05 February 2005	Saturday	25 Zilhaj 1425

SYDNEY, Feb 4: Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath produced a devastating spell of fast bowling to destroy Pakistan's top-order as Australia won Friday's opening one-day final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground by 18 runs.

The pair captured three wickets each as the world champions defended a modest total of 237 by restricting the tourists to 219 for nine. Pakistan looked to be in with a great chance after bowling the home side out in the 49th over before Lee and McGrath swung the match back Australia's way.

"We came up a little bit short with our batting but our new ball bowling was outstanding," Australia captain Ricky Ponting said. "We're nowhere near our best yet but we still came away with a good win."

Pakistan captain Inzamamul Haq responded: "I thought we bowled very well and 237 was definitely a good total to chase. We wanted to see off the new ball but we lost too many early wickets."

Lee trapped Salman Butt lbw for a duck on the second ball of the Pakistan innings and also captured the wickets of Yousuf Youhana for two and Inzamam for 51 to finish with three for 23.

McGrath took three for 34, taking his career tally past 300 one-day international wickets, as Pakistan stumbled to 27 for four. Inzamam and Shoaib Malik (66) rebuilt the innings with a fifth-wicket partnership of 91 but Pakistan's slow start caught up with them as the required run-rate started to climb.

Andrew Symonds made a superb 91 to win the Man-of-the-mMtch award and Damien Martyn scored 53 to help Australia post a modest total after two separate batting collapses. Australia dropped out-of-form opener Matthew Hayden and promoted Michael Clarke to open with Adam Gilchrist.

But Clarke, brilliant in the preliminary series, was trapped lbw by Rana Navedul Hasan for nine, Gilchrist was well caught by Abdul Razzaq at long off for 24 and Ponting was bowled by Rao Iftikhar for 11, leaving Australia in early trouble at 53 for three.

Symonds and Clarke rebuilt with a fourth-wicket partnership of 137 at nearly a run a ball but their dismissals triggered an even bigger collapse as Australia lost their last seven wickets for 47 runs.

Martyn, made 53 off 78 balls without hitting a single boundary before he was stumped by Kamran Akmal off Sahid Afridi with the total on 190. Symonds belted seven boundaries before falling nine runs short of his century when he was caught in the covers off Razzaq, the pick of the Pakistani bowlers with three for 33.

Shahid Afridi and Navedul Hasan both took two for 50 but the tourists dropped a couple of catches and had several close decisions go against them. The teams meet again at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Sunday for the second final. If Pakistan win, a deciding match will be played at Adelaide on Tuesday.

SCOREBOARD



AUSTRALIA 



A.Gilchrist c Razzaq b M. Khalil              24



M.Clarke lbw b Rana Navedul Hasan             9 



R.Ponting b Rao Iftikhar                      11 



D.Martyn st K. Akmal b Shahid Afridi          53



A.Symonds c Inzamam b Abdul Razzaq            91



D.Lehmann c K. Akmal b Shahid Afridi          0 



S.Katich c sub (Yasir) b Abdul Razzaq         9



S.Watson c M. Hafeez b Abdul Razzaq           4 



B.Lee b Rana Navedul Hasan                    13 



J.Gillespie not out                           3 



G.McGrath run out                             1 



Extras (b-1 lb-8 w-7 nb-3)                    19 



Total (all out, 49 overs)                     237



Fall of wkts: 1-29 2-51 3-53 4-190 5-190 6-213 7-213 8-220 9-235



Bowling: Rana Navedul Hasan 9-0-50-2 (nb-2 w-2), Rao Iftikhar 8-1-27-1 (w-2), 
Mohammad Khalil 4-0-30-1 (w-1), Shahid Afridi 10-0-50-2 (nb-1 w-1), 
Abdul Razzaq 10-0-33-3 (w-1), Mohammad Hafeez 8-0-38-0.



PAKISTAN 



Salman Butt lbw b Lee                         0 



Kamran Akmal c Gillespie b McGrath            4 



Mohammad Hafeez c Watson b McGrath            13 



Yousuf Youhana b Lee                          2 



Inzamamul Haq c McGrath b Lee                 51 



Shoaib Malik c Lehmann b Gillespie            66 



Abdul Razzaq run out                          3 



Shahid Afridi c Katich b Gillespie            26 



R. Navedul Hasan c Lehmann b McGrath          29 



Rao Iftikhar not out                          19 



Mohammad Khalil not out                       0 



Extras (lb-3 w-2 nb-1)                        6 



Total (for nine wkts, 50 overs)               219



Fall of wkts: 1-1 2-7 3-9 4-27 5-118 6-123 7-153 8-171 9-216



Bowling: Lee 10-0-23-3 (w-1), McGrath 10-3-34-3, Gillespie 10-0-47-2 (nb-1 w-1), 
Watson 9-1-38-0, Lehmann 4-0-29-0, Symonds 7-0-45-0.



Result: Australia won by 18 runs to lead best-of-three series 1-0.



SECOND FINAL:  Feb 6: Sydney 



THIRD FINAL (IF REQUIRED):  Feb 8: Adelaide. - Reuters