18 years ago the 2003 cricket world cup final

[sunilz]

I still don’t understand India’s decision to bowl first after winning the toss after all these years..

Could it be something else was going on behind the scene?

In league match of that WC , IND were dismissed at 125 by AUS in 1st innings. So they were mentally scarred.

 

[Gob]

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?"

Marto got to his fifty first IIRC.

 

[Chrish]

In league match of that WC , IND were dismissed at 125 by AUS in 1st innings. So they were mentally scarred.

Doesn’t matter. Only chance to win for India was to bat first, put on a decent total and have Australia chase. That Aussie team didn’t have a great reputation when it came to chasing a decent total. By letting them bat first, India denied themselves any hope for victory.

Personally I have considered all the pros and cons of not batting first, and no matter which way you slice it, bowling first didn’t make any sense in that scenario.

Of course there is no way to know for sure but that’s really the only occasion where I had doubted the integrity of Indian cricket. Hope I was wrong though.

 

[stephen]

Nah it was a blunder, but it was a blunder brought about by India over thinking things rather than corruption. Remember that Sri Lanka won in 96 due to bowling first and as sunilz said, India had already been routed once before batting first that tournament.

 

[Salamuddin]

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.

The zenith of Australia's reign followed by the great win in India in 2004.
Oh what wonderful times that was for us Aussie boys - it seemed like Australia's reign at the top would continue for ever.

Little did Burgey realise that within 18 years Australia would struggle to find batsmen averaging over 40 and proceed to lose two successive home test series to India.

Maaate how did it come to this ? How could our green and gold go from those heights to losing at the Gabbatoir of all places to this lot ?

 

[TheJediBrah]

Of course there is no way to know for sure but that’s really the only occasion where I had doubted the integrity of Indian cricket. Hope I was wrong though.

lol wow

 

[Chrish]

It’s right up there with Gavaskar 36 not out and Dravid declaring on Tendulkar at 194 moment for me. Logic doesn’t explain those phenomena.

May be I have a stronger feeling about it than I should, but it was such a shocking decision! I still vividly remember disgusting grin on Ponting’s face after Gangualy decided to bowl first.. I am still not over it.

 

[Burgey]

The zenith of Australia's reign followed by the great win in India in 2004.
Oh what wonderful times that was for us Aussie boys - it seemed like Australia's reign at the top would continue for ever.

Little did Burgey realise that within 18 years Australia would struggle to find batsmen averaging over 40 and proceed to lose two successive home test series to India.

Maaate how did it come to this ? How could our green and gold go from those heights to losing at the Gabbatoir of all places to this lot ?

Peculiar to bother responding to a post in a thread specifically about a match 18 years ago by bringing up events in the 2020s, but you're a weird, bitter unit at the best of times, so it's not all that surprising.

 

[Burgey]

Of course there is no way to know for sure but that’s really the only occasion where I had doubted the integrity of Indian cricket

This is a very odd comment tbh.

There's myriad occasions when any reasonable person would doubt the integrity of Indian cricket. It's the seat of the game's corruption epidemic, and has been for decades.

 

[Pap Finn Keighl]

Doesn’t matter. Only chance to win for India was to bat first, put on a decent total and have Australia chase. That Aussie team didn’t have a great reputation when it came to chasing a decent total. By letting them bat first, India denied themselves any hope for victory.

Personally I have considered all the pros and cons of not batting first, and no matter which way you slice it, bowling first didn’t make any sense in that scenario.

Of course there is no way to know for sure but that’s really the only occasion where I had doubted the integrity of Indian cricket. Hope I was wrong though.

In such a situation, Dhoni will take the correct decision ( of batting first ) and face the inevitable failure.
Everyone will be like.. What a blunder.. We already lost previous match by batting first.

 

[Shri]

It got rained off iirc without a ball being bowled. We even let aus have the cup I think

 

[Fuller Pilch]

It got rained off iirc without a ball being bowled.

Sounds like all the rugby world cups from 1991-2007. Very dark days!

 

[Lillian Thomson]

It’s right up there with Gavaskar 36 not out and Dravid declaring on Tendulkar at 194 moment for me. Logic doesn’t explain those phenomena.

May be I have a stronger feeling about it than I should, but it was such a shocking decision! I still vividly remember disgusting grin on Ponting’s face after Gangualy decided to bowl first.. I am still not over it.

There was nothing dodgy about the Gavaskar innings. It obviously looks a bit odd on paper. But in those days if a team made 330 odd (or indeed anything over 250) you generally had little chance of winning. There hadn't been much cricket leading up to the World Cup so Gavaskar decided to have a bit of a net for the two winnable games to follow. Some people at the time were more suspicious about the draw with England getting the then weak New Zealand and India teams (India weren't a bad side but had played little ODI cricket) and then Australia, Pakistan and West Indies being in the same group.

 

[Chrish]

In such a situation, Dhoni will take the correct decision ( of batting first ) and face the inevitable failure.
Everyone will be like.. What a blunder.. We already lost previous match by batting first.

I have no complain about the result. Australia were a better team and they won.

What pisses me off is, if you have one advantage over the opposition, why would you purposely give it away in the most important game of the tournament?

India should have batted first regardless of the outcome. If you want to experiment, do it in bilateral, not freaking final.

 

[Chrish]

There was nothing dodgy about the Gavaskar innings. It obviously looks a bit odd on paper. But in those days if a team made 330 odd (or indeed anything over 250) you generally had little chance of winning. There hadn't been much cricket leading up to the World Cup so Gavaskar decided to have a bit of a net for the two winnable games to follow. Some people at the time were more suspicious about the draw with England getting the then weak New Zealand and India teams (India weren't a bad side but had played little ODI cricket) and then Australia, Pakistan and West Indies being in the same group.

No, I don’t think it was motivated by corruption. Prevailing theory at that time was that Gavaskar had a beef with the captain Venkatraghavan. He was also pissed that he was denied the captaincy and thus played that inning in protest so that team would loose.

Dravid declaring on Tendulkar was also not motivated by corruption but there were non-cricketing reasons at play IMO.

 

[_00_deathscar]

India should have batted first regardless of the outcome. If you want to experiment, do it in bilateral, not freaking final.

No, no, no. Bilaterals and triseries are for playing past it/over the hill/soon to be pointless players who we all know won't play in the next World Cup.
The World Cup is where you experiment. But because you're also too scared to do that, you just bring Vijay Shankar back into the lineup instead.

 

[Pap Finn Keighl]

I have no complain about the result. Australia were a better team and they won.

What pisses me off is, if you have one advantage over the opposition, why would you purposely give it away in the most important game of the tournament?

India should have batted first regardless of the outcome. If you want to experiment, do it in bilateral, not freaking final.

There is a difference in analysing in front of TV and actually being the sole decision maker... Unless you are Dhoni.. Super calm.. Super cool.. Super intelligent.

 

[Chrish]

On a different note, India did chase down a high total against Pakistan right before the final and Pakistan had an awesome attack. So, that might have influenced their decision. I dunno.

 

[DriveClub]

On a different note, India did chase down a high total against Pakistan right before the final and Pakistan had an awesome attack. So, that might have influenced their decision. I dunno.

Iirc India got rolled over for 120 by aus in the group stages, that was the main reason they wanted to bowl first I think. Weren't confident of batting first against the Australian attack imo

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

I remember Dinesh Mongia coming in to bat and they put up his ODI career stats and I recall his highest score at that time was a near-daddy hundred...and I thought that he was gonna man the chase and take India home...

They all went home after the Lehmann catch.