The 2007 World Cup was the most boring World Cup of all time and one of the main reasons was the Australian team that was so dominant that they had no competition at all throughout the tournament. They had won all the matches in the World Cup leading into the final and in the final It was between Australia and Sri Lanka. It was expected that Sri Lanka would put up a fight but it was one sided.
Adam Gilchrist performance in 2007 world cup final
Australia were batting first in the final after the match was reduced to a 38 overs match due to rain. Adam Gilchrist was in the form of his life as he started the innings in an attacking manner and he absolutely decimated all the Sri Lankan bowlers. He played 104 balls in this innings and after hitting 13 fours and 8 Sixes meaning 100 Runs in boundaries. He had a strike rate of over 143 in an ODI World Cup Final. He made a score of 149 and this innings took the match away from Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka had Bowlers such as Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Muralidharan, Lasith Malinga and Sanath Jayasuriya. Adam Gilchrist made all of them look ordinary.
The other batters in the team just had to give him able support and that’s exactly what they did. Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting and Andrew Symonds made important runs and it all helped Australia Score a massive 281 in 38 overs which was more than 7 runs per over. And at that time teams did not chase totals at over 7 runs per over. Sri Lanka had a target of 269 from 36 overs. A couple of their batters tried to get into the final as Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara hit half centuries but it was not enough. They needed someone to play a similar innings like Adam Gilchrist played for Australia. The Australian bowlers which Included Nathan Bracken, Shaun Tait, Glenn McGrath. The best bowler was Michael Clarke who bowled 5 overs and he took 2 Wickets.
See full scorecard: Australia vs Sri Lanka 2007 world cup final
Sri Lanka were never In the match as they were not able to keep with the run rate of 7 runs per over. Their world class batting of Sanath Jayasuriya, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Tilakaratne Dilshan were not able to get Sri Lanka back into the match. Sri Lanka were only able to make 215 in 36 overs for the loss of 8 wickets. Australia won the final by 53 runs and if it was not for the brilliant innings that Adam Gilchrist played in the final then Sri Lanka could have won the 2007 World Cup. They had gotten the other Australia batters out cheaply. However one man single handedly won the World Cup. Thankfully the next few World Cups were more entertaining than the one in 2007.
Also Read: Best innings of Adam Gilchrist
