Pakistan almost there

Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath produced a devastating spell of fast bowling to destroy Pakistan’s top-order as Australia won Friday’s...

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 219/9. 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 Inzamam-ul-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.’’

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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 3/23.

McGrath took 3/34, taking his career tally past 300 One-Day International wickets, as Pakistan stumbled to 27/4. 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-match 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.

BRIEF SCORES

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Australia: 237 (D Martyn 53, A Symonds 91; Naved-ul-Hasan 2/50, Afridi 2/50, Razzaq 3/33). Pakistan: 219 (Inzamam-ul-Haq 51, Shoaib Malik 66; Brett Lee 3/23, Glenn McGrath 3/34, Jason Gillespie 2/47).

Maximum for Afridi

Shahid Afridi set a new world record of most sixes in limited overs international cricket when he hit second six off the bowling of Shane Watson at Melbourne today. It was his 189th six in 198 ODIs. Sanath Jayasuriya held the previous record of 188 sixes in 333 one day internationals.

THE TOP SIX HITTERS IN ODIs

• Shahid Afridi: (M-198, Runs-4325, Sixes-190)

• Sanath Jayasuriya: (M-333, Runs-9896, Sixes-188)

• Sourav Ganguly: (M-266, Runs-9914, Sixes-168)

• Chris Cairns: (M-198, Runs-4628, Sixes-142)

• Sachin Tendulkar: (M-342, Runs-13497, Sixes-142)

S Pervez Qaiser