Australia rules supreme

The pretenders to the throne could only gape in awe as Australia simply strolled away with the World Cup 2007, hardly breaking a sweat. Their total domination spoilt the tournament as a spectacle, but you can hardly blame the Australians for playing near perfect cricket over two months.

The semifinal against South Africa was virtually over by the end of the first hour, with the Aussie bowlers scything through the Springbok top half. And the final-a rain truncated affair- was decided by about midway of the Australian innings. Mathew Hayden was perceived as the main threat and trhe Sri Lankan bowlers succeeded in keeping him quiet and ultimately dismissing him. But it made no difference to the Australian progress, because his opening partner chose the final to regain his masterly touch at the crease. Adam Gilchrist, also after a quiet start, thrashed the Lankan bowlers-Vaas, Murali, Malinga, the lot- to all parts of the Kensington Oval and made all the other Aussie batsmen appear pedestrian in comparison.The Sri Lankan batsmen could be considered unfortunate in having to bat with an eye on the Duckworth-Lewis equations-always a dificult proposition, but really, long before that Gilchrist had ensured that his team would create history by winning the world cup thrice in a row.

Sri Lanka had the measure of a strangely off colour NewZealand in the semifinal, batting first and putting together a formidable 289/5. The Kiwis were never in the hunt and lost comfortably-they seemed to be badly affected by injuries;Styris was playing with a heavily strapped right hand and bowled just one over,Mcmillan went off early in the SriLankan innings;Bond seemed to have lost his rythm because of his absence from the last match.

South Africa elected to bat against Australia ,even though the wicket appeared to promise a lot of assistance for the bowlers. Clearly, they wanted to counter the Aussies' favoured tactics of simply batting out their opponents from the game.But now, the Australian bowlers took over-not without some help from Smith and Kallis, who were hell bent on charging Mcgrath and co. South Africa were 27/5 inside ten overs-match over!

So, how did the Australians do it? They were supposed to be vulnerable after defeats against England in the tri-series and then in New Zealand. The pundits predicted that Brett Lee's absence would be fatal to Australia's chances, but instead it gave Shaun Tait the chance to establish himself as a worthy replacement. You have to reflect that Australia completed this comprehensive sweep with two of their star performers-Mike Hussey and Andrew Symonds- not having to contribute significantly! Mcgrath is retiring from one-dayers, Hayden and Gilchrist may not last too long, but anyone want to bet that worthy successors will not be found? The Australians will take special joy in the success of left arm spinner Brad Hogg, who now looks set to force his way into the Test team. And Brad Hodge, out from their regular eleven, would walk into any of the other teams on view, on the strength of his batting and superb fielding.

At the moment, there is nothing to prevent Ricky Ponting from leading his team in the third straight World Cup in 2011. And unless the other teams take giant strides over the next four years, he will lead Australia to their fourth straight title without much trouble.