Trans-Tasman Finale

CENTURION — Hot favourites Australia and underdogs New Zealand will meet for the first time in the final of a major tournament as the trans-Tasman rivals gave enough indications that they will retain the winning combination for Monday’s Champions Trophy 
final here.

Neither of them wants to tinker with the winning combination as both sides seemed to be happy with the squad that played in the semifinals.


Top form

Ricky Ponting is in prime form and he is the only Australian batsman who scored consistently in the tournament, and became the top scorer with 287 runs at an average of 95.66 from four matches. Shane Watson improved his average considerably after a belligerent 136 against England, but also had two ducks in the tourney. Michael Hussey also had a decent run, scoring 137 from three innings at an average of 45.66. Wicket-keeper Tim Pain is also among the runs with 122 runs.

Brendon McCullum and Martin Guptill are top scorers for New Zealand as they scored 155 and 151 respectively in the tournament so far. South African-born Grant Elliott is back in form after the 75 he scored against Pakistan. With Ross Taylor and Vettori in the ranks, New Zealand have enough ammunition in batting provided they get a 
good start.

Bowling strength

In the bowling department, the Kiwis have lot of options, with almost all of their bowlers in good form. Ably guided by Vettori, who has seven wickets, Kyle Mills (5), Shane Bond (5), Elliott (4), the New Zealand bowlers could be quite handy against any opposition. But, on a good batting wicket, it remains to be seen how they fare as they lost the lone match played here against the 
South Africans.

All New Zealand wins in the tournament were achieved at the seamer-friendly Wanderers wicket. New Zealand will be pinning their hopes on Bond, who has taken five-wicket hauls three times against Australia.

Watson is the leading wicket-taker for Australia with six wickets, followed by Peter Siddle (5) and Brett Lee (4). Surprisingly Johnson has only three wickets from four matches at an average of 50! Their spinner Nathan Hauritz has a dismal tournament, having only two wickets from four matches.

Bumpy ride

Though Australians haven’t lost a single match in the tournament so far, they faced almost sure defeats but recovered well to finish on a winning note.In the league encounter against West Indies they were tottering at 7-171 at the start of the 39^th over, but a timely 77 off 47 balls from Johnson bailed them out. Again, in the match against Pakistan, they were on the verge of defeat before a 19-run ninth wicket partnership of Lee and Hauritz helped them to scrape through, qualifying for the semifinal. But they had a convincing nine-wicket demolition over England in the first semifinal here, helping to peak before the final. New Zealand, on the other hand, began their campaign on a losing note against South Africa, but found their winning touch against Sri Lanka on the back of sterling batting performances from Brendon McCullum, Jesse Ryder and Martin Guptill. Later, brilliant bowling from Shane Bond and Grant Elliott played a major role in defeating England.

Favourable record

The records are in favour of Australia, but New Zealand have already upset the calculations of many champion teams in the tournament.

The wicket here is expected to assist batsmen like the way it did in the first semifinals.

New Zealand are yet to win a match against Australia in their three previous meetings in the mini-World Cup.

The Aussie victory margin was 164 runs in Sri Lanka seven years ago, seven wickets in England in 2004 and 34 runs in India three years ago.

Ricky Ponting, who has two World Cups and a Champions Trophy to his credit, and Australian side would bank on their vast experience in major finals, while New Zealand would be keen to replicate their Champions Trophy title triumph in Kenya in 2000.

Hats Off to the Valiant Black Caps

CENTURION — Not many would have expected New Zealand to enter the Champions Trophy final, defeating the likes of Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

They did, despite losing several key players, including captain Daniel Vettori, Jesse Ryder, Jacob Oram and Daryl Tuffey. The squad, devoid of any major 
superstars, fought like true champions and though finished as runners-up, could take a lot of positives from the tournament.

“We’ve certainly come together as a group over this last couple of weeks, and we’ve gone through some pretty tough times in terms of losing some key players,” New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum, who led the team in Vettori’s absence, said.

He was hopeful to put up a challenge despite the loss of key players. “I still thought we had the calibre of players, and also a good self-belief in the unit that we’d be able to put Australia under pressure and hopefully come out with the result, but it wasn’t to be.”

