WORLD CUP FINAL Thread

[Bartros]

Okay Maytin what can I say he batted very well for a bloke who has a broken finger!!! Maybe he should have a broken finger everytime he plays, if he keeps playing the way he did!!!!

Pointing that is the best one day innings I have seen by anyone in the history of one dayers.....

But the operners did a great job being 0 for 100 in the 14 th over of the innings really started the ball rolling so the batsman to follow could go out there and attack from ball 1 of there innings!!!!

And


What about the bowlers they did a great job for the whole World Cup, and the good thing about it it wasnt done my one man all the time.. The wrickets were shared around in almost every match.. But the Seven wickets by McGrath was a highlight for me... Plus the Hatwick by Lee was great also!!!!

[JLC]

Gilchrist set the game up for the aussies

[hoggy]

[JLC]

[Fradam]

Well done to the Aussies for posting such a great score on a seaming wicket and defending it well.

Thanks to Gangully for sending us in. I like Mrs Tarrant was cursing when Ricky called heads and it came up tails, I couldn't believe our luck when he asked us to bat.

Thanks to Gangully claiming a catch that didn't hit the bat nor carried, it was a good reminder of why we hate him so much and it was good to see Gilchrist give him some lip about it after watching the replay.

Great performance Aussies. Everyone put in throught the whole tournament, it was great.

[Donny]

Ganguly's decision to bat WAS the problem, JLC.

It sent the wrong message to his batsmen, especially his openers, and placed enormous pressure on his bowlers.

The way the game went, showed this. Srinath is their most experienced campaigner but bowled badly. Khan fell into dropping short to Gilly. Silly - and costly.

The batsmen came out under pressure and it was telling. Tendulkar already had a boundary in the first over when his attempt at a pull shot went skywards. It's highly unlikely the little master would've tried this shot, so early, if not looking at a run rate of 7.2 !!

As Kristin so deftly put it, "You've just caught the World Cup, Pigeon!!"

[JLC]

The bowlers let him down big time.

Australia could have won the toss and batted anyway. Whatever the result the bowlers to back Ganguly. In the same way as McGrath and Lee would have done for Australia if they bowled first.

jlc

[Special Delivery]

Hmmm yes well...

Interesting to note had India won and Bevan failed as per Sachin, me thinks JLC and friends would have served it right up to myself and Mrs Tarrant?

Or am I being paranoid???

I'll leave it at that.

Bring on the footy. 98 hours to go.

[JLC]

i must admit you all have been very gracious.....lol

jlc

[Lorelei]

[Donny]

Re. Player of the Series.

I think that award should have gone to Ponting. He captained his team incredibly well and probably played the best WC final innings ever. For some reason, the award was decided before the final.

Tendulkar should've won Batsman of the Series.

Bowler of the Series wasn't as obvious. Chaminda Vaas, Brett Lee, Glen McGrath and Zaheer Khan all did well and Shane Bond would've been considered had NZ advanced further than they did.

Individual single performances: Batting - there were four outstanding innings and many other good ones. Andrew Symonds' 143 n.o. Stephen Fleming's knock against South Africa, John Davison's 67 ball century and Ponting's tour de force in the final were all outstanding but I give my award to Symonds, given the circumstances.

Bowling - Once again, some excellent performances. Bond's 6/23 against the Aussies won him Player of the Match in a losing team, Nehra's 6/23 was a top effort, Vaas' 6/25 incl. an amazing hat trick, Collins Obuya's 5 wicket haul which destroyed Sri Lanka were all up there but Andy Bichel's 7/20, which prevented the mother of all embarrassments against England was truly magnificent!

[Donny]

Some WC stats.

Batting.

1. Tendulkar - 673 runs @ 61. S/R 89
2. Ganguly - 465 @ 58. S/R 82
3. Ponting - 415 @ 52. S/R 88
4. Gilchrist - 408 @ 41. S/R 105
8. Hayden - 328 @ 33. S/R 80
9. Symonds - 326 @ 163. S/R 91
10. Martyn - 323 @ 65. S/R 82

Bowlers.

