 Domination of Australia in 2007
31st Dec 2007 19:00 IST
Manish Kumar
McGrath's haul of three wickets against South Africa lifted his wicket tally to 25 in the tournament, the most in a World Cup so far. Hayden's innings of 41 against South Africa brought up the remarkable 600 runs in a tournament, becoming the 2nd person to do so. He achieved a further 38 runs in the final against Sri Lanka, leaving him 14 short of Tendulkar's record of 673 runs.
The 172-run partnership between Gilchrist and Hayden is the highest opening partnership in a World Cup final.
Gilchrist became the fifth batsman to score a century in the Cricket World Cup final in 2007 after Clive Lloyd in 1975, Vivian Richards in 1979, Aravinda de Silva in 1996 and Ponting in 2003. His score of 149 is the highest individual score ever in the final of the World Cup beating the previous highest of 140 not out by Ponting in 2003.
For the second consecutive tournament the Aussies went undefeated in the ODI World Cup and McGrath retired from all forms of international cricket following the successful campaign.
Though Australia was by far the best team at the World Cup in the West Indies, they were knocked out by India in the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa.
But Australia extracted some revenge when they toured India for an ODI series in September-October 2007. Australia won the ODI series 4-2 (one match was washed off due to rain), but again lost the only Twenty20 International in Mumbai.
Sri Lanka were beaten comprehensively 2-0 when they toured Australia for a two-Test series in November. Powered by back-to-back centuries by Ponting, Australia regained the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy by beating New Zealand by a commanding 2-0 margin in December.
By winning the Boxing Day Test against India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground at the end of 2007, they had won 14 Tests in a row and were fast closing in on their own record of 16. |
