Woeful Pakistan capitulate without a whimper

It was a woeful performance with both bat and ball by Pakistan, and one of clinical precision by Australia. As it plunged to its heaviest defeat ever, by 224 runs, Pakistan was not just mauled, it was toyed with and humiliated. And the pretender capitulating without a whimper wasn't a pretty sight at all.

Fired by career-best performances by Mathew Hayden (146) and Jason Gillespie (5 for 22), the Aussies started off the tri-nation PSO Championship in emphatic style.

The Aussies put up 332 runs, and shot out Pakistan for a paltry 108 in 36 overs to make this Pakistan's worst defeat, eclipsing the one by 198 runs against England at Trent Bridge in 1992.

Pakistan was never in the contest as its chase went horribly wrong from the word go. Reduced to four for 13, it was all over bar the shouting as early as the seventh over. From then on, the only remaining interest left was the margin of Aussie victory. And also whether Pakistan would pass its previous lowest (132 in the '99 World Cup final) against Australia. With the top order gone so early, the tail couldn't wag for that long either.

Waqar Younis tinkered with the batting order, sending Abdul Razzaq to open with Imran Nazir, Shahid Afridi at number three, and pushing Saeed Anwar down to four. The ploy was a miserable failure, just as Younis' every other move on what must be his day of horrors.

Nazir again threw his wicket away by swishing at a wide, wide delivery in the second Gillespie over. Two balls later, Afridi was aghast as he saw his defensive shot deflecting from the ground to dislodge his leg-stump bail. McGrath uprooted Razzaq's middle stump and next over Anwar shouldered arms to a straight one to be leg before. Four for 13 in the seventh over, and Pakistan was in the direst of straits.

With the middle order bereft of class acts Inzamam and Youhana, it was beyond Younis Khan and Shoaib Malik to do the repair job and keep up with the scoring rate as well. The duo tried to hang in there, Malik occasionally indulging in his trademark off-drives. Came Shane Warne's first over and Younis perished cutting a low and wide one into Gilchrist's gloves. Malik poked at an Andy Bichel delivery to make it six for 67.

Azhar and Latif got a partnership of sorts going, it took Pakistan to 95 at the end of 30th over, saving them the ignominy of the biggest defeat ever (Sri Lanka had beaten India by 245 runs at Sharjah in October 2000). But it was small consolation.

Gillespie was brought back and he hastened the end with his second double blow in one over, sending back Wasim Akram and Younis. Shoaib Akhtar didn't survive his next over.

Hayden heroics:
When Younis won the toss and elected to bowl, he must have calculated that his pace and seam attack would wreak havoc on the Aussies.

As the Aussies bludgeoned an imposing 332, their highest against Pakistan, he must have sorely regretted the decision. Hayden's brute of a knock literally knocked the living daylights out of the much-touted Pakistan attack.

Pakistan had no answer to Hayden's (146, just 128 balls, 12 fours, 6 massive sixes) relentless charge. By the time he was fifth out with 10 balls remaining, as Shoaib Malik brought off a superb catch off Akram, the total was 316 and Pakistan's cause was all but lost.

The Pakistan attack apparently hadn't learnt any lessons from the outing against Kenya. It kept bowling short and wide on both sides of the stumps, and the Aussie upper order was way better equipped than Kenyans to take good care of such stuff. It ripped them apart with ruthless precision.

There were as many as 35 extras, and though Akram led the pack, each of them was guilty of transgression.

To begin with, Gilchrist and Hayden took boundaries off Akram and Younis almost at will. Akram finally removed Gilchrist with one that seamed late, but it was not much of a relief. Ponting and Hayden kept the innings on a fast track. Razzaq came first change, and Ponting launched into him with a lovely straight-batted off-drive for four, and Hayden planted him beyond long-off fence for a six to take 15 runs from the over.

When Akhtar was brought on, he too was not spared, Hayden pulling him to the long-on fence for a four to bring up the 100, off 96 balls. Ponting punished him even further with two fours and a six.

Having lost his captain Ponting (65, 72 balls, 7 fours, 2 sixes) after a magnificent 128-run stand off 119 deliveries for the second wicket and Damien Martyn in quick succession (both snared by Afridi); Hayden continued in the same aggressive vein. He found a willing second fiddle in Jimmy Maher, and the two between them added 122 in quick time, the second century-plus stand of the match.

The over-rate, painfully slow, and his pacers already clobbered all over the park, Younis bowled Afridi and Malik in tandem. The duo conceded 66 runs in 13 overs, way below par compared with the pacers!

Though Akram bowled a much-better second spell, 92 runs were hammered in the last 10 overs. Akhtar bowled the most expensive single over as Hayden tore into him, taking 17 out of 21 conceded. Younis replaced him, but was treated with scant respect. Hayden took sixes off his first balls in the next two overs, while Maher too chipped in with a huge straight one off Akram. Waqar struck back by removing Maher and Akram accounted for Hayden, but by then it was really irrelevant.

The Aussies had, for good measure, negated the psychological advantage that Pakistan had enjoyed after the series win in Australia with one big innings which put the match beyond the latter. What is worse, Pakistan never even made a fist of it.