Aussie pace battery destroys Ireland

Bridgetown, Barbados, Apr 13 (UNI) A devastating exhibition of pace bowling by Australians on a lively Kensington Oval wicket destroyed the Ireland batting lineup to bury them to one of the lowest World Cup team totals of 91 all out in a Super Eight match here today.

It was always expected to be an one-sided affair between the lowly Irish and the world champions, but Rickey Ponting's men showed how ruthless in form they were right now in this World Cup by skittling their opponents out in just 30 overs.

Pointing did not want to give more time to the opposition and rather preferred to preserve energy for Monday's big game against Sri Lanka than to be out in the middle for long. At one point of time, it looked Australia wanted to finish the match before lunch and go to Powell's beach in the Atlantic Ocean for an afternoon swim.

It was the sixth ball of old warhorse Glenn McGrath's first over which began the rout and the party for the Australians. Jeremy Bray was the first to go.

After playing and missing the first four balls, which passed through his chin level, Bray waited for another rising delivery but it was a much fuller one from McGrath and the Irish opener was completely unprepared for that.

That was the beginning of a miserable day for the Irish and after that procession towards the pavillion soon turned into a caravan as Irish batsmen were in a hurry to return back to the safe barrier of dressing room rather than facing the hostile Aussie attack.

That was more evident after Shaun Tait and McGrath hit Andrew White and Bray in their helmets sending shivers down the remaining Irish batsmen's spine.

By the fifth over, Ireland were down by four wickets and the match was already more of fun for almost a packed stadium than of any cricketing interest.

As Ponting continued with McGrath and brought Stuart Clark from the other end to replace an erratic Tait, three more wickets fell and by the 20th over Ireland were 70 for seven with only Kevin O'Brien and captain Trent Johnston scoring a few boundaries to give the crowd something to celebrate.

That the Australians had the Lankan match in mind was more evident when Ponting brought in Andrew Symonds and Brad Hogg to give some much needed bowling practice before the end of Irish innings.

Symonds was still not bowling his best and wanted to go full speed before the crucial Sri Lanka match.

Similarly, Hogg was also desperate to turn his arm around as Sri Lankans are good players of spin but did not get much chance as Langford-Smith survived just seven balls leaving John Mooney stranded at 23, the highest scorer of Ireland.

UNI