“Losing Vettori before the toss today was a huge blow. He’s been instrumental in getting us into this final — his batting, his bowling and also his captaincy — has played a huge part.”

Nothing went right for the team in the final with Neil Broom getting run out at a crucial moment. “I thought when Broom was run out it was obviously quite an important point in the game. If we managed to continue, we may have been able to post around 230-240 runs.

McCullum also praised the efforts of Kyle Mills and Shane Bond with the new ball. “I thought they were brilliant to take out the first couple of wickets in the fashion they did — it was a fantastic effort. They kept coming in and trying to give it their all but unfortunately we didn’t provide them with enough runs.”

He also admitted the dropped chance of Cameron White was crucial in the outcome. “It was obviously crucial. Unfortunately one went down today and I was responsible for it. I only just got a finger on it, let alone hold it,” he said.

Meanwhile, New Zealand Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan said the Black Caps could be proud of their effort in making the final of Champions Trophy.

“New Zealanders can be proud that their side has performed well during this competition, beating three top-ranked sides in must-win matches and making it to the final,” Vaughan was quoted as saying by the New Zealand media.

“Having been hit so hard by injuries during the tournament, the team has battled against the odds and shown great character.”

Amazing Ponting Failed Only in the Last Outing

CENTURION — Australian captain Ricky Ponting had an amazing tournament, but failed for the first time with bat in the Champions Trophy final against New Zealand on Monday night.

But his team didn’t fail, as the youngsters Shane Watson and Cameron White put together a century partnership to guide the team to victory. Ponting is happy to see how the youngsters tackled the pressure situation effectively.

“Losing two early wickets set us back a bit, but Cameron White and Shane Watson controlled things really well after that,” Ponting, who was named player of the tournament for his 288 runs at an average of 72, said at a post-match press conference here on Monday night.

“It’s one of our strengths that when the so-called big names don’t stand up, others get up and do the job. The young guys are starting to make major impacts in world events.”

Gradually, the Australian team is back to its dominating best in one-day cricket. The squad, which lost majestic players like Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden at the top, struggled for a bit, but is well on its way to the top. The 6-1 ODI series triumph and the Champions Trophy victory are testimony for that.

“We’ve been on the road for five months, we’ve had our ups and downs but this is a satisfying way to finish.”

“It’s good to have the winning feeling back again, our one-day cricket was great in England and we’ve carried over here. We’ve got a short break before we head off to India for seven one-day games, so it would be nice to keep a similar group of players and perform well over there,” he said.

Ponting is ecstatic to win the tournament. “I’m ecstatic to win a tournament as big as this one. It’s the second biggest one after the World Cup. It’s a very special achievement and a massive positive after the ups and downs of the last 18 months,” Ponting said. “As a team, we pride ourselves on adapting to different conditions around the world.”

Ponting also praised New Zealand for entering the final despite losing key players to injuries, including captain Daniel Vettori, Jesse Ryder, Jacob Oram and Daryl Tuffey.

“You have got to give a lot of credit to New Zealand. To lose the captain going into a big game was a major loss to them, but they performed very well,” said Ponting.

Zero to hero

CENTURION — Two ducks and two centuries! That is how man-of-the match in the Champions Trophy final began — two ducks — but ended the campaign — with two centuries — in the tournament.

It was a tale of starting with failure and ending with victory. In Australia’s opening encounter against West Indies at the Wanderers stadium, Watson made a first-ball duck with Kemar Roach clean bowling the batsman. The failure followed in the second match, this time India’s Asish Nehra sending him back at Centurion, the same venue the Australian chose to hit two consecutive centuries in his team’s memorable triumph.

“I think people have started to see the real Shane Watson in the last couple of matches. Getting his opportunity in the Ashes to open the batting, he played beautifully, and he is now showing with his bowling what a cricketer he can be. He bowled terrifically against England and then went out and scored 130-odd, but you can’t get much tougher than tonight’s situation,” an impressed Australian captain Ricky Ponting said on Monday.

Watson, who played a controlled innings to steer his team to victory in the final, said: “We needed discipline today, and we knew that if I was around till the 40^th over, we had a chance. It was set up with Ponting’s help in the semis to get me through, and he missed out today, but it was time for another to step up.

