A tame finish to the World Cup

The ICC World Cup was more than a month long, 48 days to be exact. Teams clashed with their whole strength to win cricket's biggest prize - The ICC World Cup. In the end, it was Australia and Sri Lanka who reached the finals. Days before the final match, rumours and articles flew amok. Mahela Jayawardene ( Sri Lanka skipper) sent out comments not liked by the Australian team. Ricky Ponting ( Australian skipper) and Glenn McGrath, the world's best sledgers, retaliated with comments of their own. The atmosphere was filled with tension.

It was McGrath's final match and he wanted to make it a memorable one. Ricky won the toss and defying history (no final had been won at Barbados batting first), he elected to bat. Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden gave a steady start to the Aussies before the Gilchrist hurricane hit them. His knock of 149 which contained 12 fours and 8 sixes, was called the Gilchrist miracle. He defied all odds by hitting Vaas and Murali all over the park. The pitch was shockingly good for batting as the Australia scored an amazing 281/4 off their 38 overs.

Sri Lanka started with a boundary off the first ball. But Tharanga edged the ball to Gilchrist to be dismissed for 6 in the third over off Bracken's bowling. Sangakkara was united with Jayasuriya and both of them blodgeoned the Australian attack. But when Hogg dismissed Sangakkara for 54, it was a daunting task for the Sri Lankan batsman as they lost wickets at regular intervals. The Duckworth- Lewis method reduced their target to 269 off 36 overs which really didn't matter as they could manage only 215/8.

The match was pretty one sided and it didn't live up to the crowd's expectations due to the rain delay. Anyways,

Well played Aussies

Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!