Cricket: Poor Pakistan succumb again

Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .260-8

Pakistan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .237-6

Australia win by 23 runs

AUSTRALIA completed an ideal warm-up for the World Series Cup one-day finals with another comfortable victory against Pakistan in Sydney yesterday.

The home country cruised to a 23-run win to inflict a sixth successive one-day defeat on Pakistan and end a miserable series for the World Cup holders. The match had no bearing on the best-of-three finals, beginning in Sydney tomorrow, as Australia and the West Indies had already qualified.

Pakistan faced a stiff target after the Australians batted first and thrashed 260 for 8 off their 50 overs. Steve Waugh was the top scorer with 64 from 65 balls. An 84-run partnership for the third wicket between Javed Miandad (41) and Ramiz Raja (67) gave the Pakistanis some hope, but they couldE not step up the pace sufficiently.

--------------------------------------------------------------------- AUSTRALIA (Australia won toss) D C Boon c sub b Asif Mujtaba. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50 M A Taylor b Asif Mujtaba. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58 D M Jones b Mushtaq Ahmed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 S R Waugh c Asif Mujtaba b Waqar Younis. . . . . . . . . .64 M E Waugh run out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 * A R Border b Waqar Younis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 ] I A Healy lbw b Waqar Younis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0 G R J Matthews not out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 A I C Dodemaide run out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 P R Reiffel not out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Extras (b6 lb5 nb4 w4). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Total (for 8, 50 overs). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260 Did not bat: C J McDermott. Fall: 1-112 2-124 3-144 4-167 5-230 6-230 7-245 8-257. Bowling: Wasim Akram 10-0-39-0; Aqib Javed 9-0- 52-0; Waqar Younis 9-1-55-3; Mushtaq Ahmed 10-0- 39-1; Asif Mujtaba 9-0-47-2; Aamir Sohail 3-0-17-0. ---------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------- PAKISTAN --------------------------------------------------------------------- Aamir Sohail b Dodemaide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Ramiz Raja c Border b Matthews. . . . . . . . . . . . . .67 Salim Malik c Healy b Dodemaide. . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 * Javed Miandad c M E Waugh b Border. . . . . . . . . . .41 Inzamam-ul-Haq b McDermott. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40 Wasim Akram b Matthews. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 Asif Mujtaba not out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47 Waqar Younis not out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 Extras (b1 lb6 w4). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 Total (for 6, 50 overs). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .237 Did not bat: Rashid Latif, Mushtaq Ahmed, Aqib Javed. Fall: 1-24 2-46 3-130 4-132 5-133 6-204. Bowling: McDermott 9-3-27-1; Dodemaide 8-2-30-2; Reiffel 10-0-53-0; S R Waugh 5-0-26-0; Matthews 10-0-54-2; Border 8-0-40-1. ----------------------------------------------------------------- AUSTRALIA WIN BY 23 RUNS -----------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------------------------- FINAL STANDINGS ----------------------------------------------------------------- (after completion of preliminary round) P W L T Pts NRR Australia 8 5 2 1 11 0.06 West Indies 8 5 3 - 10 0.78 Pakistan 8 1 6 1 3 -0.85 -----------------------------------------------------------------