1. Vaas - 23 wickets @ 14. R.P.O. 3.8
2. Lee - 22 @ 18. R.P.O. 4.7
3. McGrath - 21 @ 15. R.P.O. 3.6
4. Khan - 18 @ 21. R.P.O. 4.2
5. Bond - 17 @ 18. R.P.O. 3.9
6. Muralitharan - 17 @ 19. R.P.O. 3.6
7. Bichel - 16 @ 12. R.P.O. 3.4

Five Aussie batsmen in the top ten and 3 Aussie bowlers in the top seven tell the story, really.

[Donny]

A Tendulkar Miracle That Never Was
Anand Vasu - 23 March 2003

India had reached a World Cup final for the first time since 1983. Quirky statisticians were quick to point out that India had never lost after making it this far. From the quirky to the ridiculous, there were others who put forth more compelling reasons for India to win the World Cup.

For every tournament since 1979, the Cup has been held aloft alternatively by left- and right-handed captains, they proposed. In 1979, it was Clive Lloyd, a left-hander; in 1983 - Kapil Dev, the right-hander; in 1987 - Allan Border; in 1992 - Imran Khan; in 1996 - Sanath Jayasuriya and in 1999 - Steve Waugh. Hence it only followed that this was the year of Ganguly, they averred.

There were others, even more scientific, who believed that India would win because Australia came into the final with a 16-match winning streak in one-dayers. When the all-conquering Aussies achieved the same landmark in Tests, India stopped them dead in their tracks in Kolkata and went on to win the series. On that occasion - and I was lucky enough to watch every ball amidst the booing and baying of Kolkata fans at Eden Gardens - VVS Laxman played a flawless 281, an innings of a lifetime, stealing the match and soon after the series away from the Australians.

When Indian fans congregated at the Wanderers in Johannesburg, they were about to witness yet another once-in-a-lifetime innings. Amidst the flag-waving, emotion-swelling, partisan Indian crowd, Ricky Ponting played his very own version of the 'innings-of-a-lifetime' theme song. The man who once threatened to throw all his talent away being the lovable rogue; the drunkard who got into a brawl at the Bourbon and Beefsteak in Sydney's King's Cross, now reformed and re-invented, showed why Australia can afford to let go of Stephen Waugh.

An innings that will serve as a perfect illustration of one of cricket's favourite terms - 'a captain's innings' - saw Ponting bludgeon an unbeaten 140 off 121 balls, taking Australia to a mammoth 359/2 in 50 overs.

Out walked Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.

Just 5' 3" in his socks, the little man would have been further weighed down by the burden of expectation that a country of more than a billion placed on its heroes.

There's simply no way you can be expected to chase 360 against Australia in a World Cup final. Even with over 12,000 one-day runs and 34 centuries behind you, you'll be hard pressed to live up to expectations.

All India clung on to hope.

A mere miscued pull was all it took, for Tendulkar's World Cup final to land in McGrath's waiting hands. While other batsmen may have tried hard, India's dream ended then and there.

Spare a thought for the man himself. After scoring 673 runs in the tournament and fuelling India's efforts, he might still be remembered for failing in the final. And cruelly enough, If India don't reach a World Cup final for the rest of Tendulkar's career, he will have to live with four runs in a major loss as his best effort in a World Cup final.

[Donny]

More from the same author. Anand Vasu - 23 March 2003

If only more of India had read that evocative poem that Ernest Lawrence Thayer wrote as far back as 1888. While baseball might be a far cry from cricket, it's worth visiting 'Casey at the Bat.'

"The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day:
The score stood four to two, with but one inning more to play,
And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same,
A pall-like silence fell upon the patrons of the game.

A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest
Clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast;
They thought, "If only Casey could but get a whack at that
We'd put up even money now, with Casey at the bat."

Forget McGrath, write off Lee, there's always Tendulkar, thought the Indian fans.

India just need Sehwag to fire, Kaif to run, Dravid to steady and Ganguly to persevere. But first and foremost, Tendulkar, for he will deliver the knock out punch.

