Katich shines as Australia, WI kick off series

Brisbane: Riding on half centuries by opener Simon Katich (92), skipper Ricky Ponting (55) and in-form batsman Mike Hussey (66), Australia finished the first day of the first Test match against the West Indies on 322 for five off 90 overs here on Tuesday.

After losing their make shift opener Shane Watson in the third over without scoring to Jerome Taylor, the hosts recovered through the second wicket partnership of 126 runs by Katich and Ponting.

Earlier the hosts won the toss and elected to bat first against a full fledged West Indies team led by Chris Gayle.

Katich, who looked all set for a century, also added another 74 runs for the third wicket with Hussey before being caught by wicketkeeper D Ramdin off D Bravo for 92 which came off 134 balls with 13 hits to the boundary and six.

Hussey then addeed another 53 runs for the fourth wicket with vice-captain Michael Clarke before being caught and bowled by S J Benn while Clarke became Bravo's second victim after making 41 runs.

At stumps Marcos North (42) and Brad Haddin (9) were holding the fort.

For the visitors Bravo took two for 66 while Taylor and Benn had a wicket each while A Barath and Ravi Rampaul made their Test debut for the West Indies.

Teams:

Australia: Ricky Ponting (capt), Shane Watson, Simon Katich, Michael Hussey, Michael Clarke, Marcus North, Brad Haddin, Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Hauritz, Peter Siddle, Ben Hilfenhaus.

West Indies: Chris Gayle (capt), Adrian Barath, Travis Dowlin, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Dwayne Bravo, Brendan Nash, Denesh Ramdin, Jerome Taylor, Suliemann Benn, Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach.

Subscribe in a reader

Katich bowled over by reaching final

New South Wales Blues captain Simon Katich praised his bowlers after reaching the final of the Champions League Twenty20.

NSW claimed a commanding 79-run win over Victoria Bushrangers in the first semi-final in Delhi.

David Warner (48) and Phil Hughes (35) gave NSW a cracking start on their way to a formidable 169 for seven.

Off-spinner Nathan Hauritz, who shared the new ball with Brett Lee, then struck twice in his first over as Victoria's chase suffered an early jolt.

They never recovered from those blows and finished with a meagre 90 for nine.
"We thought of it earlier in the day and we thought he (Hauritz) would be an option to their batsman upfront. He did a great job and it worked," Katich said.

"With that new ball some spun and the others skidded on and it was always going to be hard for their opening batsmen to judge what was going to happen.

"Our bowlers have been fantastic right through the tournament and they are a big reason for our progress so far.

"It was a great team effort all around. Warner and Hughes set the tone early with the bat and the rest of the guys chipped in nicely.

"We tried to break it up, have left-right combinations in the middle overs to the spinners.

"We tried to keep the momentum going right through the innings, even when the ball got softer and made it harder to score towards the end.

"All the bowlers were outstanding and our fielding was really sharp.

"I think we have got consistent performances across the board with both bat and ball and hopefully we can carry that confidence into the final."

South African side Cape Cobras take on Trinidad and Tobago, the only team to have beaten NSW in the competition, in the second semi-final tomorrow.
Victoria captain Cameron White is already looking ahead to the next edition of the tournament.

"We were outplayed by a very good outfit," White admitted. "The pitch was marginally better than the ones we played on here earlier on, but it still wasn't a 160 pitch, although NSW got there.

"We gave away a few too many runs and the only thing we can do is to go back and work hard in Australia and hopefully we can qualify next year.

"I think the future of this tournament is strong and, from our point of view, it's a great experience for some of our guys who haven't been here before.

"We will take plenty of experience away and hopefully it will help us give it a crack again next year."

Subscribe in a reader

Katich: We need to improve

New South Wales Blues captain Simon Katich says there are still areas to improve upon for the team ahead of their semi-final clash.

"Obviously we are happy. Two games we played in Delhi are outstanding with the ball, in the field and our bowling. We wanted to replicate here in Hyderabad. So there are still areas to improve on," Katich told reporters after the winning against the Somerset Sabres.

He said the semifinal would be a big challenge as all the teams are formidable.

"It is a big challenge because we know that every team that qualified is going to be of great standard. Each game that comes is going to be a big challenge," Katich said.

Katich expressed confidence that his team would put up a good show in Delhi as they were used to playing on a slow wicket in Sydney.

He said losing their earlier League A match against Trinidad and Tobago on October 16 was a wake up call.

"We actually learnt a lot from that match. Sometimes, not the worst things happen to lose a match. We are playing good cricket but it was a wake up call for us. Anything can happen on a given day in Twenty 20 cricket. It was a pretty good thing for us," he said.

Somerset captain Justin Langer admitted that his side did not play well against a world-class team like NSW.

"I think this is probably my last game. Obviously some sadness there. We tried to get on to a flying start. They have got such world-class players like Brett Lee, Stuart Clark.

They played really well. We did not play well at that," he said.

Describing Champions League Twenty 20 as a fantastic tournament, Langer said it can sustain whether it is played in South Africa, Australia or India.

"IPL was successful in South Africa. CL T20 will be successful whether it is in South Africa or Australia or India. There are lots of Indians who will watch cricket," said Langer when asked whether the Airtel CL T20 will be successful outside India.

Subscribe in a reader