Irani's big day is ruined by an old friend

When Steve Waugh was closing in on his Test hundred last week that was to leave all of Australia agog, his brother Mark preferred to steal away from the Sydney Cricket Ground with Ronnie Irani for a trots meeting at Harold Park.

Yesterday Irani, as England captain, met up with Mark Waugh again. This time there was no chance of a day at the horses, but Waugh did ensure that England went to the dogs.

Irani's eternal optimism was severely tested in the four pre-Christmas VB one-day internationals. A grand sum of five runs and one wicket left him grateful to make England's World Cup 15 when it was announced at the turn of the year.

With Nasser Hussain resting in Sydney, the off-chance for Irani to captain England amid the relaxed and picturesque setting of the Bradman Oval might have been designed as a fillip. Instead, Mark Waugh's unbeaten 108 from 98 balls ensured that Irani's England lost against a Bradman XI by six wickets with more than three overs to spare. It is the third time in four attempts that an England touring side has come to grief in New South Wales's Southern Highlands.

Irani's personal fate was a laborious 39 from 54 balls, which will ensure the largely unrewarding experiment of batting him at No3 will come under greater scrutiny, and five overs for 48, including Waugh's rustled straight six over the white railings and into the genteel streets beyond to bring up his hundred.

While Mark Waugh assembled an innings as cool and silent as the mist that crept across the ground in late afternoon, Steve quietly paid homage behind the pavilion to the recently erected statue of Sir Donald Bradman, whose record 29 Test 100s he equalled at the SCG, even if it took him three times as long.

Bradman lived in a house alongside this ground for three years as a teenager; it was where he first gave notice of his astounding batting prowess. His death nearly two years ago has added to the mystique of the ground named in his honour. The ashes of the Don and his wife, Jessie, have now been scattered on the Bradman rose garden and the Bradman museum houses an increasingly impressive collection.

The statue is wonderfully evocative but, as ever, it has not attracted universal approval. A Melbourne dentist has complained that Bradman's jaw is out of proportion, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the Australian public al ways like to remember Bradman as particularly firm-jawed. It has also been noticed that the buckles on one of his pads are the wrong way round.

Such were the fears that this small country ground would be overrun by a media obsessed with Steve Waugh's possible retirement that the Australian Cricket Board announced that there would be no such statement. To announce his retirement standing next to a statue of the Don would have been about as tacky as it gets, and Steve Waugh is not tacky.

England touring sides never quite come to terms with Bowral. Its atmosphere is part reverential, part summer fair. One minute, Mike Whitney, a Test bowler two decades ago but who has since made his name as host of Australia's version of Gladiators and Who Dares Wins, was puffing in to bowl, young autograph hunters were creeping on to the outfield and it might have been a benefit match. The next time you looked, the likes of Mark Waugh had lifted it to a higher plane altogether.

It was in this strange atmosphere that Owais Shah made his first England representative hundred, a slickly struck 127 from 154 balls.

It was nice enough to watch but Shah has been omitted from the World Cup squad and it will have meant very little to either himself or his colleagues. On more meaningful days, 13 one-day internationals have brought only two 50s and an average of 21. He needs to do it when it matters.

Scoreboard

ENGLAND XI

O A Shah c MacGill b Mail 127

N V Knight c Katich b Thornely 13

*R C Irani lbw b Thornely 39

P D Collingwood run out 3

I D Blackwell b Katich 7

A J Hollioake run out 53

J N Snape b Mail 15

R W T Key run out 1

R J Kirtley not out 4

M J Hoggard not out 0

Extras (b5, lb3, w4, nb5) 17

Total (for 8, 50 overs) 279

Fall: 55, 122, 134, 142, 247, 262, 271, 275.

Did not bat: J M Anderson.

Bowling: Bollinger 10-0-60-0; Whitney 6-1-44-0; Bradstreet 10-2-47-0; Thornely 10-1-30-2; MacGill 4-0-30-0; Katich 7-0-49-1; Mail 3-0-11-2.

BRADMAN XI

M J Slater b Hoggard 0

B J Haddin b Hoggard 28

S M Katich b Blackwell 36

J Cox lbw b Hollioake 49

*M E Waugh not out 108

G J Mail not out 37

Extras (lb11, w12, nb4) 27

Total (for 4, 46.3 overs) 285

Fall: 0, 62, 86, 200.

Did not bat: N S Pilon, D J Thornely, D Bollinger, S D Bradstreet, S C G MacGill.

Bowling: Hoggard 10-2-60-2; Anderson 10-1-49-0; Kirtley 8-1-38-0; Blackwell 5-0-25-1; Snape 3-0-24-0; Irani 5-0-48-0; Hollioake 5-0-24-1; Knight 0.3-0-6-0.

Umpires: K Burke and T Keel. Bradman XI won by six wickets.