Aussies fight back to force thrilling tie with England

NAIROBI - Australia, inspired by Brett Lee and Andrew Symonds, came back from a seemingly beaten position today to force a thrilling tie with England in their final warm-up match for the ICC Knockout here.

After Australia had made 9-236 off its 50 overs with Damien Martyn top scoring with 71, a resurgent England side appeared to be cruising at 4-178 in the 37th over before Symonds and Lee engineered a stunning Australian fightback.

Fittingly, the pair combined in spectacular style for the final decisive wicket which forced a tie.

England, needing five runs to win off the last over with two wickets in hand, looked home when Mark Alleyne smashed Symonds' first ball of the over for four to level the scores.

Then, after failing to score off the next ball, Alleyne was given out LBW to a Symonds delivery which appeared to hit him too high.

Number eleven Andy Caddick came to the wicket with three balls remaining and flicked the first delivery to mid-wicket for what looked certain to be the winning runs.

However, he did not count on the athleticism of Brett Lee who took a wonderful, diving one-handed catch to rob England of victory.

While it was simply a practice game, the jubiliant Australians mobbed Lee as one when he held the catch.

Earlier the young fast bowler had taken 3-51 off his ten overs while Symonds, bowling off spin instead of his usual medium pacers, finished with 3-16.

His fine display could have the big Queenslander called on to bowl spin when the Australians meets India in the first quarter-final of the ICC Cup here on Saturday after youngster Mark Higgs was belted to all parts of the Simba Union ground today in conceding 49 runs off his six overs.

However, to the inexperienced 24-year-old's credit, he did pick up the vital wicket of England opener Alec Stewart for 38.

Australia recovered from a slow start to its innings to post a competitive target.

After Mark Waugh (1), Ricky Ponting (4) and Michael Bevan (14) all went cheaply, Martyn rescued the innings with 71 off 89 balls.

The classy right hander did receive good support from fellow West Australian Adam Gilchrist (40 off 47 balls) while skipper Steve Waugh played another swashbuckling innings.

After retiring on 72 off only 74 balls during the win over Kenya on Saturday, Waugh today smashed 50 off only 39 balls before again opting to retire.

His innings certainly sent a warning to India, which qualified for Saturday's quarter-final by easily eliminating host nation Kenya in the opening preliminary match of the tournament today.

The Aussies will now have a two-day rest from cricket as they will head to Kenya's most famous game reserve, the Masai Mara, which is about 290 kilometres south-west of Nairobi near the border with Tanzania.