"Then from five thousand throats and more there rose a lusty yell;
It rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell;
It pounded on the mountain and recoiled upon the flat,
For Casey, mighty Casey, was advancing to the bat."

So goes the poem that will tell you that there was as much expected of men before as there is of Tendulkar now.

With mean McGrath standing at the top of his run, Tendulkar took watchful guard, establishing exactly where his off stump was and where the gaps in the field were.

"There was ease in Casey's manner as he stepped into his place;
There was pride in Casey's bearing and a smile lit Casey's face.
And when, responding to the cheers, he lightly doffed his hat,
No stranger in the crowd could doubt 'twas Casey at the bat."

Just as Sachin was forced to wait for the loose ball, the legendary Casey bided his time. Tendulkar managed an awkward pull off the fourth ball of the game. Not quite like Casey, though, who had haughtily watched two strikes go by, waiting for the right pitch to strike glory with.

Soon the time for Tendulkar to stamp his authority on the game arrived.

"...And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go,
And now the air is shattered by the force of Casey's blow."

"Oh, somewhere in this favoured land the sun is shining bright,
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light;
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout,
But there is no joy in Mudville... mighty Casey has struck out."

At the same time that Mumbai mourned, Kolkata cussed and Delhi despaired, you could be sure that the celebrations went over the top from the Darling Harbour in Sydney's harbour foreshore and Southbank in Melbourne, from little Byron Bay in New South Wales to King's Park in Perth.

[JLC]

There you go just to show im a good sport....lol Here is your new hero T. Hohns

Hohns got it right after all
By Ray Chesterton
March 25, 2003

AFTER being pilloried. persecuted and pursued for months, Australia's chairman of cricket selectors Trevor Hohns can probably now look forward to a few days of peace and quiet.

No abusive phone calls from people questioning his parentage and knowledge. No jeers and catcalls when he is seen in public.

Just some calm in his life as the rest of Australia celebrates winning the World Cup.

It is unlikely there will even be a memo from anyone saying: "Thanks Trevor. You were right and a lot of us were wrong."

Australia's Cup win is a triumph for Hohns' dogged insistence that it was time for change in the Australian one-day side.

It was Hohns who had earlier decided Steve Waugh had to go and later, that Mark Waugh's time in one-day games was over. He stood his ground despite the avalanche of criticism that said his decision was as much of a wrong'un as anything Shane Warne ever bowled.

Perhaps Australia would have won the World Cup with Steve and Mark in the team. Perhaps.

But we will never know.

The only certainty is that we did win with a team chosen with Hohns in charge of selections.

Although he was a successful leg spinner who played a handful of Tests and toured with the 1989 Ashes side, Hohns has found greater status as a selector.

He shows an appreciated resolution to go his own way, even if it leads him into vulnerability.

It would not have been easy for Hohns to drop Steve Waugh, or for his fellow selectors David Boon, Allan Border and Andrew Hilditch to endorse it.

Boon and Border had played regularly with Waugh - both Waughs in fact - and there is an acknowledged pact of emotional loyalty between men who have served the cause together.

So omitting the Waughs, reshaping the side and giving Ricky Ponting the captaincy was courage under fire.

So was giving Steve Waugh a nudge about his future in Test matches after this year's series against England.

Steve Waugh, miffed by the situation, made it clear he was unhappy with selectors' ideas and responded with that glorious century in the Fifth Test. He also led NSW to win the ING and Pura Cup trophies.

He is now taking Australia to the West Indies.

Would it all have finished on such a positive note if Hohns had not intervened? Perhaps. But we will never know for certain.

All you deal with in life are certainties and the only certainty is Australia rules the world with back-to-back World Cup wins and three in all.

And Australia did it without Shane Warne, without Jason Gillespie and without Darren Lehmann (for the first two games).

Glenn McGrath and a few others were rested along the way and Australia still went through the Cup undefeated, stretching their winning sequence to 17.

I'm not endorsing the departure of the Waughs and others, but you cannot argue with the success that has been achieved in their absence.

Hohns has been successful. He deserves to share the glory because he would have been burnt in effigy if Australia had failed.

The Daily Telegraph