Read the article of Australia vs Pakistan 11th Match Benson & Hedges World Series Cup 1988-89 - Benson & Hedges World Series Cup one-day international tournament of the 11th ODI match played between Pakistan and Australia at Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne in 10th January 1989.
A superb unbeaten 125 by opener Geoff Marsh and Allan Border's half-century before A Medium-pacer Terry Alderman conceded four runs in the final over of the match as Australia won on superior run-rate and qualify for the best-of-three finals against West Indies in a rain-marred dramatic finish contest of the 11th match of a Benson and Hedges World Series Cup.
Match Stats : |
|---|
|
* In a match reduced to hit-and-hope status after Pakistan's innings was restricted to 19 overs by rain, Australia triumphed against the odds by six runs on superior run rate and will play in the best-of-three final against the West Indies.
* Opener Geoff Marsh's unbeaten 125 and captain Allan Border, had earlier boosted its overall run-rate to 4.47 by scoring 258 in an innings reduced to 43 overs by rain.
* The Pakistanis eventually emerged at 9 pm, resuming at 1-4 after 2.1 overs, in pursuit of 111 from 16.5 overs at 6.57 runs per over. But, in a dramatic finish which went down to the last over, they failed by only seven runs.
Australia scored 258-4 in the alloted 43 overs with top scorer by Geoff Marsh hit a unbeaten 125 off 121-balls - which was his 6th ODI hundred and his first century against Pakistan in ODIs - including 9-fours.
Allan Border cracked a 60 off 83-balls including 8-fours and Graeme Wood scored a unbeaten 24 off 19-balls included a boundary.
Pakistan best bowler by Tauseef Ahmed took 2-wickets and one for Javed Miandad - Imran Khan.
Pakistan scored 108-7 in 19 overs with top scorer by Imran Khan cracked a 42 off 40-balls without a boundary, Wasim Akram 17 and Javed Miandad 16.
Australia best bowler by Allan Border, Simon O'Donnell, Peter Taylor, Merv Hughes and Terry Alderman each took one-wickets.
This match reported by Patrick Smithers (Third Party Reference from The Age)
Australia defied Pakistan, Melbourne's chaotic weather and the dreaded calculator at the MCG night to move into the finals of the World Series Cup.
The Australians needed only to defeat Pakistan to make the finals against the West Indies, but that basic task was made infinitely more complicated by a series of interruptions that reduced the game to a lottery by numbers.
In the final of many analyses tapped out on hand-held computers, Pakistan needed 111 runs from 16.5 overs, a cruel equation of 6.6 per over, given Australia's commendable total of 258 from 43 overs.
Australia scraped home by six runs. It was in real peril of losing the game when, with one over remaining, Pakistan required 11 runs for victory with Imran Khan and Wasim Akram, two of the bigger hitters in international cricket, at the crease.
But some cool work by wicket-keeper Ian Healy, who ran out Imran with an underarm throw from the second ball of the over, and Terry Alderman, who bowled Akram with the fourth, ended Pakistan's statistically blessed charge.
Even had Pakistan made the required 115 runs needed from 19 overs, its chances of beating Australia to a place in the final would have been unlikely. Australia would still have had a superior run rate, and would have had to be restricted to 144 runs from 50 overs in the final game, against the West Indies on Thursday to fall behind Pakistan.
The formidable Australian total was built around a superb unbeaten knock of 125 by opener Geoff Marsh, who was named man of the match.
Marsh combined with Australian captain Allan Border, Mark Waugh and Graeme Wood in a series of fruitful and eminently sensible partnerships.
For the most part, Marsh was prepared to milk the bowling, improvising and using his wrists to accumulate runs at a rate of virtually one a ball as he dashed endlessly up and down the MCG wicket.
But his innings was destined for even greater things. It ended in a blaze of glory, first a savage pull to the fence off Qadir that brought up his century, and later a demolition job on no less a man than Imran himself. In all, he scored his unbeaten 125 off 121 balls and hit nine boundaries.
After persisting with the slow bowlers from the southern end. Imran finally brought himself back on for the last over of the innings in a bid to halt the torrent of runs. But his arrival had the opposite effect, costing Pakistan 15 runs, 14 of them from the uncharacteristically swashbuckling blade of Marsh, who put the Pakistan skipper back over his head to the fence and twice to the leg-side boundary. Imran, incensed at his side's mediocre performance in the field, and no doubt his own costly bowling, threw the ball angrily into the pitch while Marsh ran up the race to a standing ovation from the crowd.
The century was Marsh's sixth in limited-overs cricket, which means that he has scored twice as many hundreds as any other Australian batsman. A distinguished group of players are sitting on three centuries - Greg Chappell, Border, Dean Jones and Wood- but none of them come close to the gritty Western Australian.
A measure of Marsh's achievement was that he reached his sixth hundred in a game that had been shortened by seven overs. Once again he drove home the inescapable truth that intelligent batsmen can be every bit as effective as overtly aggressive ones in the abbreviated version of the game.
His main assistance yesterday came from Border, who at last heeded the cries for his elevation up the batting order and came to the crease at the fall of the first wicket. The Australian captain made 60 from 83 balls, his highest score in what has been a lean summer so far, and provided further ammunition for those who believe he should bat regularly at No. 3 for his country.
After the break, with the game reduced to 43 overs a side, the Australians developed a new and almost fanatical sense of urgency. In the final 13.2 overs after the rain interruption, they added 122 runs, a rate of more than nine an over. And that included the loss of the Waugh brothers Mark (12 off 13) and Steve (0) in one over from off-spinner Tauseef Ahmed, who found plenty of turn in the MCG wicket.
Wood proved an excellent partner for the tireless Marsh, chipping the ball around the field and giving his partner the strike. Wood hit only one boundary, but still managed to score an invaluable 24 from 19 balls. He and Marsh added a remarkable 80 from only 49 deliveries.
: