Australia complete hat-trick, McGrath bows out in style

Apr 30, 2007 Cricket

The Aussies completed a record hat-trick of World Cup wins, beating Sri Lanka by 53 runs. Glenn McGrath bid adieu to the one-day game in style, ending up as the highest wicket-taker and bagging the award for “Player of the Tournament”. This was a fantastic achievement at his age, especially when so many of his contemporaries have fallen by the wayside in this World Cup, ending their ODI careers on a sorry note.

The match got off to a delayed start on account of rain, which caused the match to be reduced to a 38 over spectacle. When the ICC were criticised for the long schedule, they grandly said they had made provisions for “rain-days”. Ironically, these guys then went ahead and ensured a truncated final was played, whereas it could have been played the next day, allowing the two best teams a full 50 over match.

After not coming good with the bat during this tournament, Adam Gilchrist stamped his authority on the Final for the third straight time, smashing 149 from 104 balls, with 13 fours and 8 sixes, helping the Aussies finish at 281-4 from the allotted 38 overs. Malinga was the only bowler who escaped being hit for a six, as all the others suffered heavily.

In reply, the Lankans managed only 215-8, and the match ended in a farce. Frankly, I rate Steve Bucknor as one of the worst umpires in the game now, and it is high time he retired. It is also a pity that Simon Taufel is unable to officiate in most finals as Australia invariably figures in all of them these days !!

It started raining towards the end again, so the umpires decided to stop play, then start again, and forgot to communicate the revised target to the Lankans. (269 reqd off 36 overs).

The umpires offered light to the batsmen; they took it, and the Aussies began celebrating, even the scoreboard congratulated them for winning the World Cup !! The umpires then stepped in and told them the game was not officially over yet. The support staff had already begun getting out the podium, dais etc for the presentation ceremony and had to be shooed back by the umpires.

Aleem Dar suggested that the match would be continued the next day, before Jayawardene and Ponting spoke to him and prevented such a stupidity. World Cup match referee Jeff Crowe apologized for the horrible mess-up, saying that he, along with all the umpires, Bucknor and Dar, plus Koertzen & Bowden would share collective blame.

All in all, a lousy end to a World Cup that seemed to go from one disaster to another !

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