Australia saw off New Zealand with consummate ease to win the Cricket World Cup for the fifth time.
Australia, comfortably the favourites going into the final against their co-hosts, skittled out the Kiwis for under 200, and picked off their target with ages to spare, as captain Michael Clarke, though bowled out with just nine runs to win, was Australia’s main man in their innings in his last ODI: a fitting way to finish this part of his career.
New Zealand started off disastrously as Mitchell Starc bowled Brendon McCullum for a duck in the first over. That was the Australian quick’s 21st wicket of the tournament and one of the most important; that early dismissal meant that the Kiwis’ task was already a very difficult one.
However, New Zealand still had plenty of firepower to bring in. Martin Guptill, who scored a world record 237 against West Indies in the quarter-final, began to rebuild alongside Kane Williamson, not scoring too quickly, but getting himself in. The stage was set for Guptill and Williamson to get the match back into New Zealand’s favour with a big partnership. Alas, it was not to be. Glenn Maxwell bowled Guptill for 15 to make the score 33-2; in the very next over Mitchell Johnson had Williamson caught and bowled: 39-3.
Ross Taylor and Grant Elliott, the Blackcaps’ hero in their semi-final against South Africa, re-attached the wheels to the New Zealand innings, and put them into a very promising position. The former went at a steady rate, anchoring the innings, whilst the latter went at a run a ball, and with fifteen overs to go the score was 150-3, but more importantly, the batting side had seven wickets to play with at the end of the innings.
The plan would have been to attack the Aussie bowlers whilst keeping the top order batsmen in, and there was a real chance of New Zealand getting to 300, but the plan could not have been executed much worse. In the first three balls of the 36th over, two wickets fell for no runs. Taylor was caught behind off Faulkner’s bowling for a respectable 40 off 72; Corey Anderson was bowled for a duck. In the next over Luke Ronchi was dismissed by Starc for a duck. New Zealand had gone from 150-3 to 151-6 in the space of eight balls.
Daniel Vettori, possibly playing in his last ever ODI, and Elliott steadied the ship, bringing New Zealand to 165-6 with ten overs to go. It was unlikely that they’d reach 300, but with Elliott, their in-form batsman, set and Vettori doing a fine job of supporting him, they could at the very least score the 100 runs or so needed to set a challenging target for Australia. The pair needed to stay in for all ten overs and pressurise the bowlers in the hope that they would crack and give away runs.
Vettori was bowled by Johnson for nine at the end of the 41st over; Elliott edged behind off Faulkner for a brilliant 83 off 82. The hopes of setting a big score were over, and the best the Kiwis could hope for was reaching 200. Even that was too much to ask for, as the tail were cleaned up by Mitchell Johnson and a run out. New Zealand were bowled out for 183, and their chances of winning the World Cup for the first time looked very slim.
The Australian bowling attack put in a perfect performance, working together as a group to strangle the Kiwi batsmen. Johnson and Faulkner were the two heroes of the innings, picking up three wickets a piece and neither going for more than four runs per over. Mitchell Starc picked up two wickets for just twenty runs, meaning he ends the tournament with 22 wickets at an average of 10.18: the best bowling average ever in World Cup history. Maxwell was the only bowler to go for over five RPO, but took the key wicket of Guptill, and Hazlewood failed to pick up a wicket, but went for just 30 off his eight overs.
There was an early ray of hope for New Zealand as Boult had Aaron Finch caught and bowled to make the score 2-1. Could New Zealand perform a miracle and skittle their co-hosts out for under 183? The answer was a resounding no. David Warner began to dominate and Smith supported him well, as Australia moved to 56-1 off ten overs. However, New Zealand gave themselves just the smallest of chances as Matt Henry, who was playing regional cricket only last week, dismissed Warner for 45 off 46: 63-2 in the thirteenth over.
This put a tiny bit of pressure on the Australians, and weaker teams, for example England, would perhaps have lost their cool a bit and tried to reach the target too quickly, but Michael Clarke, playing in his last ODI, and Steve Smith were too mature for that, as they gradually ate away at the target, not looking like losing their wickets and keeping the run rate well above what was needed.
Just after the halfway stage in the innings, Clarke celebrated his fifty: a fitting send off for Australia’s captain. With twenty overs to go, Australia had 28 to win, and Clarke decided to wrap things up quickly. He hit four boundaries in a row and tickled a single to fine leg to bring the score to 174-2 and take his personal tally to 74 off 71. Australia needed ten runs off the last nineteen overs, and the stage was set for Clarke to hit the winning runs.
However, after a wide, Clarke was bowled by Henry with just nine runs to get and went off the field looking slightly annoyed with himself, but very emotional, as his time with the Australian ODI team had come to an end. 74 off 72: a tremendous innings and a tremendous finale. Instead of the captain, the task was left to Shane Watson and Steve Smith to finish the game off for Australia.
Smith hit the winning runs to win the game by seven wickets and to secure Australia’s fifth Cricket World Cup win. The Aussie players charged onto the pitch in delirium.
The game itself was somewhat anti-climactic, and it took Smith and Watson quite some time to finish off the game, adding to the suspense, but Michael Clarke and his men will not be worrying about that right now.
