Aussies sail into W/Cup final

PORT ELIZABETH:  Defending champions Australia beat Sri Lanka by 48 runs in a rain-interrupted semi-final at St George’s Park yesterday to qualify for their third consecutive Cricket World Cup final.

Australia improved their record winning roll to 16 in one-dayers and, once again, a pace attack spearheaded by Brett Lee’s three wickets battered and bruised the Sri Lankans. Chasing 213 runs for an upset, Sri Lanka slumped to 123 for seven in 38.1 overs before rain ended the match. The 1996 champions needed 172 to win at the time of the interruption, according to the Duckworth-Lewis method for rain-enforced revisions. After Andrew Symonds’ unbeaten 91 dug Australia out of trouble and helped them reach their  highest total in three matches here — 212 for seven in 50 overs — McGrath and Lee reduced Sri Lanka to 78 for seven after 25 overs. It was a mere formality from there.

 “It was vital to get early wickets,” said skipper Ricky Ponting. “We took wickets and kept it very tight. Sri Lanka was always under fair bit of pressure.” Ponting said he always backed his team to win after posting what he thought was a borderline total. “It was a very good win again today I thought. The partnership in the middle really set us up to a respectable total on the board. “Then our bowlers came out and did the job very, very well. In all, it was a very pleasing day for us.” Lee took 3-35 in eight overs to increase his tally to 20 wickets for the tournament. Sri Lanka never recovered from the destructive six-over opening burst by Lee, when he bowled at almost 100 mph and removed Marvan Atapattu (14), Hashan Tillakaratne (3) and Avishka Gunawardene (1). Glenn McGrath removed Sanath Jayasuriya and Andy Bichel threw down the stumps to run out Aravinda de Silva as Sri Lanka slumped to 51 for five.

Jayasuriya said the batting lineup again crumbled, like it did in the 96-run loss to the Aussies in the opening Super Six match. “We let ourselves down today,” said Jayasuriya. “Again, the batting let us down really badly, the middle order collapsed again.” The bowling was much better, with Jayasuriya and de Silva getting two wickets apiece and Chaminda Vaas picking up three for 34 to increase his total to 23 for the tournament, a new World Cup record. Australian legspinner Shane Warne and New Zealand paceman Geoff Allott shared the old record, both taking 20 wickets at the last World Cup in England. Lee claimed Atapattu and Tillakaratne with two of the quickest deliveries in the match. He clocked 160.1 kph (99.48 mph) to uproot Atapattu’s off stump a ball after the opener was dropped by Brad Hogg at point. Then another quick ball had Tillakaratne edging to wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist.

Earlier Symonds played his second memorable innings of the tournament to guide Australia out of danger after Vaas took two wickets in his first seven overs. His 118-ball innings including a six and seven boundaries. He also survived a missed stumping on 37 when he was beaten by a Jayasuriya ball but Sangakkara failed to glove it cleanly. In Australia’s opening match of the tournament, Symonds belted 143 off 125 balls against Pakistan at the Wanderers, just hours after it was revealed team-mate Shane Warne had to leave the tournament to face doping charges.

Australia’s early batting overshadowed an amazing show of sportsmanship by vice-captain Adam Gilchrist. Gilchrist, who hit 22 off 20 balls, thought he got a glove off de Silva’s second delivery and it skidded onto his pads and popped up for wicketkeeper Sangakkara. Umpire Rudi Koertzen was unmoved, however, Gilchrist walked off of his own volition to the surprise of Sri Lanka, his Australian team-mates and the crowd. Australia will meet the winner of tomorrow’s semi-final between 1983 champion India and minnow Kenya at the Wanderers, Johannes-burg, on Sunday.