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Two big guns, one big prize

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Match facts

March 26, 2015
Start time 2.30pm local (0330GMT)2:19

Holding: Balanced bowling gives India slight edge

Big Picture

On Tuesday it was the hard-luck teams from past World Cups; on Thursday it is the powerhouses. Neither New Zealand nor South Africa had ever made a World Cup decider despite playing in nine semi-finals between them; Australia and India have collectively reached nine World Cup finals. It will soon become 10. The only question is which team will take on New Zealand on the last Sunday in March.Some people collect souvenir spoons when they go travelling, for a while Australia picked up cups in much the same way. They got one in Calcutta, one in London, one in Johannesburg, one in Bridgetown. It is quite a collection. India picked up their first in London, and waited 28 years to add another in Mumbai. They are the defending champions at this tournament; Australia were for the past three campaigns. These are teams that expect success.It is no great surprise to see Australia at the semi-final stage. It is a home tournament. They are the No.1-ranked side in the world. They entered the campaign fresh from victory in a tri-series. In some ways it is not surprising to see India there either, for they have the experience in such big tournaments, and their batting line-up is full of talent. But in that same tri-series they failed to win a match, and their turnaround has been absolute. Unlike Australia, they are as yet undefeated.Shikhar Dhawan has two hundreds in this World Cup, Virat Kohli has one, Rohit Sharma has one, Suresh Raina has one. The question was always going to be whether they had the fast bowlers to succeed in these conditions. Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav and Mohit Sharma have collectively answered that in the affirmative. And on the Sydney surface, their spinners will play key roles.Australia’s batting has been perhaps a little less emphatic, with David Warner, Glenn Maxwell and Aaron Finch each having scored one century. They have taken until now to settle on a line-up and a batting order, but they look sturdier for Steven Smith’s presence at No. 3. With the ball, though, much depends on how much swing Mitchell Starc can extract.Australia enter this match as favourites, but that is only down to the home conditions. Only once in 13 completed ODIs have Australia lost to India at the SCG. That was seven years ago. It is more than three years since they have lost a one-day international to anyone at the SCG. But as Tuesday’s game in Auckland showed, it’s all about who can stand up in the heat of a World Cup knockout. Who will be this game’s Grant Elliott?

Form guide

Australia WWWWL (last five matches, most recent first)
India WWWWW

In the spotlight

Who would most people have tipped as Australia’s leading run-scorer in this tournament? Aaron Finch? David Warner? Steven Smith? Well, after the quarter-final stage the holder of that title is Glenn Maxwell with 301 runs. It’s quite an effort for a man who started the summer at No. 8 in the one-day side, and struggling for form and confidence. But Maxwell’s work in the middle order during this tournament has been key to Australia’s success. The Big Show has shown he is capable of the Big Innings – his 102 against Sri Lanka in Sydney, for example. Some of the shots he played against Pakistan in Adelaide could barely be called cricket strokes, but they’re working for him.It took him most of the tournament to get going, but when Rohit Sharma finally did, it was worth the wait. His 137 off 126 balls in the quarter-final against Bangladesh sealed India’s place in the final four. And his recent form against Australia is pretty handy as well. In his only ODI innings against Australia this summer he made 138, and his previous innings against them was 209 in Bangalore in November 2013. Australia know there are plenty of match-winners in India’s batting line-up, and stopping Rohit is their first task.

Team news

The hosts are expected to name an unchanged team from the one that defeated Pakistan in Adelaide. Pat Cummins for Josh Hazlewood is the only possible change, though this would be harsh on the taker of four wickets in the quarter-final.Australia (possible) 1 David Warner, 2 Aaron Finch, 3 Steven Smith, 4 Michael Clarke (capt), 5 Shane Watson, 6 Glenn Maxwell, 7 Brad Haddin (wk), 8 James Faulkner, 9 Mitchell Johnson, 10 Mitchell Starc, 11 Josh Hazlewood.India have a very settled eleven, and are unlikely to change anything.India (possible) 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Ajinkya Rahane, 5 Suresh Raina, 6 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Umesh Yadav, 10 Mohit Sharma, 11 Mohammed Shami.

Pitch and weather

Already used for the quarter-final between South Africa and Sri Lanka and at the end of a long season, the surface for the match will be more to India’s liking than Australia’s. Heavy rolling of a strip that sports very little live grass is geared at making it as hard and bouncy as possible, but it is unlikely to offer the sort of steep bounce and lateral movement Australia’s pacemen are seeking. The possibility of spin is more intriguing, as of all spinners only the legbreaks of Imran Tahir have deviated significantly all tournament. The weather forecast is fine.

