Cricket: Black Caps swatted aside as world champions march on

7.30am

New Zealand were monstered once again by the power of big brother as their cricket World Cup batting blues resurfaced against the world champion Australians today.

The Black Caps will head home at the weekend after Australia bundled them out of the Champions Trophy with a seven-wicket win at The Oval in London, in what was a virtual knockout quarterfinal.

Defending an inadequate 198 for nine on a 250-par pitch, New Zealand were never in it as man of the match Andrew Symonds smashed 71 off 47 balls to end the rout with 12.4 overs to spare.

The match was all over at the halfway point of New Zealand's innings as a mixture of accurate pace bowling and poor shot selection saw them plummet to 89 for seven in the 24th over, after captain Stephen Fleming lost the all-important toss and was sent in.

Only wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum prevented an embarrassment, his 47 off 68 balls from No 9 New Zealand's top score as he and Daniel Vettori added 68 off 13 overs for the ninth wicket.

The result brought New Zealand back to earth with a dull thud, ending their unprecedented 10-match winning streak under coach John Bracewell which stretched back to February against South Africa, and increasing their worrying losing run against Australia to seven matches.

"They are very disappointed. We had high expectations for this tournament as you'd expect after the form we've shown," Bracewell told NZPA from a sombre dressing room.

There were familiar shades of Port Elizabeth 18 months ago, when New Zealand showed a lack of fight to collapse for 112 in their previous trans-Tasman clash at the World Cup.

Today, Australia captain Ricky Ponting was on the right side of the toss and even had the luxury of omitting speedster Brett Lee in favour of allrounder Shane Watson.

There was little doubt New Zealand would have bowled first, given the early morning September dew which assisted seam movement for the pacemen.

New Zealand looked to have weathered the early barrage from Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie, with Nathan Astle swatting four boundaries off McGrath to race to 18 off 19 balls.

But it all went awry when Astle was trapped in front by McGrath to one which angled in, then Hamish Marshall in his first one-dayer against Australia followed in almost identical fashion two balls later.

The two crucial wickets were those of Fleming and Scott Styris, both of which were offered cheaply.

The usually assured Styris was anchored on nought for 11 balls by McGrath before he guided a catch to Michael Clarke at gully, then Fleming skied an ambitious pull shot in Michael Kasprowicz's first over to perish for 29 and make it 49 for four in the 14th over.

"It was a typical September match in England, if you can't survive the first 15 overs you're almost gone," Bracewell said, adding he'd be "very surprised" if any team won the remaining tournament matches batting first.

"Some of us were guilty of going at the ball too hard and it cost us."

The collapse was complete soon afterwards, Jacob Oram offering Kasprowicz a return catch on 15 then fellow allrounder Chris Cairns unlucky to be fired leg before wicket first ball by South African umpire Rudi Koertzen to one which clearly looked to be too high.

Craig McMillan's promising 18 ended too soon when he was sent back by Chris Harris, bringing McCullum in for some late fireworks.

New Zealand had a glimmer of hope when Jacob Oram skittled Adam Gilchrist in the first over then Scott Styris knocked over Ricky Ponting's castle for 14, but Matthew Hayden got them rolling with 47 before Symonds strode in.

He and Damien Martyn added 100 off just 14 overs, Martyn 60 not out while Symonds slammed seven fours and four sixes.

"You need a bit of luck and a few decisions to go for you when you're defending 200. They had it and we didn't," Bracewell said.

New Zealand

S.Fleming c Gillespie b Kasprowicz 29

N.Astle lbw b McGrath 18

H.Marshall lbw b McGrath 0

S.Styris c Clarke b McGrath 0

C.McMillan run out 18

J.Oram c & b Kasprowicz 15

C.Cairns lbw b Kasprowicz 0

C.Harris c & b Lehmann 26

B.McCullum c Kasprowicz b Gillespie 47

D.Vettori not out 29

K.Mills not out 3

Extras (lb-4 w-7 nb-2) 13

Total (for nine wickets, 50 overs) 198

Fall of wickets: 1-30 2-36 3-49 4-49 5-79 6-79 7-89 8-124 9-192

Bowling: McGrath 10-0-39-3 (w-2), Gillespie 9-1-46-1 (w-4), Kasprowicz 10-1-32-3, Watson 6-0-32-0 (nb-2), Symonds 10-2-29-0 (w-1), Lehmann 5-0-16-1

Australia

A.Gilchrist b Oram 4

M.Hayden c Cairns b Harris 47

R.Pontingb Styris 14

D.Martyn not out 60

A.Symonds not out 71

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

Total (for three wickets, 37.2 overs) 199

Fall of wickets: 1-4 2-49 3-99

Did not bat: D.Lehmann, M.Clarke, S.Watson, M.Kasprowicz, J.Gillespie, G.McGrath.

Bowling: Oram 9-2-34-1 (nb-1), Mills 5.2-0-34-0, Vettori 10-0-52-0 (w-1), Styris 2-0-9-1, Cairns 3-0-17-0, Harris 7-1-36-1, McMillan 1-0-16-0

Result: Australia won by seven wickets

- NZPA