The World Champions

I was travelling during the last leg of the world cup and hence could not pen anything down. It is probably too late to comment on what happened in the last stages but I can't help writing about the world champions.

This was clearly the most convincing world cup performances I have ever seen from any team. The Kangaroos clearly stood taller than the rest of the pack. Their game was at a level which was probably 40% higher than the next best teams. It was supposed to be an open world cup and it did turn out to be one as we had unexpected results in some cases, but only for the rest of the world. Australians displayed the same intensity in each and every game as they had done in the finals of the last world cup. Their performance was simply extra-ordinary.

Before the world up started, I was not too sure about their bowling. I thought McGrath would get hammered and Bracken & Tait would succumb to the pressure. Hogg, I thought, was no comparison to Murali or Kumble or Vettori. Their batting looked strong on paper but I always thought it relied heavily on big knocks from Ponting & Gilchrist and maybe some damage control towards the end by Hussey. However their performances proved me and many others wrong. Their batting was out-of-the-world and I would give the credit to Hayden for that. The big man was unbelievable. He scored big runs really really fast. Gilchrist delivered in the finals and Ponting was consistent throughout as usual. The middle order hardly had any pressure. What McGrath with the bowling did is history now. He yet again proved that good line and length can work wonders for you and speed is only secondary. Bracken & Tait were very good as well and came back with a lot of wickets. All-in-all, it was a super effort from a super team. Their world cup performance deserves a No. 1 ranking for them for the next 5 years.

Well done, Australia!!