Stats and trivia

  • Last time these teams met in a World Cup game was the quarter-final in 2011, which India won comfortably in Ahmedabad
  • In that game, Shane Watson and Brad Haddin opened for Australia; here they are likely to come in at Nos. 6 and 8 respectively
  • Their only previous World Cup meeting in Australia came in Brisbane in 1992, when Australia squeaked home by one run in a rain-affected game

Quotes

“Expectation is there because we’re the No. 1 ranked one-day team in the world. The reason you have expectation is because you’ve performed. There’s been a lot of talk about pressure and expectation, but that’s what comes with … playing sport at the highest level.
“We’ll be playing some different cricket now, so what happened we never want to carry into the World Cup. We always spoke about this.”

Knight Riders go top with one-wicket win

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Scorecard and ball-by-ball details2:47

O’Brien: KKR the best form team

Kolkata Knight Riders went to the top of the points table with the first one-wicket win in IPL history, off the penultimate ball against Kings XI Punjab. In their final league game of IPL 2015 at home, Knight Riders completed the second-highest chase of the tournament at Eden Gardens to finish the season with a 5-1 scoreline in Kolkata.Kings XI’s spinners had them 83 for 4 in the 11th over in pursuit of 184, but a partnership of 53 in 4.1 overs between Andre Russell and Yusuf Pathan revived the chase. After Pathan fell for 29 off 19, Russell went on to blitz 51 off 21. After Russell fell with 25 needed off 19, Piyush Chawla leveled the scores before the last pair scrambled a leg-bye.Robin Uthappa had kick-started the chase with smooth timing against the seamers and Manish Pandey had taken over from him before the spinners slowed things down.Pandey, Gautam Gambhir and Suryakumar Yadav fell to the part-time offspinner Glenn Maxwell and Gurkeerat Singh. The asking-rate had gone past 12 by the end of the 12th over when Knight Riders began their fightback.Russell powered a couple of pulled boundaries off Anureet Singh before he and Pathan launched straight hits off Axar Patel in a 24-run over. Beuran Hendricks, playing his first game of the season in place of Mitchell Johnson, took some punishment as well but removed Pathan with a short ball in the 15th.Undaunted, Russell swung Anureet repeatedly over midwicket for 19 more in the 16th. Axar had the allrounder caught behind in the 17th but Chawla hit Hendricks for successive fours in the 18th. With seven needed off the last five balls, Chawla heaved Anureet for six over deep midwicket. He was caught behind next ball, but his 18 off 11 had sealed it for Knight Riders.The hosts had been responsible for having to chase such a big total in the first place. They put down M Vijay thrice and Manan Vohra twice at the start of the Kings XI innings to let the openers put on 45 inside six overs. Maxwell and Wriddhiman Saha then added 65 for the third wicket in 5.4 overs. Maxwell belatedly found some form as he connected with some reverse-sweeps and slogs, going past 100 runs for the season in his eighth innings with 43 off 22.Both Saha and Maxwell went to Sunil Narine in the 17th over, the offspinner ending with figures of 4 for 19, his best performance of the season tripling his wicket-tally.Narine out of the way, David Miller slammed Russell for two sixes and two fours in the last over to set the hosts a daunting target. It consumed almost all their resources, but they scraped through in the end.

South Africa add a warm-up to Australia itinerary

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South Africa have made use of the window created by the postponement of the Champions League following the terrorist attacks in Mumbai and are likely to play an additional warm-up game ahead of their first Test against Australia in Perth next month.The warm-up game is expected to be a limitless-overs one-day match against Australia A in Perth.With the Champions League scheduled from December 3 to 10, South Africa could squeeze in only one tour match – a two-day fixture against Western Australia starting on December 13 – before the start of the first Test on December 17. Six of their squad members – Graeme Smith, Albie Morkel, Morne Morkel, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers and Dale Steyn – were to be involved in the Twenty20 tournament but now they will be available to travel to Australia with rest of the squad on December 6.”I would like to thank Cricket Australia for their co-operation and assistance in this regard,” Gerald Majola, Cricket South Africa’s chief executive, said.

