JOHANNESBURG, Feb 11: Andrew Symonds, a last-minute chance inclusion, was Australia’s unlikely hero as his magnificent unbeaten 143 played a pivotal role in World Cup champions’ crushing victory by 82 runs over Pakistan in the vital Group ‘A’ clash at the sun-drenched Wanderers on Tuesday.

Symonds was inducted in the eleven after Australia ran out of options because of the absence of left-handers Michael Bevan (injured) and Darren Lehmann (banned), grabbed the opportunity with both hands to club 18 fours and two sixes that powered Australia to a massive 310 for eight after the holders had slumped to 86 for four and lost half the side with the total at 146.

Pakistan, always poor chasers, were never in the hunt and were bowled out for 228, thanks for some spirited knocks from Rashid Latif and Wasim Akram, the joint top-scorers with 33 apiece.

Pakistan kept losing wickets at regular intervals as the batsmen perished one after another, playing loose and injudicious strokes under ideal batting conditions. Even without master spinner Shane Warne Australian attack once again exposed Pakistan’s fragile batting.

All the pre-match hype describing the tie as the encounter of the preliminary round turned out to be a total disappointment for the capacity crowd who had expected plenty fireworks from two of the strongest teams in the competition loaded with exciting talent.

In the end it were the Australians who had their reputation enhanced and on this form will be hard to beat and in the process restored sanity in this crisis-hit event after the unexpected loss of hosts South Africa and New Zealand’s defeat against Sri Lanka.

Whether Pakistan will recover from this spineless display only time well tell. But the omens are not good for Waqar Younis and his team. It is still possible for them to bounce back and advance into the Super Sixes but it will require a Herculean effort to erase the memory of this comprehensive drubbing. To make sure of making the second stage Pakistan will have to win at least four of their remaining five matches.

Pakistan not only played poor cricket, their reputation took a severe beating when skipper Waqar was not allowed to complete the penultimate over of the innings by English umpire David Shepherd after the pacemen fired two beamers at Symonds.

Symonds and Waqar also came close to blows but Shepherd stepped in to save the erring Pakistan captain from further embarrassment.

He was extremely fortunate to get away with any further punishment from match referee Clive Lloyd.

Waqar’s captaincy also left much to be desired. To begin with, he left out off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq and then elected to field after winning the toss despite having a battery of fast bowlers.

As expected, Pakistan failed to complete their overs in time and were docked one over for slow over-rate. If that was not enough, he kept Shoaib Akhtar and Wasim Akram away from attack until the death overs though Australia had lost half their side before the 30th over.

Pakistan wasted an early advantage given by old war horse Wasim Akram as Symonds pounded Pakistan’s overrated pace attack to the all parts of the ground.

Pakistan also did not help their own cause by bowling too short and were also let down by some poor and mindboggling leadership by Waqar and the team’s highly-paid and oversized think tank.