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| March 11, 2003 | Tuesday | Muharram 7, 1424 |
Australia v New Zealand factbox
TEAMS: Australia, the 1999 winners, remain unbeaten in the tournament despite the loss of Shane Warne (drugs ban) and Jason Gillespie (heel injury), as well as quick bowler Shane Watson before the tournament even began.
New Zealand had real quality in the likes of skipper Stephen Fleming — the Australians say they will target him specifically — batsman Nathan Astle and bowlers Shane Bond and Daniel Vettori, as well as all rounder Chris Cairns. The rest of their players may not all be world-class Test men but they look completely at home in one-dayers.
FORMWATCH: Australia have seven wins in seven in the World Cup as part of a world-record run of 13 one-dayers in a row.
They were only tested once in Group A, when England had them on the ropes before Andy Bichel and Michael Bevan’s match-saving unbroken stand (73 for the ninth wicket).
New Zealand’s form is much better than the Super Six points table suggests. They have only lost one game in the World Cup and won their last five in a row. The defeat came against Sri Lanka, Scott Styris’s 141 the high point in a poor batting display. They then forfeited their Kenya game. Both those teams qualified, undermining New Zealand’s points situation in the second stage despite fine wins over West Indies and South Africa.
HEAD-T0-HEADS: Overall, Australia beat New Zealand in two games out of three, both home and away. On neutral territory, however, the winning equation is 8-1 in Australia’s favour. New Zealand will be drawing inspiration from their 3-1 win in Australia a year ago in a tri-series also involving South Africa, while Ricky Ponting will look to their last meeting in September when his men cruised home by a massive 164 runs.
KEY PLAYERS: Australia — Left-arm wrist spinner Brad Hogg has had a fine World Cup but has barely been noticed. Yet he has taken nine wickets at 21, including the scalps of Andy Flower and Aravinda de Silva, and has excelled in the field, taking four catches. He is also a real enthusiast. Shane Warne’s absence has simply not been an issue.
New Zealand — Skipper Stephen Fleming, looking the part at the top of the batting order during the World Cup, will be targeted by Australia’s quicks. A good start to the New Zealand innings will be essential to Kiwi chances.
PREVIOUS WORLD CUPS: Australia won the trophy for the first time in 1987 and, having achieved runners-up spots in 1975 and 1996 before winning again in 1999, are the only country to have reached the final on four occasions.
New Zealand are the ‘nearly men’ of the World Cup, reaching the semifinals in 1975, 1979, 1992 and 1999 as well as the quarterfinals in 1995 but never finishing off the job.—Reuters
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