Canada peak too late

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ScorecardThe play-off for fifth and sixth places in the tournament evoked little interest, even before the start of another poor match, where Bermuda’s dismal batting display handed Canada the easiest of victories, by eight wickets and with almost half the possible 20 overs in hand. Bermuda decided to omit their most famous player, Dwayne Leverock, from this match to give their reserves an outing.Canada put Bermuda in to bat and the men in blue soon lost their opener Chris Foggo, caught off a skier to long leg for 7, followed by Orande Bascombe (2) to a lesser skyer in the covers. Inexperienced as they are in this form of the game, the Associate players depart to skied catches much more regularly than do the professionals.Wickets contined to fall, including that of Bermuda’s most successful batsman of the tournament, Stephen Outerbridge, lbw to Henry Osinde for 4. After ten overs, the score was an apparently hopeless 34 for 5, and once again incompetent batting by the top order had condemned a team to humilation and probable defeat. At 45 the remaining opener, Oliver Pitcher, sliced an easy catch to backward point after holding out for a dogged 15, and the sorry procession continued.The innings slid to a sorry conclusion for 70 all out in the final over, and the Bermudan players must have felt deeply demoralised. They never at any point looked like giving a good account of themselves with the bat and Pitcher alone reached double figures. Remarkably, there was only one boundary shot in the entire innings, hit by Foggo in the opening over. Four bowlers took two cheap wickets each; Osinde, with 2 for 12, had the poorest figures of them, but arguably did the most valuable job in shattering the very shatterable top order. Steve Welsh took two middle-order wickets for just six runs in three overs, and two good catches in addition tipped the scales his way for the Man of the Match award.The question was, could Canada do any better? There was no evidence of it from the first ball of the innings, which Mohammad Qazi popped up tamely to midwicket. Canada did not need to hurry, though, and the score proceeded to 32, at which point John Davison, some would say unusually restrained in his batting for a brisk 19 off 13 balls, skied a catch to mid-on after four overs.Geoffrey Barnett took over the post of responsibility and saw his team through to an overwhelming victory by eight wickets, scoring 33 comfortably off 34 balls, while Ashish Bagai backed him up with 15 off 16 balls. Canada, at least, can go home with a convincing win under their belts, but tinged with the knowledge that they peaked a little too late.

Lee sparks Australian surge

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Scorecard and ball-by-ball commentary
How they were out

Brett Lee bowled a superb spell to remove five West Indies batsmen © AFP
 

Brett Lee breathed life into a meandering match with a masterful spell of fast reverse-swing that overshadowed Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s second century of the series and significantly increased the chances of a final-day result. Lee’s strikes ensured Australia’s first-innings lead of 127 and by the end of the fourth day Phil Jaques had run with the momentum, posting 76 and setting up the visitors’ advantage of 371.At the close Australia had reached 244 for 6, with Andrew Symonds unbeaten on 43 after Lee fell from the last ball of the day. Their lead appeared to be more than adequate to secure the Frank Worrell Trophy – they only need a draw – but there was no indication as to when Ricky Ponting would give his bowlers a chance to push for the victory.Despite their deteriorating position, West Indies refused to be dictated to, and gradually picked off Australia’s batsmen. Jerome Taylor grabbed a couple of wickets, trapping Ponting lbw for 38 and drawing an edge behind from Jaques, while a sharp throw from Chanderpaul ended Michael Clarke’s stay on 10. But Australia had such a lead that they were not under any real match pressure, although there was some physical pain when Lee took a nasty blow to the helmet from a cracking Fidel Edwards bouncer.Jaques battled through a scratchy opening and started to find some form, compiling his first half-century in a Test without Matthew Hayden by his side. He put on a 74-run opening stand with Michael Hussey, who was sent out first as Simon Katich was still nursing a bruised rib sustained during his first-innings century. Hussey looked confident while driving his way to 40.While Jaques and the rest of the top order improved Australia’s buffer with relative ease, it was Lee who gave them the opportunity. On a pitch that appeared deader than Stuart MacGill’s Test career, Lee located the defibrillators that no other fast bowler could find. He shocked West Indies’ middle order into an early exit following a productive 132-run partnership between Dwayne Bravo and Chanderpaul – whose consistency continues to astound – and grabbed five wickets thanks to his venomous late swing.Lee did benefit from some poor umpiring decisions but he worked hard for the results in a vicious six-over display. The spell, which was broken up by a one-over break to change his shoes, earned Lee 5 for 11, including three wickets in four balls as the lower order battled to deal with his bending of the ball. The major blow came when Bravo, who had compiled a proper Test innings of 45 by controlling his aggressive urges, was adjudged to have feathered a catch down leg side to Brad Haddin. Bravo was clearly disappointed and the replays were inconclusive – it may have come off his thigh pad – but Denesh Ramdin certainly suffered from an umpiring lapse next ball.Ramdin’s eyes had hardly adjusted to the sunshine when he received a startling inswinging yorker from Lee. He jammed the bat down too late and was given lbw by Russell Tiffin, although the ball had struck him outside the line of off stump. Darren Sammy survived the hat-trick delivery but with Lee’s next effort became another victim of the reverse swing and Tiffin’s misjudgement. Like Ramdin, Sammy was hit outside the line trying to defend and was sent on his way regardless.West Indies got the worst of the decisions but Lee created the opportunities by sending down hand-grenades. He varied his attack by pushing Taylor back with fast stuff before bowling him with a slower ball, and swung another in to Daren Powell, who was correctly judged lbw to give Lee figures of 5 for 59. Mitchell Johnson ended the innings at 352 when he had Edwards caught behind and it was a relief for Johnson, who was partly responsible for allowing Chanderpaul and Bravo to build such a strong partnership earlier in the day.Strangely, Ponting opened the morning with his two weaker bowlers and Johnson sprayed deliveries alternately wide of leg and off stumps as he failed to find the late swing that Lee mastered. MacGill was also having problems with his line and length and allowed Bravo to release his aggression with a couple of full tosses that disappeared over midwicket. Chanderpaul, who was largely content to score through well-guided late cuts and nudges, also put MacGill away on his way to an unbeaten 107. When Ponting turned to his part-timers to race through some overs – perhaps wary that he had lost half his match fee in Kingston for slow over rates – Chanderpaul brought up his hundred with an uncharacteristic slog sweep over midwicket off Symonds.It continued Chanderpaul’s remarkable year – in the past 12 months he has made five Test centuries and averages 98.50. He survived the Lee onslaught but as his partners rapidly departed, it became increasingly unlikely that Chanderpaul could carry the hopes of an archipelago on his tiny shoulders as officials began polishing up the Frank Worrell Trophy in anticipation of a possible presentation to Ponting on Tuesday.

