Australia loves nothing more than her strut their stuff in front of fans. There was no shortage of support as the MCG, bursting at the seams with a record of 93,013 fans in attendance, buzzed with electricity well before the draw. Dressed in their yellow shirts and wear their yellow hats with pride, supporters of Australia prepared for a show capital of their heroes. Were not to be disappointed.
In final appearance of Michael Clarke as an international player one day, Australia showed his class, frolicking with a great victory in the final of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 New Zealand came to Australia hoping to become the new champion for the first time. But in the space of seven hours on Sunday (March 29), he flatly refused.
Clarke was the best with the cunning and the guarantee of a general who knows his troops are used to the overwhelming success. Brendon McCullum, inspirational and enterprising so far, had a terrible day with the bat and, momentarily, perhaps decisive, was defensive captain. With only 183 to defend, the only option was New Zealand bowl out Australia. But when McCullum scored the second is already out in the fifth and saw David Warner Tim Southee edge exactly where the gardener had been, the moment had passed.
Australia would have been 23 for 2 at that stage; Instead, Warner held the let-off with a succession of limits to deny the threat Trent Boult-Southee before giving prominence to Clarke.
Bachelor Clarke fifty tickets, full free flow of sumptuous strokes, was the icing on the cake as Australia fell to 186 for 3 and a seven-wicket romp with 101 deliveries to spare. Steven Smith, imperceptibly, brought a half-century of his account in perhaps his most important work, but less blow held to date, their 112-run stand a wonderful amalgam of the present and the future. Clarke fell with the imminent victory, walking out of his second standing ovation of the night.
Three left-arm quicks of Australia had used different tactics in the afternoon to share eight wickets. Mitchell Starc opened the ball at express pace, Mitchell Johnson was quick and nasty and clever and cunning, and James Faulkner set the cat among the pigeons with clever changes of pace, especially in the Power Play batting where he picked up two wickets in the first over. For good measure, Josh Hazlewood extracted significant rebound hitters kept pushing back with his nagging length and had a wicket Glenn Maxwell bonus on first too, as everything instantly Clarke touched turned to gold.
New Zealand had no such wealth. Boult made evict Aaron Finch in his first over with customary inswing, but Southee was disappointing in its first stage, which Warner will catch him. Matt Henry rolled his heart without much luck, and even as McCullum innovative set, golf Smith and Clarke well thought at the beginning of your tickets, you could feel that a lot of the fight had gone out of him and his side when the outer edge of Warner flew past the second sheet of vacancy.
Warner was finally captured on the couch, but had done enough damage with a concussion 46-ball 45 in a game of few points. With its stand of 61 with Smith fluency, nerves had calmed down first. Then, Clarke took over. Having left to a standing ovation, Clarke bided his time before making his mark with the bat too. A couple of early boundaries gave in Silken soft striped drives through the covers and caresses effortlessly over the straight field. Smith was happy to sit and watch his captain.
Only when Ross Taylor and Grant Elliott, the only batter he showed fluency, participated in a stand of 111 for the fourth wicket career did solve the famous New Zealand make their appearance. New Zealand, however, had little to show both sides for 97 minutes, 137-ball alliance as their last seven wickets fell for 33 in 60 deliveries to a combination of skill and intelligence of the premises. Australia uses the short delivery liberally, but trackballs were those who did the damage. Eight of the ten wickets fell to complete balls, testimony Australia game plan that had emotion completely out of the equation.
