Aussies on brink of completing world humiliation

CLIFFORD Landers reporting from Australia SYDNEY (Sunday) - Australia is on the brink of inflicting another humiliating defeat upon the star-studded ICC World XI at the end of the third day's play of the inaugural Johnnie Walker six-day Super Test played at the Sydney Cricket Grounds yesterday.

Requiring a mandatory record breaking effort to reach the 355-run target and preserve individual reputation, the out-of-form World XI were tottering at 25 for 2 when bad light again interrupted play for the third time with 34 overs to spare for the day.

The 157-year-old SCG is reputed as a grave yard for the team batting last and the highest victory target reached on this ground was 276 runs 108 years ago when the Aussie's own Joe Darling scored an incredible 160 to give his side a six-wicket win against England while chasing 275 to win.

Therefore considering the performances and form of the World XI batsmen they are very unlikely to succeed in reaching the mammoth task while attaining the 200-run mark- let alone the victory mark -could or deserve to be regarded as a praiseworthy effort.

Glenn Mcgrath stretched his highest bowling Test tally to 521 off the second ball of the innings bowling skipper Graeme Smith for a duck while Stuart Mcgill tempted first innings top scorer Virender Sewag to cut a spinning-away delivery who nicked it to Adam Gilchrist for 7 to be hopelessly placed at 18 for 2 when bad light halted play for the day with 34 overs to spare.

Earlier, when the Aussies were cruising along handsomely at 152 for 1 Englishmen Steve Harmison (3 for 41) and Andrew Flintoff (3 for 48) combined effectively with Sri Lankan spin king Muttiah Muralitharan (3 for 58) to force a massive Aussie batting collapse of 9 for 47. Flintoff bagged his 150th wicket in his 53rd Test after Shane Warne scooped a catch to Rahul Dravid at short mid-on.

The Sri Lankan spinner who is bowling in a Test on Australian soil after almost 10 years mesmerised the opposition batsmen after claiming the wicket of Simon Katich caught and bowled in his brilliant 16th over and then the dangerous Gilchrist and Mcgrath to take his overall Test wicket tally to 568.

Although opener Mathew Hayden followed up his first innings 111 with a gutsy 77 and continued with his overnight second wicket partnership of 122 crucial runs with his skipper Ricky Ponting the latter batsmen collapsed to the disciplined bowling by the trio under gloomy weather and helpful pitch conditions.

Harmison deceived Hayden with a slow ball to rattle the off stump and triggered the nose-dive soon afterwards bowling Michael Clarke's middle stump through the gate. Ponting's 111-ball 54-run innings with four fours ended when Flintoff's well pitched ball nicked his bat to be caught behind by Boucher.

AUSTRALIA 1ST INNINGS 345 (M. Hayden 111, A. Gilchrist 94; A. Flintoff 4-59) 
WORLD XI 1ST INNINGS 190 (V. Sehwag 76; S. MacGill 4-39) 
AUSTRALIA 2ND INNINGS (Overnight: 66-1) 

J. Langer c Smith b Kallis 		22 
M. Hayden b Harmison 		77 
R. Ponting c Boucher b Flintoff 		54 
M. Clarke b Harmison 			5 
S. Katich c&b Muralitharan 		2 
A. Gilchrist c Kallis b Muralitharan 		1 
S. Watson c Boucher b Flintoff 		10 
S. Warne c Dravid b Flintoff 		7 
B. Lee c Muralitharan b Harmison 		3 
G. McGrath c Smith b Muralitharan 	2 
S. MacGill not out 			0 

Extras (b-7 lb-7 nb-2) 			16 

TOTAL (all out, 65.3 overs) 		199 

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-30 2-152 3-160 4-167 5-167 6-170 7-177 8-192 9-195 10-199. 
BOWLING: S. Harmison 12.3-2-41-3, A. Flintoff 16-2-48-3 (nb-1), J. Kallis 3-1-3-1, 
	M. Muralitharan 24-5-55-3, D. Vettori 10-0-38-0 (nb-1). 

WORLD XI 2ND INNINGS 

G. Smith b McGrath 			0 
V. Sehwag c Gilchrist b MacGill 		7 
R. Dravid not out 			17 
B. Lara not out 			0 

Extras (lb-1) 			1 

TOTAL (for 2 wickets, 8 overs) 		25 

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-0 2-18 
TO BAT: Inzamam-ul-Haq, J. Kallis, A. Flintoff, M. Boucher, D. Vettori, S. Harmison, 
	M. Muralitharan 
BOWLING: G. McGrath 1-1-0-1, B. Lee 1-0-4-0, S. Warne 3-0-13-0, S. MacGill 3-1-7-1