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18 years ago the 2003 cricket world cup final

J

Jumno

First Class Debutant
This was a highly anticipated match. I still remember 13 year old excited watching the final.

India won the toss, bowled, the first over went for 15 runs, Zaheer was all over the place, Gilchrist went aggressive, remember him taking Srinath to the cleaners in one over. The match was getting out of India's hand as Australia kept piling on the runs and Ponting just went absolutely berserk scoring 8 sixes giving Australia even by 2003 standards a mammoth 359-2.

Still when Tendulkar pulled McGrath for four, many thought this could be it, but all was dashed when the next ball he miscalculated a pull straight into McGrath's hand. Ganguly did excite for a bit, and it was exhilarating to watch, he went, Kaif went then Sehwag entertained, smacking it all over the place. He unfortunately got run out (only if he didn't).

The momentum shifted back to the Aussies and it was about time when the Aussie's would rap it up.

Memorable victory for the Aussies and you feel for India who did play so well in the World Cup only to be hammered by the Aussies in the final by the bowlers who did so well in the tournament.

For Indian fans, that 2003 world cup had something magical, that incredible run of victories. But for the Aussies, it was a dream final.
 
F

Fuller Pilch

Hall of Fame Member
To be fair Shane Bond was probably the only man who was going to stop Australia (Ponting) in 2003, but NZ's batting wasn't good enough at the time vs Australia and India so they missed the semis for once (forfeiting to Kenya obviously didn't help either).
 
stephen

stephen

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Gilchrist played an underrated role in that final. Built a platform with Hayden and Ponting which India didn't really recover from. Was a more important innings than his half century in 1999, though not as important as his innings in 2007. Martyn too played an important innings in that final.
 
TheJediBrah

TheJediBrah

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stephen said:
Gilchrist played an underrated role in that final. Built a platform with Hayden and Ponting which India didn't really recover from. Was a more important innings than his half century in 1999, though not as important as his innings in 2007. Martyn too played an important innings in that final.
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Martyn and Ponting had some entertaining niggle late in that innings that you could hear over the stump mike. Martyn was obviously solely focused on getting to 100 and Ponting kept hitting 2s to keep the strike. so Martyn had a crack at him for it. You can hear Ponting replying "I'm not doing it on purpose am I?"
 
Burgey

Burgey

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So many highlights in that game. Zaheer Khan with the confected machismo having a crack at Gilly and Hayden from ball one, while going at 9.5 an over. Like mate, you probably don't want to fire these blokes up ffs.

Ganguly doing a Strauss and claiming a plainly bounced catch was hilarious. Just a desperate act from an outclassed myth.

Ponting getting some new gloves with about 15 overs to go and telling the 12th man "tell the boys to get ready, I'm going to go for everything, right her, right now." Then hitting Harby for back to back sixes when he was reintroduced.

Then St Sachin of Selective Deafness doing what he always did in finals - choking hard with McGrath delivering the inevitable Heimlich Maneuver.

The game was over before India batted. They were never chasing that total. The OP understandably looks back with rose coloured glasses, but they never had a hope. It was wonderful. Sehwag making an irrelevant 80 odd while the Aussies went between overs practicing their victory speeches. He could have made 200 and India would have lost that game.

It was only surpassed by the 2007 version as the most one-sided WC final. Wonderful.
 
TheJediBrah

TheJediBrah

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Fuller Pilch said:
True. Australia were poor in the ODI triseries finals vs England and in the Chappell Hadlee, before absolutely destroying everyone at the World Cup.
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Yeah I remember it well. Tbf they sent an A-side to NZ, but not sure what excuse to use for losing the Tri-series finals to a pretty average England.
 
Burgey

Burgey

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They were in the middle of a really intense training block at the time of the triseries finals apparently, so they'd be up for the WC.
 
Pap Finn Keighl

Pap Finn Keighl

International Debutant
Mcgrath and Gilchrist.. That was the difference between India and Australia.
Put Dhoni instead of Kaif and Bumrah instead of Mongia.. Now its competitive.
 
Pap Finn Keighl

Pap Finn Keighl

International Debutant
Burgey said:
So many highlights in that game. Zaheer Khan with the confected machismo having a crack at Gilly and Hayden from ball one, while going at 9.5 an over. Like mate, you probably don't want to fire these blokes up ffs.

Ganguly doing a Strauss and claiming a plainly bounced catch was hilarious. Just a desperate act from an outclassed myth.

Ponting getting some new gloves with about 15 overs to go and telling the 12th man "tell the boys to get ready, I'm going to go for everything, right her, right now." Then hitting Harby for back to back sixes when he was reintroduced.

Then St Sachin of Selective Deafness doing what he always did in finals - choking hard with McGrath delivering the inevitable Heimlich Maneuver.

The game was over before India batted. They were never chasing that total. The OP understandably looks back with rose coloured glasses, but they never had a hope. It was wonderful. Sehwag making an irrelevant 80 odd while the Aussies went between overs practicing their victory speeches. He could have made 200 and India would have lost that game.

It was only surpassed by the 2007 version as the most one-sided WC final. Wonderful.
Click to expand...
Tournament Finals
Sachin
39 innings 1851 runs 54 avg 88 sr 5x100s, 16x50s
 
TheJediBrah

TheJediBrah

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sunilz said:
Do you also consider Ashes stats as meaningless? Because for many people, ashes records would be meaningless.
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Depends. I would definitely consider Ashes stats more meaningful than any random ODI tri series in Sharjah, or any ODI series that isn't a World Cup actually. I wouldn't expect everyone to have the same standards though
 
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