Ponting cuts India into pieces on the big stage

World Cup Classics: Final - Australia v India, New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg, 23 March 2003

This was a final between two in-form teams. Australia was on an unprecedented winning spree having not lost a single game while India too had a batting line-up which was piling on the runs in almost every match.

The little master Sachin Tendulkar had scored a staggering 669 runs while their captain Sourav Ganguly had hit 3 hundreds in the tournament.But on the big stage, the final, Australia lead by their skipper, Ricky Ponting, imposed their authority and floored a stunned Indian team with contempt. Indian batting was blown away like nine pins and their bowling was made to look like club-level.

Ganguly put Australia in to bat hoping his bowlers will extract something out of the track to get him early wickets. But Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden murdered Javagal Srinath and Zaheer Khan to post a stirring opening stand of 105 in 13.5 overs. Gilchrist took all the bowlers to cleaners with his powerful strokes and when he departed after making a whirlwind 57 off 48 balls with 8 fours and a six Indians took a huge sigh of relief. But it was not to be as after the fall of Hayden for 37, Ricky Ponting and Damien Martyn took the pounding to another level. Harbhajan Singh got both the openers but he had no impact on these two classy players. While Ponting was pulling and flicking the ball away with full power, Martyn was all timing and serenity. It was such a delight to watch these two play that the crowd was in a trance and the atmosphere was tuned to the music of crispy sound of the bat hitting the ball. They collected 64 runs in he last 5 overs and over all shared an unbroken match-winning stand of 234 runs in 30.1 overs and batted India out of the game.

Ponting made 140 off 121 balls with 4 fours and 8 towering sixes, a world cup record, while Martyn contributed 88 off 84 balls. Indians gave away 37 runs in extras to put the icing on cake for the Aussies. Australia set a huge target by finishing at 359 for 2 in 50 overs. Harbhajan took 2 for 49 while this match proved to be the last for Srinath who was murdered for 87 runs in his 10 overs, worst figures in a WC final. As Indians walked towards the dressing room they had their hopes of chasing this huge total resting on Tendulkar and the impending rain.

McGrath did what he does best. He got the danger man Tendulkar out cheaply for 4 and stunned the Indian fans into silence from the very beginning. The little master clearly could not bear the burden of expectations of millions and failed when it mattered the most.His fall put huge pressure on the likes of Sehwag, Dravid and Ganguly. Ganguly looked good for his 25 but could not move on while Mohammad Kaif departed without scoring. Sehwag played his natural game and along with Dravid kept the innings going for a while. Rain stopped the play for about 25 minutes when they were 103 for 3 in 17 overs but no overs were deducted.They put on 88 runs for the 4th wicket but Sehwag ran himself out for almost a run a ball 82 which contained 10 fours and 3 sixes. When Dravid departed for 47 there was nothing left for Indians in the match to regain. Ponting, anticipating that rain was around the corner, used his spinners early and for quite a long duration.Hogg and Lehmann were punished but Symonds bagged two quick wickets down the order to hasten the Indian collapse. They lost their last 5 wickets for just 26 runs and were folded for 234 in the 40th over losing by a hefty margin of 125 runs.McGrath took 3 for 52 while Lee and Symonds got two wickets each. Ponting was the man of the match while man of the series award went to Tendulkar.

It was second consecutive World Cup win for Australia and their third over all. They deserved it fully as they by far looked the best team and truly invincible. The fact that they did not miss Shane Warne and Jason Gillespie made this victory even more remarkable and memorable. India might have thought they could win but their hopes were shattered by rampaging Australia who lived up to the expectations and extended their rule over the cricket world.