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Hollioake steers unbeaten England into Sharjah final

Christopher Martin-Jenkins

16 December 1997


ENGLAND have qualified for the final of the Champions' Trophy and most worthily so. They made up for a faltering batting performance against Pakistan's spinners with another admirable effort in the field to win their third match, by eight runs, writes Christopher Martin-Jenkins.

To be certain, they had to stop Pakistan from overtaking their total of 215 for nine inside 44 overs but they went one better, fielding like demons and bowling with great discipline.

England will be the only unbeaten side in Friday's final and it is a question now either of the West Indies making sure of joining them by beating India today or of the Indians winning and thereby giving themselves a chance. In those circumstances net run-rate would decide between India, West Indies and Pakistan.

England will not lose any sleep over which it is. Their medium-pacers again did their job effectively under the floodlights but only after Dougie Brown and Dean Headley had taken prime wickets in the first two overs. Pakistan rallied through the wristy flair of Saeed Anwar but Mark Ealham's performance in bowling his last eight overs for 19 runs after conceding 16 in his second typified the side's resilience.

Adam Hollioake and Matthew Fleming made sure that on a pitch getting slower by the day there was no Pakistani surge to victory and it would be no surprise now if Hollioake were to be rewarded before Christmas with the captaincy of the one-day side for the internationals at the end of the West Indies tour.

Even in defeat one could only admire, as always, the wonderful versatility of Pakistan's cricket. If this had been a green pitch or if the conditions right for swing, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Aaqib Javed and no doubt Azhar Mahmood too would have darted the ball this way and that. Instead, they picked all three of their leg-spinners and made full use of them. Their bowling star, however, was Saqlain Mushtaq, whose magical ability to dip and flight the ball makes him incomparably the best off-spinner in the world today.

He has relied in this tournament mainly on a curling top-spinner which lures batsmen forward and then turns a little away from them, often with a bit of extra bounce. Those who go for the big drive tend to sky it because they find themselves reaching for a ball which leaves them rather than turning into the path of their stroke. Those who, like Ealham and Fleming in successive balls yesterday, try to turn to leg, fondly imagining they are hitting with the spin, often get a leading edge. Both the Kent men did so yesterday, each in turn popping the ball back in a slow parabola to the bowler.

England had started well against the faster bowlers, Alec Stewart and Ali Brown taking eight off Wasim's first over and both hitting boldly but not recklessly through the line against the first 13 overs of relatively straightforward bowling. From the moment, however, that Brown, after another unselfish piece of pinch- hitting, had fallen to Saqlain off an inside edge on to his pad in the 14th over, England lost their momentum.

Their progress afterwards was like that of a seasick passenger bravely taking a walk on deck on a day when the sea is heaving. No one really looked as though he knew how to score runs fluently. But this is a spirited side and between them the England batsmen found a way of using their full quota of overs and eking out runs.

Stewart went in the 20th over, missing his intended cover drive at a googly from Manzoor Akhtar, a 20-year-old in his second international who bowled little leg-rollers round the wicket but disguised his wrong 'un well. Manzoor is the younger brother of the stylish opening bat, Mansoor Akhtar, who used to visit England in the 1980s. They must occasionally read each other's mail.

Manzoor, who later batted competently to earn the man-of-the-match award, bowled Nick Knight when he went back to a top-spinner and persuaded Hollioake to sweep him in the air to deep mid-wicket. He also bowled Graeme Hick off his thigh when he swept against the spin but Hick had managed 40 off 53 balls, occasionally seizing on a long-hop and pulling it mightily. He dealt with Saqlain better than most.

Graham Thorpe's was the most wasteful dismissal. Deciding against a second run to Ijaz Ahmed at deep mid-on, he thought he had grounded his bat when in fact he had not. Despite some marvellous variations by Shahid Afridi, who oozes talent, England managed 35 from the last 10 overs, Dougie Brown making 17 of them. He is proving himself a genuine all-rounder and his body language is perfect, conveying enjoyment and self-belief without bombast.

What is more, he took a wicket in the first over again, this time with his second ball. Just as Philo Wallace had been two days ago, Shahid was bowled though the gate, beaten by nip-back off the seam and a ball which came off faster than he had anticipated. When Headley, who bowled particularly well apart from one wayward over, followed up by hitting Aamir Sohail's off-stump as he played back to a good-length ball, England were naturally jubilant but Saeed Anwar and Ijaz Ahmed pulled Pakistan back with a partnership of 94 which had the schoolgirls screaming.

Saeed is a terribly difficult man to bowl to because he comes across his stumps and flicks straight balls off his legs. Dougie Brown was the first to go, picked up on to a roof at backward square-leg, and Ealham suffered similarly before recovering nobly with a maiden and keeping a tight rein thereafter. Robert Croft, who needed a good performance in conditions suiting him, duly produced it. The game came back into the balance when Saeed edged a cut on to his off-stump from the last ball of the 21st over, whereupon Ijaz skied a catch off the first ball of the 22nd.

The talented young Azhar Mahmood produced wild excitement with a late flourish but Stewart caught a steepler off the fifth ball of the 49th over and deftly ran out Saqlain off the last.


Source: The Electronic Telegraph
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Date-stamped : 25 Feb1998 - 15:31