#OnThisDay, Leeds, #CWC99, Pakistan vs Australia
THE HEADINGLEY HUMDINGER
Pak had notched up two convincing wins: WI, Scot
Aus had a scratchy start: a win vs Scot, a loss to NZ
Here Waugh The Sr. won the toss, asked Pak to bat first
Here's a thread for the rest of the match
1/n

Strange decision to bowl first from Steve Waugh considering he went in with only 4 specialist bowlers
Wajahat Wasti and Saeed Anwar started it off for Pak, Wasti wasted a lot of balls but perhaps he had a Test opener sort of role, Anwar stroked a few usual attractive fours
2/n

Ijaz came and went, Pak found themselves at 46/3 in 12.3
Razzaq, sent in at #3 and Inzi started rebuilding, went on to have a match defining 27 over partnership worth 118 runs
Boundaries were hard to come by and so they ran lots of runs (yes, even Inzi)
Aus kept it tight
3/n

Razzaq started to accelerate, hit a nice six over long off to Warnie in the 38th over, got out while trying something similar to same bowler in 40th over
In came Yousuf, was on song right away
There was also a flurry of overs from part timers who made up for Aus' 5th bowler
4/n

Inzi had run well for far too long, something had to give, right?
He ran out Yousuf first who was in absolutely imperious touch that day
Then he would have run out Skipper @wasimakramlive too but he was on all fours after a brilliant @bowlologist yorker, ran himself out
5/n

Still, Inzi did play the role he was asked to with a fantastic knock of 81
The Pak acceleration job had begun in earnest
In the death overs, Moin Khan, the Pak stumper had always been very good
Here he took full toll to hit 3x6s, 2x4s as Pak scored a 100+ in the last 10
6/n

Terrible match for Waugh tactically in the field so far
Aus had to chase 276 which was a tall order against a strong Pak bowling attack which, unlike Aus', had 5 bowlers
It didn't start off well for them as Gilly was clean bowled by @wasimakramlive in the 1st over itself
7/n

There was a bit of a contest between @shoaib100mph and @juniorwaugh349 + @RickyPonting as delightful boundaries and seriously fast, trouble giving stuff intermingled for a brief while
But overall, the two Aussies were going along nicely, in sight of or ahead of the RRR
8/n

Wasim made the bowling changes, brought in @AzharMahmood11 and then @Saqlain_Mushtaq at the end of the 15 overs field restrictions
The Aussies were now in good touch and these two proved largely ineffective to begin with, barring a dropped chance by Inzi off Azhar at 1st slip
9/n

Wasim played his last card, got in Razzaq who struck right away to remove Waugh, the relief on Wasim's face was plain to see
@Saqlain_Mushtaq got the opening he needed, got stuck in, removed Ponting + new man, @darren_lehmann in the same over, both off unimaginative sweeps
10/n

Came together, the Aus Crisis Men - Skipper Steve Waugh and Terminator @mbevan12 as Aus was in a spot of bother at 101/4 in 19.4 overs
An almost highlight free stand ensued as Bevan was up to his usual antics of running hard
Waugh, Shoaib had a few words to say to each other
11/n

...a friendly argument about where @shoaib100mph would be in his thunderous follow through, what lane should Waugh take while running

Wasim decided it was time to come back for a bowl as Pak needed a breakthrough, he delivered right away as dangerman Bevan was removed
12/n

Aus still in with a chance after this good 113 run stand in ~22 overs
Waugh was around and Martyn was the extra batsman instead of 5th bowler
But the ball was reverse swinging for sure
Soon it was @shoaib100mph's turn to shine as he bowled Waugh
Aus looked down & out, 238/6
13/n

The death overs dudes, Wasim and @Saqlain_Mushtaq smelled blood now, finished things off in a hurry
@wasimakramlive showed his range with outswing to clean-bowl Martyn and inswing to castle McGrath, the last two wickets
Pak victors by 10 runs in an exciting match
14/n

Pak were about to falter after 3 wins, Aus now knews they'd crash out of the tournament if they didn't go undefeated right till the end
These two teams met again in a different setting a few weeks later but we all know what happened there and that's for another day
End n/n