After a heartening performance throughout the tournament, Sri Lanka were swept aside by Australia, who won their third straight World Cup.
Faced with a good batting pitch to bowl on first, the Sri Lanka bowling turned out well below par, with only Lasith Malinga (and that too only in his first spell) looking to curb the Australian batting. After Gilchrist got after Vaas, a big start was assured; Sri Lanka did well however to pull the scoring back to allow an Australian total of 281, which at one time threatened to get up to about 310. Gilchrist's century (149) was brilliant, more so given that he was out of form coming into the final; he was a clear choice for the man of the match. The Sri Lankan attack was nowhere as disciplined as in the earlier stages of the tournament, giving 16 wides and 3 no balls. Curtailing the extras and bowling a tighter line would have kept Australia closer to 250, which would have allowed Sri Lanka to pace their innings a little less frenetically.
The Sri Lankan chase was perhaps a little too slow at the start, but Jayasuriya (63) and Sangakkara (54) clearly batted to a plan. However, the climbing asking rate accounted for several wickets leaving Sri Lanka totalling 215-8 in an end made controversial by some poor umpiring. Mahela Jayawardena, in a gracious gesture agreed to bat the overs through without excacerbating an already confused situation.
Overall, Australia were so dominant that it probably mattered little whether Sri Lanka batted first or last. Much is being made by Sri Lanka supporters of Gilchrist carrying a squash ball in his glove to help him with his grip, which sounds a lot like sour grapes; their argument is based on this giving Gilchrist an unfair advantage (if not illegally, at least unethically). To be fair, I trust this argument would extend to Sri Lankan cricketers wearing 'pirith nool' or Dilhara Fernando or Chaminda Vaas making the sign of the cross, with any divine help being provided thereafter being put down to an unfair advantage.
During the recent Indian tour, I felt Sri Lanka had to pull together far more to mount a credible challenge at the World Cup - this they did, at times brilliantly so. However, my second concern was how well the Sri Lankan bowling would fare when under fire - and sadly were found wanting in this most crucial of matches.
Looking to the future, if Sri Lanka are ever to be as dominant as the Australians have been of late in world cricket, they must look to win all their matches, getting the win rate up as close as possible to 100%. If they do this, World Cups and other trophies will follow automatically, I believe. The Sri Lankan team showed the right ingredients in playing with passion, pride and skill, showing both individual excellence and great team spirit. Given that this performance was away from home, it probably ranks even higher than the 1996 World Cup winning performance.
Scores: Cricinfo
Bulletin: Cricinfo
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