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After a series of insipid matches, the Champions Trophy has well and truly come to life, as Pakistan’s stunning victory on Tuesday was followed by an inspired performance by West Indies, who pulled the rug from under the Australians’ feet, sending them spiralling to a ten-run defeat in a pulsating contest. On a Brabourne Stadium pitch that lasted the course much better than its predecessors, West Indies rode on fine performances from Runako Morton (90 not out) and Brian Lara (71) to post 234 for 6, and then restricted Australia to 224 for 9 despite a magnificent and measured 92 from Adam Gilchrist, with Jerome Taylor providing the icing on the cake by becoming the first West Indian to take a hat-trick in ODIs.

From the start, the West Indians showed an intensity that indicated just how keen they were to erase the bad memories of their humiliation against Sri Lanka. Morton and Lara set it up in the afternoon with crucial knocks, while the entire team displayed a desperation that has rarely been in West Indian cricket of late. Chris Gayle, usually one of the most laidback cricketers, epitomised that aggression, going at Michael Clarke with a fierce verbal blast even when West Indies seemed out of the contest. They never let up in the field, and when the 101-run partnership between Gilchrist and Clarke finally ended, the West Indians closed in on their victims like champions.

Australia will feel they should have sealed this one, but the rot started when Gilchrist was involved in a mix-up after a superbly constructed 92. At that stage Australia needed 53 in 50 balls, and with Clarke going strong, they were still favourites. Bravo then chipped in, delivering his famous slower ball to perfection and forcing a return catch out of Clarke (206 for 6). The target was now 29 in 23 balls, but a certain Michael Hussey was still around. That’s when Taylor decided to stamp his authority on the contest. Coming back for a spell in the 48th over, he bowled it fast and straight: Hussey, already frustrated by his inability to get the spinners away, swatted at one and lost his stumps. Next ball, Brett Lee was trapped plumb in front by a fast indipper to end the over. Bravo bowled the 49th, before Taylor returned for the last over and shattered Brad Hogg’s leg stump as he shaped to play to leg. The hat-trick had been sealed, and so had - effectively - the match.

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‘The pitch is going to play a part and we are looking to get the better part of it - Lara

Brian Lara has lifted his game ever so many times when up against the best in the world. He was hoping his team would do just that as they take on Australia at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. Speaking at a pre-match media briefing he said, “We have beaten the opposition [Australia] in the last month and that’s a positive. We are going to ensure that the guys know that and the biggest positive is the fact that the pitch is going to play a part and we are looking to get the better part of it.”

Lara did not place too much stress on the pitch, which has come in for plenty of criticism in the wake of the South Africa-New Zealand match. “Firstly you have to play on whatever pitch you’re given. There’s nothing you can do about it,” he said. “What’s confusing is the fact that New Zealand batted first and didn’t put up a total on the board and South Africa batted second and did not do well.”

At the same time, Lara stressed on the importance of playing smart cricket. “It’s important for the team batting first to put up a good total. It’s up to the people at CCI (Brabourne Stadium) to try and get things improved and the final is here as well. So we hope the pitches will improve,” he said. “It’s not the sort of pitch where you can think of 275 or 300 being on the cards. We will be looking to score as much as possible, analyse the situation as early as possible.”

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Stephen Fleming waged a lone battle for New Zealand

The trend of low scores and poor pitches continued at the Champions Trophy, as New Zealand crushed South Africa by 87 runs at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. In conditions where batting was an onerous task, Stephen Fleming played an outstanding knock for the second time in a major one-day competition against South Africa. In the World Cup, he had creamed 134 effortless runs; here, his 89 was the difference between the two sides, enabling New Zealand to mount 195. His opposite number for South Africa, Graeme Smith, was the second-highest score with 42 - but none of the other batsmen had much of a clue.

