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NEWS Cricket World Cup 2007>Why Australia are still the favourites to win the World Cup 21st Feb 2007 22.03 IST By Manish Kumar Australia may have lost five consecutive ODIs and with it their top spot at the ICC rankings for the first time since 2002, but the defending champions are still the favourites to win the World Cup in the West Indies simply because they have the maximum match-winners in their team. The Aussies are led by Ricky Thomas Ponting – the world's top-ranked batsman in Test cricket, who is also ranked fourth in ODI cricket. Ponting is the only cricketer to have twice scored more than 1500 runs in Test matches in a calendar year (2003 and 2005) and on 3 December 2006 overtook Stephen Rodger Waugh as the leading Australian and 4th-ranked all-time with 33 Test centuries, two behind world leader Sachin Tendulkar . He has scored over 9000 Test runs at an average near 60, but since the February 2002 tour of South Africa (when he was elevated to the ODI team captaincy) he has scored 24 of his Test centuries and averaged above 74, leading to comparisons with Sir Donald Bradman. Ponting is also Australia's leading ODI run-scorer and century maker, having surpassed records previously held by Mark Edward Waugh . His century against the West Indies in Jaipur at the 1996 World Cup made him the youngest ever World Cup centurion, and his unbeaten 140 against India in the 2003 World Cup final was the highest by a captain in a World Cup final. Ponting has captained Australia 136 times in ODIs for 105 wins and two ties, winning 77% of matches captained, which is the best of any captain of any country to have captained more than 20 matches.
In his team’s loss against New Zealand on Tuesday, Matthew Lawrence Hayden made 181 not out – the highest score by an Australian batsman in ODIs. Hayden's 10 sixes in the match were a record for an Australian batsman in a one-day match, surpassing Ponting 's nine. Hayden scored over 1000 Test runs in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 – the first man to achieve the feat five times. Interestingly, at the commencement of 2006 he had the fourth highest conversion rate (Test centuries scored per Test played) in history, behind only Sir Donald Bradman, George Headley and Clyde Walcott. In 2001 he scored a then Australian record of 1391 runs in Test matches in one calendar year, and subsequently won the Allan Border Medal as the best Australian player of the year. Hayden was also one of Wisden's five 2003 Cricketers of the Year. After being fast-tracked into the Australian national team, Michael Clarke quickly began showing his potential, making his ODI debut in January 2003 against England. He immediately made a name for himself on the international scene for his aggressive yet mature batting ability. Clarke was selected to make his Test debut against India at Bangalore, October 2004, despite having a first-class average below 40. He succeeded on debut, scoring 151 and consequently helping Australia to victory, invoking comparisons to past Australian batsmen such as Doug Walters and Mark Waugh. Clarke played a major part in Australia's 2-1 series victory, their first in India in over thirty years, contributing outstanding bowling figures of 6/9 in the final Test of the series. On his return to Australia, Clarke made another debut century, his first home Test in Brisbane against New Zealand, becoming one of the few Test cricketers to have achieved the feat of Test centuries on both their home and away debuts. In recognition of his performance in the 2004 calendar year, he was awarded the Allan Border Medal in 2005. As of December 7, 2006, Michael Hussey is the top ranked ODI batsman in the world. In the third Super Series match on October 9, 2005, Hussey became the first person to hit the roof of Telstra Dome. On February 6, 2006, Hussey was named the Australian One-Day Player of the Year at the annual Allan Border Medal presentation. Hussey had also come second overall in the Allan Border medal his first year in international cricket. On November 3, 2006, Hussey became the ICC's ODI Player of the Year. Under Hussey's captaincy, Australia lost a one-day match against New Zealand on 16th February 2007 by ten wickets. This marked the first time Australia had lost by this margin in their one-day international history. Hussey did top score though with 42 off 96 balls. Hussey's record as captain was further marred when Australia slipped off the top of the ODI Rankings (replaced by South Africa) for the first time since they were introduced in 2002 after losing to New Zealand two days later. Once again, Hussey top-scored for Australia with an entertaining 105 off 84. The prolific left-hander, who has a mind-boggling average of over 79 in both Tests and ODIs, has not been a part of any Test loss so far. The fact that he has a torn bicep but still has been named in the World Cup underlines the importance of Andrew Symonds for the Aussies. Symonds’ hard-hitting coupled with