Australia defeats Sri Lanka in 2007 Cricket World Cup Final

April 28, 2007

Australia have defeated Sri Lanka by 53 runs (DL method) in the Final of the World Cup at the Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados, giving them their third successive title.

Australia progressed to the final without losing a single match - their smallest victory was still by a reasonable 83 runs against South Africa in the group stages.

Sri Lanka lost twice on their way to the final, first against South Africa in their first game of the Super 8s, made famous due to Lasith Malinga's 4 wickets in 4 balls, though Sri Lanka went on to lose by 1 wicket anyway. Their other loss came against today's opponents Australia, however they rested 2 of their main bowlers (Muttiah Muralitharan and Charminda Vaas), as well as strike bowler Lasith Malinga being out injured at the time. All 3 bowlers are expected to be in the squad today, giving Australia a different challenge today.

This is a repeat of the 1996 World Cup Final which Sri Lanka won - however Australia have won both World Cups since, in 1999 and 2003, and have beaten Sri Lanka in every other World Cup match they have faced.

Gilchrist played an incredible innings of 149 - the highest for any batsman in a World Cup final - to give Australia an imposing total going in at to break. Hayden fell for 38, leaving him just 14 runs short of Sachin Tendulkar's record of 673 in a single World Cup, set in 2003.

The match almost concluded in confusing circumstances: the game had run on late, having been reduced to 38 overs a side initially and later 36 overs for Sri Lanka, and bad light ended up stopping play with Sri Lanka's agreement, despite having 3 wickets left in hand and 18 balls left to bowl.

The Australians began to celebrate the win before the match officials informed them, incorrectly, that the remaining three overs still had to be bowled. If light conditions were not good enough for play to resume then they would have to wait for the next day to complete the match. Eventually the Sri Lankan captain sent his batsmen back out to play in near-complete darkness, the Australian captain agreeing to only allow spinners to bowl for the safety of the batsmen.

The final 3 overs were eventually bowled but nothing really changed: Malinga was stumped and sent on his way by Man of the Match Gilchrist but the balls slowly ran out and Australia stormed home to win the tournament.

Match statistics
Toss: Australia won, and elected to bat first.

Fall of wickets: 1-172 (Hayden, 22.5 ov), 2-224 (Gilchrist, 30.3 ov), 3-261 (Ponting, 35.4 ov), 4-266 (Watson, 36.2 ov)

Did not bat: Michael Hussey, Brad Hogg, Nathan Bracken, Shaun Tait, Glenn McGrath

Fall of wickets: 1-7 (Tharanga, 2.1 ov), 2-123 (Sangakkara, 19.5 ov), 3-145 (Jayasuriya, 22.6 ov), 4-156 (Jayawardene, 25.5 ov), 5-188 (Dilshan, 29.6 ov), 6-190 (Silva, 30.1 ov), 7-194 (Arnold, 31.5 ov), 8-211 (Malinga, 33.6 ov)

Did not bat: Muttiah Muralitharan

Australia: M L Hayden, A C Gilchrist (wkt), R T Ponting (capt), M J Clarke, A Symonds, M E K Hussey, S R Watson, G B Hogg, N W Bracken, S W Tait, G D McGrath Sri Lanka: S T Jayasuriya, W U Tharanga, K C Sangakkara (wkt), D P M D Jayawardene (capt), L P C Silva, T M Dilshan, R P Arnold, W P U J C Vaas, C R D Fernando, S L Malinga, M Muralitharan

Player of the match: A C Gilchrist Player of the Tournament: G D McGrath

Umpires: Aleem Dar (Pakistan) and S A Bucknor (West Indies) TV umpire: R E Koertzen (South Africa) Match referee: J J Crowe (New Zealand) Reserve umpire: B F Bowden (New Zealand)