NEW DELHI: It was on this day, 14 years ago, when Australia went on to lift its fourth 50-over World Cup title. Ricky Ponting-led Australia defeated Sri Lanka in the rain-affected finals by 53 runs on the basis of Duckworth-Lewis to lift the World Cup title at Kensington Oval in Barbados.
In the match, Australia won the toss and elected to bat first. Openers Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist put on 172 runs for the first wicket.
Their partnership saw Gilchrist going berzerk and he went on to play an unbeaten knock of 149 runs from just 104 balls to take Australia’s total to 281/4 in 38 overs. Hayden and Ricky Ponting played knocks of 38 and 37 respectively. Gilchrist was suffering from a lack of form in the entire tournament. After the finals, the wicket-keeper batsman had revealed that he used a squash ball inside his gloves to help him in the innings.
Chasing 282, Sri Lanka was restricted to just 215/8 in the 36 overs. For the side, Kumar Sangakkara played a knock of 54 runs while for Australia, Michael Clarke scalped two wickets.
Australia has won the 50-over World Cup five times (1987, 1999, 2003, 2007, and 2015). Ricky Ponting led the World Cup-winning squad two times (2003 and 2007). The 2007 World Cup-win was Australia’s third in a row as they had previously won the tournament in 1999 and 2003.
In the 1999 finals, Australia defeated Pakistan while in 2003, the side outclassed India. (ANI)
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