Zimbabwe Cricket Online volume 4, issue 9, 08 November 2002

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This week’s issue comes out on the eve of the Test series between Zimbabwe and Pakistan. Rain threatens the match, but given relief from the weather it should be a fascinating and unpredictable series, with of course the advantage on paper lying with Pakistan. But paper advantage does not always mean a lot where Pakistan is concerned, as is mentioned in our Test preview, included in this issue.Apologies to our readers for the late arrival of last week’s ZCO, due to technical problems.CONTENTS

  • Zimbabwe v Pakistan Preview
  • Zimbabwe v Pakistan Test records
  • Club cricket scores – National League Round 5
  • Biographies:
    • Blessing Mahwire
    • Gavin Ewing
  • Letters

We also include a link to our record section on matches between Zimbabwe and Pakistan, and it will be seen that, despite Pakistan’s often overwhelming superiority on paper, Zimbabwe have produced some very good cricket against them and have, in fact, won two of our four victories against senior Test-playing countries against them.Our best wishes go to Blessing Mahwire, a seam-bowling all-rounder, who is scheduled to make his Test debut this weekend. He will be the first player from Masvingo to represent the country at full international level, and we have updated his biography for the occasion. We also include a biography of Bulawayo all-rounder Gavin Ewing, who was included in the Test squad for the first time.There are also Test matches being played in Australia and South Africa this weekend, and one trusts Zimbabwe will not shoot themselves in the foot as England did (once again) in Australia, putting the opposition in to bat on a good batting pitch and then bowling weakly and dropping most of the catches on offer. For readers in Southern Africa, DSTV will be showing the Zimbabwe-Pakistan Test throughout, mainly on Channel 6.On Wednesday 6 November the Zimbabwe Cricket Union held a large Gala Dinner at the Monomotapa Hotel in Zimbabwe to celebrate Zimbabwe’s ten years of Test cricket. Ten years ago Zimbabwe played their inaugural Test match against India at Harare Sports Club, and became the first newcomers to Test cricket to avoid defeat in their inaugural Test; in fact, they dominated the match, although it ended in a draw.It had been hoped that Kapil Dev, who bowled Zimbabwe’s first ball in Test cricket (Kevin Arnott turned it to fine leg for a single), would be guest of honour, but he was unable to attend, and was replaced very effectively by Clive Lloyd, who gave an excellent speech. All of Zimbabwe’s team which played in that Inaugural Test were invited, the only absentees being Gary Crocker (who has emigrated to the USA and could not be contacted), John Traicos (unable at the last moment to come over from his home in Australia) and Grant Flower, who was with his father who is sick in Johannesburg. We wish Bill Flower the speediest of recoveries.One of the features of the evening was the Milestones Awards, which commemorated the best individual performances by Zimbabweans during those ten years. They were as follows:

