Glorious Gillie

Sunday, April 29, 2007 | 3:01 pm

Gillie flays the attack
One of the greatest attacking displays of a batsman in a final led the Aussies to their third World Cup victory in a row yesterday. Vice-captain Adam Gilchrist was in a monstrous mood, and flayed the Sri Lankan attack for 149 off 104 balls, leading the Aussies to a big total in a rain reduced match. Sri Lanka never laid down, but chasing 382 off 38 overs means they could not take the foot off the gas for a second. That continual pressure was hard to withstand for their spirited young team, and the total got beyond their reach as the big wickets fell.

And I got to watch the whole damn shindig, my first live-televised cricket viewing in the US of A. Bliss, thy name is widescreen.

Ponting, McGrath and Gilchrist

And so it is "cheerio" to one of our greatest fast bowlers, Glenn McGrath, who retires on the high he so richly deserved, even picking up the man of the series award. Thanks for the service Ooh Aah, you were the Maestro

The Aussies, now undefeated in 29 consecutive World Cup games, dominated this event, and never really had an opponent seriously challenge their ruthless efficiency. Everytime a crack appeared, someone stepped up to close it, and the machine powered on with daunting self-belief. Have no doubts, this is one of the greatest one-day teams in the history of the game, but they can also deliver when under pressure, and on the biggest stages, putting silverware in the cabinet when it matters most.

As cricket writer Rahul Bhattacharya said over on the always excellent (and surprisingly witty) CricInfo: "..it was also ultimately scary. If the Australians are going to keep this up there is no point lopping a week or ten days off the next World Cup. It may as well be scrapped altogether."

Appreciate the gesture mate, but we'll just be happy with another victory, thanks. After all, what's the point if the fans don't have somewhere to go and consume large quantities of alcohol?

Ponting, McGrath and Gilchrist

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1 Comments:

At 6/5/07 12:15 pm, Blogger The Paranoid Mod said...

They should've just given it to you in 1894 or whenever the thing started and everyone could've put their feet up for the duration. It was so obvious you were going to win...

 

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