Aussies Dazzle On Diwali Day

Damien Martyn provided the batting fireworks to guide Australia to acomfortable six-wicket win that left England all but eliminated from the ICCChampions Trophy today.

Martyn lit up Diwali day with an elegant 78 that helped the three-time worldchampions overcome an early stutter and reach the meagre target of 170 with 13.1overs to spare at the Sawai Man Singh stadium.

Martyn's graceful innings, filled with 12 fours from 91 balls, came after aninsipid batting performance by England saw them bowled out for 169.

As it turned out, the much-hyped 'prelude to the Ashes' turned out to bewhimper instead of a cracker.

The result gave Australia, who have never won the biennial event, the crucialtwo points they needed after losing the first match to the West Indies.

England, who too lost their first match against India, now have to rely ontoo many permutations to go through to the semifinals.

The win also helped the Aussies maintain an all-win record against theirarch-rivals on Indian soil, having won the 1987 World Cup final, the only timethe two teams have met here before today's match.

It was the pacers, with an immaculate bowling performance, who set up theAustralian win, though.

The trio of Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson and Shane Watson demonstrated the artof hitting the deck hard to perfection while ripping apart the England line up.

Watson claimed three wickets for 16, including the key scalp of Andy Flintoff(4) while left-arm speedster Johnson returned figures of 3-40.

Put in, England squandered a solid opening stand provided by Andrew Straussand Ian Bell and slumped from 83 for no loss to fold up in 45 overs.

Strauss top scored with 56 while Bell came up with a well paced 43.

However, the rest of the batsmen, with the exception of Paul Collingwood (22not out), failed to reach double figures.

The Australian chase began on a wrong note as they found themselvesprecariously placed at 34-3 after losing three wickets in the space of fourruns.

After slamming Sajid Mahmood for two successive fours, Adam Gilchrist seemedto lose focus following a brief stoppage when one of the light towers went out.

Coming as it did on the day of the Festival of Lights, the break was ironic.

The first ball on resumption, the left-handed opener left a gaping holebetween his bat and pad for Mahmood to get one through to rattle the timber.

Mahmood then beat Ricky Ponting's bat with an outswinger and Strauss held onto the outside edge at first slip.

Watson, who had struck three fours for his 21, played all over an in-cutterfrom James Anderson and lost his off-stump.

At this stage, Martyn took charge with his batting class and found his touchearly in the innings, as the lacklustre Steve Harmison fed him in his strongareas.

Martyn collected three successive boundaries from the first three ballsbowled by the 27-year-old Durham player and added two more in his next overforcing England skipper Andrew Flintoff to take the pacer out of the attack.

The Western Australian received solid support from Mike Hussey who played therole of a sheet-anchor by mixing dead defence with precise nudges during hisunbeaten knock of 32.

Earlier, there was little indication of the England collapse to come asStrauss and Bell negotiated the new ball without trouble.

Watson provided the breakthrough when he lured Bell into an uppish drive toHussey at short-cover.

Kevin Pietersen came in at number three followed by the captain. Both weretroubled by searing short pitched deliveries before they were dismissed.

Meanwhile, Strauss was in top form as he drove Bracken through the covers andthen welcomed McGrath with successive fours off the bowler's first two balls.

The left-handed opener glided Watson to third man and then dabbed Johnson tothe same fence.

But, he found himself in a knot against Andrew Symonds (1-11) and was caughtbehind while trying to cut the right arm bowler.

Three more wickets fell for the addition of 16 runs and Collingwood suddenlyfound himself without a partner at the other end.

PTI