The pitch was a different one to what had been used a couple of days back when West Indies were mauled by Sri Lanka, but the result wasn’t much different. Early on it offered more pace and bounce than the track on which West Indies got rolled over, but as the day wore on strokeplay became increasingly tougher, especially against the older ball. By the time South Africa were midway into their innings, there was a puff of dust every time the ball landed on the turf, and the abrasive nature of the pitch made the ball grip the surface - it was all far too much for the South African batsmen, and for most of the New Zealanders as well.

The one batsman who conquered these tough conditions was Fleming. At the start, when strokeplay was relatively easier, he executed some crisp strokes, flicking wide off mid-on with characteristic flair and cutting and driving with panache on the off side. He played and missed more than once early on, but when wickets fell regularly at the other end, he cut out the risks and ensured that he stayed through most of the innings.

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Irfan Pathan and Sachin Tendulkar added 50 for the second wicket before India tried to make a hash of an easy chase

India hiccupped their way to a nervy four-wicket win over England in their opening Champions Trophy encounter at Jaipur. Sixteen wickets fell for 251 runs on a day when neither team’s batsmen covered themselves with glory, but India just about managed to hold it together under lights after they had done superbly in the field, bundling England out for a paltry 125 in 37 overs.

Though India struggled in their run-chase, England had little chance once their batsmen had folded up so meekly. For the second time in two days, the team batting first came unstuck on a pitch which, while by no means a shirtfront, certainly wasn’t a minefield. In the early overs there was a fair amount of pace and bounce on offer for the fast bowlers, but soon there was also more than a hint of uneven bounce as a few deliveries shot through to the wicketkeeper, while some reared up from a length. The need of the hour was for the batsmen to knuckle down, graft their runs, and put away the premeditated strokes, but apart from Paul Collingwood and Jamie Dalrymple, none of the England batsmen were prepared to adopt that route.

The Indians, for their part, hardly got anything wrong in the field. Dravid’s decision at the toss turned out to be a masterstroke, while the biggest gain for them from this game was undoubtedly Irfan Pathan’s return to bowling form. In his last 38 overs - starting with the tour to the West Indies - Pathan has leaked 233 runs but here he rediscovered all the virtues which had made him such a matchwinner in his first 18 months in international cricket: he swung it appreciably, got plenty of bounce early on, and found more than an extra yard of pace, consistently touching 130 kmph. Munaf Patel bowled with the control which has now become a norm, the spinners backed the fast bowlers superbly, while the fielding was refreshingly energetic, with direct hits finding their target more than once.

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Pakistan cricket, already besieged by multiple controversies, has received another body blow with Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif, their leading new-ball bowlers, testing positive for the banned anabolic steroid Nandrolone during an internal dope test carried out by the Pakistan Cricket Board. They have been recalled to Pakistan and will miss the Champions Trophy.

Salim Altaf, Director Operations, PCB, told Cricinfo that the board, as signatories to the ICC’s Anti-Doping Policy (ADP), had carried out a routine test on 19 players at the end of September. The tests were put in place at the behest of Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan coach and are thought to be the first ever held in Pakistan cricket. The results were sent to the nearest World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) laboratory, in Malaysia for analysis. “They told us two samples had come back positive - of Asif and Shoaib - and the chairman was duly informed,” said Altaf.

The board had asked for the concerned samples to be tested again though there was some confusion over whether the second results had arrived. The PCB claimed in the morning that the results were due tomorrow, but Dr Nasim Ashraf, newly-installed chairman of the PCB told reporters in Rawalpindi that the second test had also yielded the same results.

The decision to call back the players pre-empts the embarrassment of them being found guilty during the tournament, at one of the random drugs tests recently put in place by the ICC for major events. The ICC had, according to the PCB, been informed of the situation and a decision was expected to be taken soon on whether two replacements can be sent. The possible replacements, the PCB says, are Abdul Rehman, the left-arm spinner who toured Sri Lanka with Pakistan earlier this year, and all-rounder Yasir Arafat.

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