The Australians take the spoils in Malaysia

Sunday 25th and it’s the day of the final.

It’s also travel day because if the game goes the distance Asad, Mark, Marks wife Sarah and I will have to leave the ground and go straight to the airport to catch our flight to Dubai.
The morning was spent packing, paying bills and saying goodbyes to people in the hotel who had looked after us extremely well. An extra vehicle had been arranged to take our bags to the ground and wait the outcome of the game. Australia had won every toss during this tournament, the West Indies hadn’t won any, if I was a betting man I’d have put heaps on the Windies winning this one today. But I’d have lost because Ricky Ponting won the toss again for the 5th time in a row and again decided to bat first. It was tough going early on as the Windies bowled a good line and length and had a little bit of luck with one or two indifferent bounces – well it was the 5th game that had been played on this pitch and it was showing signs of wear. Again the Aussie middle order saved their side from a low score. Brett Lee got things off to a flying start with Gayle going first ball LBW and wickets continued to tumble- in fact it was only Sarwan and Smith who managed any respectable scores both ending up with 30’s- but the Windies were skittled for just 113, making the Aussies winners by 127 runs and DLF Cup Champions.
It had been a very well organised event. There were one or two hiccups which there are in any event but on the whole it was great as a venue. The teams played hard but fair and it was good practice for all teams in the lead up to the Champions Trophy. The Malaysian people didn’t embrace it as much as the organisers had hoped but KL is certainly growing in terms of cricket development so it must be encouraged with events such as this.
Because the match finished early there was no immediate dash to the airport required which allowed us to say our goodbyes and have a drink with everyone which was a nice way to wind down after the event. KL is certainly a place I would recommend going to and I hope I get the opportunity to go back at some stage in the not too distant future.
That’s it for now, see you the next time.

Saturday 24th

Our last free day before flying home. All the officials set off for the local shopping area – Times Square – and hunted for some bargains. KL does have a large variety of shopping to do. Electrical goods are always good value, we found a HP laptop that was on sale for 2500 Ringgits which is about £350, it was brand new and probably very good but with a lot of counterfeit goods around in Asia it was never easy to tell. Clothing was cheap as was food and shoes, in fact I ended up buying a pair of slip-on shoes that I didn’t really want but I couldn’t really resist. In the afternoon I’d organised some tickets for the guys to go upto the 42nd floor of the Twin Petronas Towers, it’s called the ‘bridge walk’ because there is a bridge that joins both towers together and the public are allowed to get up there for free and view the amazing scenery from a terrific vantage point. Unfortunately when we got onto the bridge the heavens decided to open and our view was cut to virtually nothing but it’s still worth the visit.

Friday 23rd

The penultimate game and whoever won it would play West Indies in the final on Sunday. The Aussies were favourites but the Indians had got out of jail against the Windies 2 days ago so they would no doubt come out fighting. Aussie won the toss and batted again (that’s the 4th time in a row that Ponting has won the toss) but they didn’t start very well. Hayden got 50 at the top of the order but it was left to Symonds and Hussey to give some respectability to the total by getting some runs towards the end of the innings. 214 was eminently gettable but there was controversy ahead as Tendulkar was given out in the 2nd over when the ball came off his shoulder. Mark Benson was the umpire and no sooner had he made the decision than he realised it was the wrong one. He walked over to his colleague at square leg Asad Rauf and told him that he was changing his decision he called Tendulkar back and then proceeded to explain his decision the Ponting who, although unhappy about it, realised that the right decision had eventually been reached. This was a very brave bit of umpiring by Mark, I know a lot of guys who would have just stuck to their decision even though it was wrong but Mark knew he’d made a mistake and went about rectifying it. He received very good comments from all concerned but it didn’t help Tendulkar because 2 overs later he was out caught at cover point and India’s man in form was back in pavilion. They kept losing wickets but a partnership between Dhoni and the recently recalled Dinesh Mongia looked as though it could take India home and into the final. Never underestimate the Aussies though and even though India only required 2 and ½ runs per over to win they kept the pressure on and the Indians cracked. It can be a problem for a lot of sides – winning against the Aussies – and it certainly looked as though the Indians lacked the confidence to get over the winning line even though they were within touching distance. Australia eventually won by 18 runs and they made it into the final to play the Windies on Sunday.

Thursday 22nd

Our last golfing day, the foursome of Dev, Greig, Rhodes and Broad had been reunited. We were due to play against 4 Aussies who were out in KL redesigning some of the courses and one of the courses they were working on, the KL Golf and Country Club, was the course we were invited to play on today. The Aussies had to work though so it was just left to our fourball to go off and enjoy the course. Dev and Rhodes played Broad and Greig and it was another very good contest. I think we’d all worked out each others games by now and whoever invented the golfing handicap did a fantastic job because although Dev and Rhodes won the front nine convincingly by 4 shots Broad and Greig came back on the back nine to require a win on the last hole to square the match. It was a long par 5 with the clubhouse some 500 metres away in the distance. Rhodes and Greig hit their tee shots into one of the many bunkers to the left of the fairway. Dev hit a massive drive but went left into the trees and I hit a shortish drive but landed in the fairway. Our second shots got us within chipping distance of the green and this is where matches are won and lost. Kapil Dev had rattled a few trees and eventually picked up. John Rhodes had blocked his third right of the green and had left himself with a tricky chip over a bunker. Tony was on the green some 40 feet away with a rollercoaster of a putt and I had flown just over the flag with a slick down hill putt about 12 feet in length. John had fluffed his chip and had taken 2 to get out of the bunker. Tony’s first putt ended up some 8 feet away and he missed the following putt, I had trickled my 12 foot putt some 4 feet past the hole but I now had an uphill putt which safely found the bottom of the cup. Winners of the back nine and a half in the match. I’d enjoyed my adventures on the courses over here and I’d enjoyed the friendship that the four of us had made because that’s what golf is all about, getting out having a bit of exercise and a good yarn along the way. If money changes hands then so be it but it’s only loose change so no-one loses a great deal.

Wed 20th

This time the Indians had to win against the West Indies to have any chance of going through to the final. We were back on the number 2 pitch again which had been successfully repaired by the groundstaff after a channel had been found on a length at the Southern end of the ground. They had thoroughly soaked the area and drilled holes in the pitch and then lifted and filled those holes so as to raise the surface to make it as flat as possible. They had done a great job but there was still a slight indentation which we all hoped wouldn’t make too much of an impact. India won the toss and decided to bat first but they didn’t make a very good job of it. Sachin got another fifty but there weren’t too many other significant contributions so the West Indies had a great chance of shutting India out of the competition. For some reason though the West Indians decided to re-arrange their batting order opening with Chanderpaul and Morton instead of Gayle. They allowed the Indians to make early inroads into their batting and if you allow a side to get on top in this form of the game they very rarely let go and this was the case in this match. Lara came in at number 9 and the Windies still had a chance of winning but they relied very heavily on Lara. He didn’t disappoint but unfortunately the rest of the side couldn’t stay with him so although they were only chasing 163 to win they got bowled out for 146 and India had given themselves a chance of making the final.

Tuesday 19th

Another golfing day for three of the foursome. Tony Greig, John Rhodes and myself played with a chap called Devin Raif at the beautiful Kota Permai Golf and Country Club some 20 minutes away from the hotel. It was another steamy day but buggies had been arranged so it was a little less arduous than it might have been but the course was tough. They had played the Malaysian Open there a few months previously and the fairways were undulating and the greens were slick and sloping so all in all it was a challenge. Tony and John played Devin and I and it turned out to be a great game with a putt on the last by me to half the match and end honours even.