have notched up his game a couple of steps and as a result the Kiwis never got going. Their run-rate crossed four rpo first time in the 43rd over but then they had lost their top seven men.

 

The Black Caps started awfully as McCullum, fell for a uncharacteristic 14-ball duck. He kept on playing and missing and dabbing to good deliveries from Brett Lee and Peter Siddle, both of whom were scaling speeds of close to 140 km/h. Finally he cut a Siddle delivery too close to him only to edge it to Paine behind the wickets.

 

Then Martin Guptill and Aaron Redmond tried to take control in a good 61 run stand. But the bowling and fielding was such that even with the best of their efforts they were not able to get the ball away for either quick singles or the frequent boundaries. Finally Hauritz saw the end of Redmond. He smartly pushed one wide seeing Redmond advance out of the crease and the batsman fell short. The game again got difficult for the Black Caps as Hauritz by now had started to get a good amount of bite from the track and Mitchell Johnson, came back again to trouble both right-hand batsmen from round the stumps.

 

If ever the Kiwis needed two batsmen Guptill and Ross Taylor to play well, it was today but destiny had something else in store. Both fell in quick succession and even before the Black Caps could have realized, they were in a desperate state. Hauritz got the big wicket of Guptill, and then Johnson who had already induced two edges from Taylor, finally had him as he played an impatient shot. Then Lee produced an outstanding yorker to get rid of Grant Elliott and this left Neil Broom in company of the tail and the all-rounders to survive the 50 overs.

 

He started to rebuild alongside James Franklin and from 94 for 5, Franklin and Broom took New Zealand to 133 for 5 in 38 overs with careful crafted singles. They needed to score a few from here because the run-rate looked far from encouraging and keeping that in mind they took the powerplay. For the first time in the game the Kiwis attacked and they attacked well scoring 26 off the next 16 deliveries. Just when it looked that they can go on and build up a decent total, a terrible misunderstanding between the batsmen, off a wide fulltoss, sent Broom back, and Australia were on the attack again. Lee then produces another splendid yorker to took care of Franklin, and the last four in the batting line-up could muster only 34 in the last eight overs.