  • Highest individual score: 266, by Dave Houghton, v Pakistan, at Queens Sports Club, 1994/95
  • Best bowling figures: 8/109, by Paul Strang, v New Zealand, at Queens Sports Club, 2000/01
  • World record partnership by brothers: 273, by Andy and Grant Flower, v Pakistan, at Harare Sports Club, 1994/95
  • Highest score for Zimbabwe abroad: 232 not out, by Andy Flower, v India, at Nagpur, 2000/01
  • (Then world record) youngest player to score a century on Test debut: Hamilton Masakadza, v West Indies, at Harare Sports Club, 2000/01We look forward to the next ten years, and Clive Lloyd expressed his wish that by then Zimbabwe will be the second strongest Test team in the world – second, of course, to West Indies!

    • Tense Sydney Test prompted retirement – Gilchrist

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    Adam Gilchrist announced his retirement during the final Test of the series against India in Adelaide soon after going past Mark Boucher to become the wicketkeeper with most Test dismissals © AFP
     

    Adam Gilchrist has said though his problems with wicketkeeping had influenced his decision to retire from international cricket, the controversial Sydney Test against India was the “straw that broke the camel’s back”.”I certainly did not retire because my sportsmanship was questioned, and I didn’t even decide to retire that week but on top of everything else that had gone on I feel the controversies around the Sydney Test were the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Gilchrist wrote in his newly published book . The match had been a tense one with umpiring errors and on-field sledging overshadowing the play. Harbhajan Singh was banned for alleged racial abuse against Andrew Symonds but was let off on appeal, much to the disappointment of the Australians. Gilchrist also criticised Harbhajan’s behaviour in his book.Gilchrist announced his retirement during the final Test of the series in Adelaide soon after going past Mark Boucher to become the keeper with most Test dismissals. But he said in his book that his poor form with the gloves during the series had been playing on his mind for a while.”I was beginning to resolve finally on pulling out of one-day cricket, but I wasn’t quitting Tests,” Gilchrist wrote. “I hadn’t even asked [my wife] Mel to come to Adelaide. … We lost the toss and fielded all day, the [Sachin] Tendulkar factory churning out another ton. My concentration wasn’t good. Even in the first session I was asking myself: ‘Do I really want to just pull out of one-dayers? Should I keep doing both?’ The ball was generally hitting me in the heels of my hands rather than palms. No one would have seen it from the outside, but my hands were continually a fraction of a second late. This had been happening for a little while now.”He had dropped three catches during the Sydney Test which he said made him feel he wasn’t a genuine keeper. “I was really a batsman who wore gloves.”Gilchrist was known for walking on being dismissed, most memorably during the semi-final of the World Cup in 2003. But he said it made him feel isolated in the Australian team. “… silently accused of betraying the team. Implicitly, I was made to feel selfish, as if I was walking for the sake of my own clean image, thereby making everyone else look dishonest. My action in the 2003 World Cup semi-final had become such a big deal because it held up a mirror to every player… [but] that I walked wasn’t a judgment on others.”

    Former ICU president John Wright dies

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    John Wright, the former president and secretary of the Irish Cricket Union, has died aged 65 following a short illness.Wright was involved with Irish cricket for over 30 years, both with the ICU and Leinster and only stepped down as secretary at the last AGM as the ICU was restructured into Cricket Ireland.Wright also made significant contributions by working on European cricket and also had a spell on the ICC’s chief executives committee. He was a recipient of an ICC global lifetime service award, which he collected at Lord’s last month.”John was a wonderful servant and ambassador for Irish cricket throughout the world,” said Tom Prior, the former ICU president. “His dedication and professionalism were major factors in the tremendous success that Irish cricket has experienced at all levels of the game. It was a great honour and joy to be with him during Ireland’s magnificent World Cup campaign in the West Indies.”Cricket Ireland chairman David Williams said: “It was a very great privilege to have John not only as a colleague in cricket, but also as a valued friend. John’s cheery disposition, and wonderful sense of humour was always an inspiration to his friends, and no problem ever arose that John’s sharp mind was unequal to.”Senior ICC figures also offered their condolences. “This is sad loss for cricket,” said Ray Mali, the ICC president. “John’s influence and hard work benefited the game beyond Ireland’s shores and he is going to be greatly missed.”John leaves behind a great legacy – the work he was involved in has helped to put Irish cricket at the forefront of the Associate game and his contribution as a member of ICC committees made sure that his expertise had a global effect.

