Taylor's ton lights up a gloomy day in World Cup

Pakistan's captain Shahid Afridi (C) reacts as New Zealand's Scott Styris (L) and Ross taylor take a run during their ICC Cricket World Cup Group A match in Pallekele March 8, 2011. REUTERS/Andrew Caballero-Reynolds 

 

By Amlan Chakraborty, Reuters

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - It took the cracked bat of a cricketer of Samoan heritage to lift the pall of gloom that had descended on the 18th day of the World Cup.

Ross Taylor celebrated his 27th birthday in style, clobbering a 124-ball 131 against a sloppy Pakistan in Sri Lanka but there was little to rejoice in the two other host nations on Tuesday.

In Bangladesh, English seamer Stuart Broad's World Cup campaign was cut short by a side strain and across the border in India, fans queued up in front of box office in Nagpur expecting tickets and getting the stick, literally, from the police instead.

In Kandy, Taylor thrived on the largesse of wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal, who let the batsman off twice in three balls early in his innings, to hit seven sixes and eight fours and power New Zealand to 302-7, a total well beyond their Group A opponents Pakistan.

Taylor stitched together half-century stands with Martin Guptill (57) and Scott Styris (28) but inflicted the real damage in Jacob Oram's (25 off nine balls) company, plundering 85 runs off 22 balls.

"I cracked it (the bat) in the nets a couple of days ago but it seemed to go okay today ... hopefully the new one will be just as good," an amused Taylor said.

For Pakistan, who collapsed to 192 all out in the 42nd over, Abdul Razzaq (62) and Umar Gul (34 not out) provided some late resistance but it was too little and too late to avert a 110-run defeat that snapped their winning streak.

UNPREDICTABLE PAKISTAN

For a team notorious for their unpredictability, Pakistan showed rare consistency winning their first three matches but the defeat by New Zealand would surely push skipper Shahid Afridi into serious introspection.

But at least Afridi will not lose sleep pondering a second replacement for his squad in barely 24 hours -- a predicament his English counterpart Andrew Strauss is going through.

A day after makeshift opener Kevin Pietersen announced he was heading home for hernia treatment, Broad too joined him on the sidelines.

This after the lanky bowler claimed four South African wickets to fashion England's campaign-reviving six-run victory in Chennai.

"Stuart felt some discomfort following the South Africa match and our initial assessment indicated a strain to his left side," England and Wales Cricket Board chief medical officer Nick Peirce said in a statement.

"Subsequent scans have confirmed a significant side strain injury -- where the muscle attaches the rib -- that will rule him out of the remainder of the World Cup."

Some pain was felt in Nagpur as well.

Reflecting the passion cricket whips up in this part of the world, hundreds of fans clambered over each other to get to the window of the box office selling handful of tickets for Saturday's India v South Africa match.

A Reuters witness said the crowd, some of whom had queued up since Monday evening, got restless and broke down the barriers trying to climb over them, prompting the police to batter them with their sticks.

It was a repeat of what happened 12 days ago in Bangalore. India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni defended the police action.

"I don't think the police enjoy beating people for the sake of it. It could have been a stampede-like situation that forced them to lathicharge (charge with sticks)," Dhoni said in Delhi.

"They (police) should not be projected in a bad light all the time."

(Editing by Pritha Sarkar)