The best team in the world claimed one-day cricket’s greatest prize for the third time on Sunday as Australia battered India into submission by 125 runs at the Wanderers.
Unbeaten throughout the tournament and only seldom threatened, Australia saved their best batting performance of the World Cup for its most important moment. A blazing start from Adam Gilchrist gave way to a thrilling century from Ricky Ponting as India’s bowlers froze on their biggest stage Australia’s 359 for two was the highest score in a World Cup final, the biggest made by an Australian one-day team and the eighth highest one-day total in history. It seemed to leave India with only two possible escape routes: a major contribution from their master batsman Sachin Tendulkar, or a washout before their innings had gone 25 overs, thereby forcing a replay.
The first possibility disappeared five balls into the Indian innings when Tendulkar top-edged a pull to provide Glenn McGrath with a straightforward return catch. As for the second, a shower which forced the players off the field 17 overs into India’s reply teased their supporters in the 31 779 crowd. After 25 minutes, however, the rain had blown through and India, 103 for three, picked up their innings again with not a single over lost to the elements.
For India to have won, they would have had to score 30 runs more than the highest score to win made by a team batting second, Australia’s 330 for seven against South Africa in Port Elizabeth last year. Records, of course, are there to be broken, but this particular record may stand for a long time.
To their credit the Indians batted as if they meant it, even after Tendulkar’s early departure. Virender Sehwag, who has had a number of starts in this World Cup, but only once gone on to a 50, stepped into the breach to hammer out 82 at just better than a run a ball. At one point he and the left-handed Sourav Ganguly cut McGrath for sixes on either side of the wicket in the same over.
But India were always chasing what looked very much like an impossible dream. Ganguly went for 24, scooping up a catch as he tried to improvise against the pace of Brett Lee and Mohammad Kaif was caught at the wicket for a duck off McGrath at 59 for three in the 11th over.
Then followed the only stand of any substance in the innings as Sehwag and Rahul Dravid added 88 for the fourth wicket. Sehwag followed his natural instincts and Dravid turned over the strike as India kept in touch with Australia’s comparative run rate. The difference was, however, that Australia always had wickets in hand and were able to take 109 off the last 10 overs of their innings.
India, on the other hand, were batting under pressure and eventually it told when Sehwag was run out by Lehmann’s direct hit at the bowler’s end at 147 for four. Dravid followed 40 runs and eight overs later for 47, bowled by Andy Bichel off a bottom edge and Australia had pretty much wrapped up the World Cup.
The innings subsided quietly thereafter, sliding gently to 234 all out in just 39.2 overs. The match, and the World Cup, had already long belonged to Australia.
It was a gamble for Ganguly to send Australia in and it backfired horribly on him as his bowlers let him down. There was cloud overhead, but also a stiffish breeze. There seemed no clear advantage to bowl first, but having taken the risk, Ganguly would have at least expected his bowlers to put it in the right place. They didn’t.
Zaheer Khan’s first over contained two no balls and two wides, one of which skipped away for four byes, and cost 15. At that rate Australia could have looked at a total of 750, they didn’t quite get, but neither could they have asked more of their batsmen.
Gilchrist carved out 57 off 48 balls to hit both Zaheer and Javagal Srinath out of the attack as he and Mattie Hayden put on 105 for the first wicket in 14 overs. Ganguly had started without a fifth recognised bowler, now he had two of his specialists badly wounded.
He turned to the offspinner Harbhajan Singh who responded by having Gilchrist caught off a flier and Hayden taken at the wicket for 37. The second wicket fell at 125 in the 20th over. That was the last time India had any reason to celebrate.
Ponting and Damien Martyn batted out the last 30 overs of the innings in an unbroken stand of 234 for the third wicket. Ponting started relatively cautiously, taking 74 balls for his first 50 which included just a single boundary. Then he hit Harbhajan for successive sixes and went on the rampage. His last 90 runs took just 47 balls as he hammered eight sixes including a monster into the third tier of the Centenary Pavilion and a one-handed top-edge over square leg. It was ferocious hitting and it made Martyn look positively sedate. Martyn, in fact, had reached his 50 ahead of Ponting and if he seemed like a slouch, he did in fact take only 84
balls for his 88.
It was batting worthy of a World Cup. And it won a third trophy for Australia.