    Foreign players will help domestic cricket – Gavaskar

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    Sunil Gavaskar: “We did not want people to come in and use our domestic tournaments as a learning ground, so we decided that the foreign player should have played in 10 Tests or 20 one-dayers” © AFP
     

    Sunil Gavaskar hopes the introduction of foreign players in Indian domestic cricket will make significant contributions to the application levels and attitudes of the teams across the country.Gavaskar is currently the chairman of the BCCI’s technical committee, which recently allowed state associations to include four ‘guest players’ [ those from areas outside their jurisdiction] in their squad from the 2008-09 season onwards, up from the three previously permitted.”Whenever a player was selected for India his state used to miss the contributions from him and no replacements would be immediately available,” Gavaskar told . “All states already had the right to include three guest players. The technical committee increased it to four by permitting one foreign player.”However, the committee attached a rider that required the overseas player to have played at least ten Tests or 20 ODIs. “We did not want people to come in and use our domestic tournaments as a learning ground, so we decided that the foreign player should have played in 10 Tests or 20 one-dayers,” he said.Gavaskar believed an overseas player who had played just one Test would not make any contribution to the domestic competitions. “If the foreign player is experienced our young Ranji Trophy players can look up to him and can learn something from him.”He was also optimistic about playing in India becoming a big draw for international cricketers. “A foreign player not playing for his national team or just out of the national reckoning may be ready to play. For such a player it might make sense financially too.”However, it’s unlikely state associations in India will be able to match the sums the various franchises shelled out for the big names during the IPL. The BCCI is likely to increase the daily match fee for players taking part in domestic tournaments in the 2008-09 season to Rs. 37,000 [approximately US$840]; the pay hike, if implemented, will see an increase of Rs. 11,000 from last season.The 2008-09 season will begin with the Irani Trophy match – between Ranji Trophy champions Delhi and Rest of India – from September 24.

    Bowlers clawed it back under pressure – Ponting

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    Australian skipper Ricky Ponting praised his players for battling back into the the VB series opener at the SCG to beat England comfortably by seven wickets after a slow start.”We were probably a bit disappointed that England made as many as they did,” Ponting reflected. “They batted well at the start of their innings, our bowlers clawed it back through the middle and then our batsmen went out and did a fantastic job and reeled in the runs.”England’s total under lights of 251 for eight from their 50 overs soon looked inadequate as Australian openers Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden rattled off a century stand before the first wicket fell for 101 after 13.5 overs. Man-of-the-Match Hayden was dismissed just two runs short of his century.”The way that we came out today was terrific,” Hayden enthused. “We really wanted to chase runs and were off to a flying start. Then it was a terrific innings by Damien Martyn in difficult conditions. I guess we are at a stage with our batting where we are showing good experience throughout the innings.”England captain Nasser Hussain admitted England needed to reassess their strategy. Nick Knight hit an unbeaten 111 for the tourists, but their batting challenge faded in the closing overs.”We played some better cricket today,” said the England captain. “It’s pleasing to see the boys go out there and put on a show in front of a big crowd. The three games before I thought we were below par but today the big crowd and the big occasion lifted us a little, bit but it wasn’t enough.”The last 10 overs of our batting and their first 15 probably made the difference in the end, but we were a little bit better.”Hussain hopes that Nick Knight, who was unable to field during Australia’s reply having been struck by cramp towards the end of his century innings, will be fit for England’s second game of the triangular series against Australia in Melbourne on Sunday.”Nick was struggling with cramping all over the body and not just in one specific area, and the combination of that with new batters trying to get used to the pace of the wicket kept us down to 20 or 30 less than we should have got,” added Hussain.”When we went out to field he was shivering a little bit which tends to suggest dehydration, but he’s OK and we just have to get him right for Sunday now. He’s a fit lad but it was hot out there today and there were lots of ones or twos because of the nature of the wicket.”We are really going to have to work out some better plans for the first 15 overs. Hayden and Gilchrist did exceptionally well and you can’t let a side get away. The Sri Lankans will be exactly the same, they will come at you and for those first 15 overs, we are going to have to rethink our plans.”