“The wicket today was a little slower than the other night (semifinal against England on Friday) but Mills and Bond bowled beautifully straight up until me and White had a good partnership,” he said.

Watson credited a turnaround in his career for a stint with the Indian Premier League for Rajasthan Royals, which won the inaugural tournament. Under Shane Warne’s captaincy, Watson improved his game and was the player of the tournament for his 472 runs and 17 wickets.

“There is no doubt that’s what got me back on the field, got my confidence up as a player, but also it got me back in the Australian team a bit quicker than I thought I would be. That was a massive turning point in my career, to be able to play on such a big stage when I wasn’t playing for Australia. I learned a lot through the captaincy and coaching of Warne and now it has helped me in bigger games to control my emotions.”

He also wants to emulate what Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden did as openers for Australia.

“Seeing Hayden and Gilchrist bat the way they did, there’s obviously a big opportunity for me to try to fill the void there because we always got off to flyers. Adam and Matt always got big totals, especially in big events, Adam Gilchrist in the World Cup final and Matt Hayden throughout the whole World Cup.

“I love batting at the top of the order against the new ball, so I have just got to do as best I possibly can,” he added.

Aussie Power

CENTURION — All rounder Shane Watson’s commanding century powered Australia to their second successive Champions Trophy triumph, thumping New Zealand by six wickets in the final at the SuperSport Park here on Monday night.

Watson, who hit a majestic 136 not out in the semifinal win over England here on Friday, played another stellar innings, steering the side to a Cup victory.

The all-rounder, who picked up six wickets from five matches, ended the tournament on a high note with a total of 265 runs after beginning the campaign with two ducks.

He smashed New Zealand spinner Jeetan Patel for two consecutive sixes to complete the Australian victory and his century.

Watson remained not out on 105 from 129 balls, including 10 fours and four sixes. James Hopes was unbeaten on a run-a-ball 22.

A 128-run partnership between Watson and Cameron White was the cornerstone of Australian innings after the New Zealand pacers threatened to pull off an upset, reducing Ricky Ponting’s team to 2-6 at one stage.

New Zealand’s opening attack was outstanding, with Kyle Mills and Shane Bond generating lively pace and movement on a bouncy wicket. Mills had an excellent first spell as he gave away only nine runs in his seven overs, taking one wicket. He returned in the 35^th over, when the match was almost sealed by Australia, and cleaned up White for 62. The batsman played a patient knock, hitting seven fours and one six in his 102-ball innings. Mills, later removed Michael Hussey as well, and ended with excellent figures of 3-27.

Bond, the only other bowler who was effective, finished with 1-34. Vettori’s replacement, Patel, gave away 44 runs from his 6.2 overs.

Life was difficult for the batsmen initially, but Watson and White survived the scare, and later opened up to play some delightful shots once they were settled. New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum, after scoring a duck while batting, also dropped White off Ian Butler’s bowling at a crucial time, compounding his woes on the field. In the 18^th over, the batsman skied a pull when he was on 15, but McCullum could not take the catch which could have reduced Australia to 41 for three.

Wicketkeeper-cum-opener Tim Paine was the first to go as Bond induced an edge and Taylor took an excellent catch at slips.

Captain Ricky Ponting (1) fell cheaply for the first time in the tournament with Mills trapping him in front of the wicket, raising the prospects of a Kiwi fight-back. But it was not to be.

Earlier, Australia restricted New Zealand to a score of 9-200, on the back of good bowling from Nathan Hauritz and Brett Lee. Hauritz finished with 3-37, while Lee bagged two for 45. Mitchell Johnson and Peter Siddle bowled economically while Watson ended wicket-less.

New Zealand, despite winning the toss and batting first, couldn’t recover from captain Daniel Vettori’s absence due to a hamstring strain.

The major partnerships for New Zealand were a 61-run contribution from Martin Guptill and Aaron Redmond, and another 65-run addition by Neil Broom and James Franklin.

The batsmen couldn’t get going as they kept on losing crucial wickets at regular intervals.

The Black Caps haven’t yet won a match against Australia in the Mini World Cup in four attempts, including the one at Centurion on Monday. The Australian victory margin was 164 runs in Sri Lanka seven years ago, seven wickets in England in 2004 and 34 runs in India three years ago.