his off-spin or medium pace, make him a good all-rounder. Not only that, Symonds is such an outstanding fielder that since the last World Cup in 2003, he had effected the most number of run-outs in ODI cricket of any fieldsman, with the fourth highest success rate. Since making his debut for the Queensland state team in the 1994-1995 season, Symonds has scored over 10,000 runs in first-class cricket. As an ODI player, Symonds is known for scoring runs at an excellent strike rate of over 90, with a highest score of 156. Symonds cemented his place in the team in Australia's opening match of the 2003 Cricket World Cup, where he scored an unbeaten 143 against Pakistan to guide Australia from 86/4 to 310/8. Symonds has the fifth highest score in the history of the Twenty20 Cup hitting a 43-ball 112 for Kent Spitfires against Middlesex Crusaders on July 2nd, 2004. In Brad Hodge, the Aussies have a naturally talented cricketer – a right-handed middle order batsman, who is also a part time right arm off spinner. Hodge is the first player to score a century in Australian domestic Twenty20, scoring 106 off 54 deliveries for Victoria against New South Wales at North Sydney, January 21, 2006. Hodge made 99 not out off 86 balls to steer Australia to victory against New Zealand on the 4th of February, 2007 when he was called into the team because Andrew Symonds had pulled out with a torn bicep. Brett Lee is widely regarded as one of the world's finest and most feared bowlers. Lee was ranked by the ICC as the number one ODI bowler in January 2006 and has been ranked among the top ten ODI bowlers since the start of 2003. Lee’s bowling strike rate of around 30 puts him amongst the most incisive in ODI cricket. Lee also has an ODI hat-trick to his name, achieved in the 2003 World Cup against Kenya . Lee was the first Australian and fourth bowler to ever achieve this feat in World Cup history. Pace has always been Lee’s strength and at his fastest is capable of bowling at 160 kilometres per hour (kmph) or 99 miles per hour (mph). Lee’s trademark yorker delivery against Marvan Samson Atapattu in 2003 World Cup which reached 160.1 km/h (99.5 mph) is considered one of the best balls of that tournament as Lee finished the tournament with the most number of wickets which was the maximum ever by an Australian during a World Cup. Glenn Donald McGrath is one of the most highly regarded fast-medium pace bowlers in cricketing history, and a leading contributor to Australia's domination of world cricket since the mid-1990s to 2007. He holds the world record for the highest number of Test wickets by a fast bowler. McGrath announced his retirement from test cricket on December 23, 2006. His Test career came to an end after the 5th Ashes Test in Sydney, whilst the 2007 World Cup will mark the end of his one-day career. Mitchell Johnson gave the first signs of his potential at international level against the strong Indian batting line-up in a one-day international at Malaysia, Johnson's seventh. He took 4/11 off just 4 overs, including the wickets of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh . Johnson then played in the Australian 2006 ICC Champions Trophy team, and in the group A match against England he took 3/40, giving further evidence of his skill with the ball. His victims included Kevin Pietersen . Shaun Tait's bowling action is unique, with him twisting his spine almost in a right angle. This allows him to deliver the ball with phenomenal pace, including one delivery at 160km/h against New Zealand in an ODI on February 4, 2007. This is tantalisingly close to the magical 100mph barrier, a landmark only Shoaib Akhtar has reached, with Brett Lee disputably reaching it on many occasions. The quadrennial extravaganza, which starts on March 13, will have the Aussies aiming for their third consecutive and fourth overall victory. And if the above-mentioned match-winners play to their full potential, the Aussies will definitely win their fourth World Cup. Also View In-Depth Coverage: Cricket World Cup 2007 Team Page: Australia Team Page: West Indies | LIVE CRICKET COVERAGE NEWS ~ Gilchrist has no plans to retire after World Cup ~ Ganguly's new batting approach may cost him sixer record ~ India 'squash the Orange' in World Cup warm-up game ~ Symonds gets a new hairdo for World Cup ~ Dhoni readies himself for stand-up act at World Cup (more in NEWS) FACE-TO-FACE ~ 500-mark a possibility in World Cup: Hayden ~ Minnows add charm to World Cup: Dravid (more in FACE-TO-FACE) COLUMNS ~ Will Sri Lanka replicate 1996 World Cup success? (more in COLUMNS) OFF-THE-FIELD ~ Ganguly again the darling of corporate world ~ Ganguly roped in as brand ambassador of Puma (more in OFF-THE-FIELD) PLAYERS Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble (more PLAYERS) TEAMS India, South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Australia, West Indies, Zimbabwe, England, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Kenya, Holland | 
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