McGrath creates World cup record, Oz mauls B'desh by 10 wkts

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

St Peter's, Antigua, Mar 31 (UNI) Glenn McGrath scalped three top order wickets to set up a new milestone by becoming the highest wicket taker in the cricket World Cup as Australia mauled surprise qualifier Bangladesh by 10 wickets in 13.5 overs to record their second straight Super Eight league at Sir Vivian Richards ground here today.

Mcgrath was declared man of the match and this victory further consolidated Australia's positon for a semifinal berth. They now have six points, four from two super eight league victories and two they carried forward from the group stage league and in all they have so far recorded five wins in a row.

Due to heavy overnight rains, Bangladesh's debut in the Super Eight phase was delayed as huge wet patches on either side of the ground held up the start of play for five hours.

The match was reduced to 22-over per innings and when Australia skipper Ricky Ponting won the toss he expectedly invited Bangladesh to bat.

The Tigers managed to cross the three digit barrier by scoring 104 for 6 in the allotted overs and in reply marauding opening pair of Adam Gilchrist (59) and Matthew Hayden (47)made light of the target as they mauled the Bangladesh bowlers to score 106 without getting separated with 8.1 overs to spare. .

Bangladesh bowlers looked novice against rampaging Gilchrist cracked his 50th half century in a blistering pace, hitting 44 ball 59 with the help of one six and eight boundaries.

In-form Mathew Hayden sent the bowlers on a leather hunt smashing 39-ball 47 which inclued three sixes.

Earlier, McGrath ripped through the Bangladesh top-order to restrict the giant killers to 104 for six in 22-overs.

Going into his 33rd World Cup match with 54 wickets under his belt, McGrath clean bowled opener Shahriar Nafees in his second and team's fourth over to equal Pakistani great Wasim Akram's record of 55 wickets.

The tall and lanky pacer struck again in his next over to become the highest wicket taker when he had Aftab Ahmed caught spectacularly at mid off by Nathan Bracken to leave Bangladesh tottering at 25 for 3 in 5.3 overs.

The first wicket that of opener Tamim Iqbal was taken by Nathen Bracken who had the batsman caught by Brad Hogg at mid off when the score was just four.

McGrath took his World Cup tally further up when he got rid of prolific Mohd Ashraful, who was snapped at mid on by Ricky Ponting.

The bowler finished with a spell of 5-0-16-3.

Put into bat in a rain-shortened match of 22 overs each innings, Bangladesh managed to set a 105-run victory target for the defending champions, thanks to trio of Sakib al Hassan (25), skipper Habibul Bashar (24) and Mashrafe Mortaza (25 not out).

The Bangladesh batsmen were all at sea against the might of the Australians but some wild and desperate hitting saw their score crossing hundred mark. At one stage they were 65 for 5 in 16.2 overs but scored 39 runs in remaining 5.4 overs to add respectability to their total.

UNI

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