Brett Lee earned a late selection reprieve as Australia skittled the USA for just 65 in a farcical start to their Champions Trophy campaign on Monday. But, once again, the work of Queensland's Michael Kasprowicz seems to have put the speedster's place in grave doubt.
With Kasprowicz taking 4-14 from seven overs and Lee 1-21 from five, the Americans were dismissed in 24 overs for the lowest score in the four editions of the Champions Trophy. The world champions clipped off the runs in just 7.5 overs in only 33 minutes for the loss of Matthew Hayden for 23, ensuring they have the best net run rate in group A.
After Australia won the toss and sent in the US - hoping for an early result against the tournament minnows due to the threat of rain - Lee was given the new ball and made an almost perfect start.
With his second delivery, Lee bent back left-hander Mark Johnson's leg stump. He should have had a second wicket with his next ball, but watched as an edge from Leon Romero was put down by Michael Clarke at third slip.
Lee's bowling soon became less impressive, including three no-balls and three wides.
Kasprowicz, by contrast, turned in another display that will make him impossible to drop if Australia revert to three quicks and spinner Brad Hogg in the pivotal final group match against New Zealand at The Oval on Thursday. It followed his 5-47 in a warm-up match against Pakistan at Lord's.
This was always going to be an ugly day for the fledgling Americans, with the Australians eager to inflict an even larger thrashing than the 210-run defeat handed to them by New Zealand last Friday, given that net run rates will determine whether Australia or New Zealand make the semi-finals if their match is washed out this Thursday.
The outcome was the 12th-lowest innings total in one-day international history. Australia captain Ricky Ponting was blunt afterwards, saying it was further proof it was a highly questionable practice to have teams such as the USA in these tournaments, believing they would improve more by playing among themselves.
"What we've seen in the past couple of world cups and champions trophies is a lot of different minnow nations," he said. "That says to me those nations have not been good enough to sustain their form. We didn't get much out of that game but hopefully the USA did, otherwise it's a bit of a wast of time for them being here as well."
After Lee's bright start, the Americans slumped to 2-2 during the second over from Glenn McGrath, when Romero was run out by a direct hit from Damien Martyn at short mid-wicket.
Kasprowicz replaced Lee in the 11th over and, as Lee had done, struck with his second delivery, angling the ball across left-hander Rohan Alexander to gain an edge behind to remove the opener for a 26-ball eight. In his next over, he trapped captain Richard Staple lbw for four, to reduce the USA to 4-38.
Kasprowicz managed what Lee could not quite achieve in his third over, by taking two wickets in two balls. First, Steve Massiah mis-hit Kasprowicz to Darren Lehmann at mid-off after a 42-ball 23. With his next ball, Kasprowicz clinically trapped Tony Reid lbw with an off-cutter to leave the US at 6-46.
After McGrath had bowled tightly without great menace in taking 0-13 from six overs, Jason Gillespie replaced him to help clean up the innings. He had Aijaz Ali caught behind for one in the 18th over, then in his next over gained lbw decisions against Rashid Zia and the 42-year-old Donovan Blake to reduce the Americans to 9-53 in the 20th over. After four overs of last-wicket resistance, Gillespie finally ended the innings by bowling Howard Johnson to finish with a fine 4-15 from six overs.
AMERICAN RECOVERY HALTED BY KASPROWICZ
Michael Kasprowicz undermined a partial USA recovery with four wickets for six runs as the ICC Champions Trophy minnows stumbled to 47 for six at the Rose Bowl today.
Steve Massiah had rescued USA from early perils but could not keep world champions Australia at bay for long, after Ricky Ponting had won the toss on a blustery morning.
Guyana-born Massiah found himself in the thick of battle with the score two for two in the second over as Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath stormed in with the new ball, scenting a quick kill.
Heavy overnight rain delayed the start of this Pool A match by half-an-hour, but Lee then wasted no time getting stuck into the Americans' top order.
After Rohan Alexander had narrowly survived the first ball of the match - squirting a yorker down to third man - his opening partner Mark Johnson could not manage to keep out the second.
The left-hander went a long way across on the back foot only to lose his leg stump.
Number three Leon Romero might have gone first ball to put Lee on an early hat-trick, but Michael Clarke failed to hold on to a tough chance away to his right at third slip.
The reprieve allowed Romero only one run, before he was run out when he just failed to beat a direct hit from Damien Martyn having pushed for a single to midwicket off McGrath.
A run-out was exactly what the USA could not afford - especially with a batting order minus Clayton Lambert, their only player with Test match experience having suffered a slight but untimely leg injury which ruled him out of this apparent mis-match.
But Massiah joined Alexander for a passage of play in which the third-wicket pair successfully kept out the Australians - and got the total ticking over for good measure.
Massiah pulled McGrath for the first boundary of the day in the fourth over, and when he clubbed Lee past mid-on to the fence too it was a statement of intent that he at least would not be satisfied with mere survival.
Unfortunately for him, Alexander's company did not extend beyond the second ball from first-change Kasprowicz who had his man edging a catch behind off the back foot.
USA captain Richard Staple fell to the same bowler, lbw on the back-foot defence to a ball which if anything got a little high for the decision.
Then, when Kasprowicz also got rid of Massiah, who fell disappointingly when he laid back on an attempted hit over the top and failed to beat mid-off predictions of an early finish looked sure to come true.
There was more confirmation once Tony Reid was pinned on the crease lbw next ball to put Kasprowicz on a hat-trick - only for the Queensland seamer to produce a no-ball next up.
- TREVOR MARSHALLSEA