The day Australia attained perfection
By Alex Brown in Johannesburg
March 25 2003
Perfect game. Best one-day team in history. Ricky Ponting’s all-conquering team has even seemed invincible, to use a word that resonates in the Australian cricketing psyche.
The side’s undefeated World Cup campaign and 17-game winning streak were cited by Michael Bevan as proof that no other nation could compete with the Australians. Ditto, said the NSW one-day batting specialist, for teams from any era, including the great West Indies squads of the 1970s and '80s.
While Brett Lee and Darren Lehmann described Sunday’s 125-run victory over India as “the perfect game”, Bevan went a step further, saying: "The enjoyable thing for me is being part of a team that could well be the best one-day team in history.
"Statistics suggest that, but that only comes from longevity, so it’s a time thing. Hopefully, if we keep doing what we’re doing in two or three years’ time then we’ve set a new standard and you can claim to be that. I suppose not many other teams have achieved what we’ve achieved.
“It’s great to be a part of the Australian side like it is at the moment. It’s awesome. Everyone’s challenging each other to become better. You definitely feel the presence or the aura of being a part of a side like this.”
After Australia surged to their highest one-day total, 2-359, aided by their highest one-day partnership, 234, based on the highest individual innings in a World Cup final, 140 not out, Lee’s and Lehmann’s “perfect game” synopsis seems more than fair.
Records, however, don’t tell the whole story. According to Ponting, who scored that unbeaten 140 and shared the record stand with Damien Martyn, the true measure of Australia’s greatness has been their ability to overcome adversity.
First, all-rounder Shane Watson withdrew injured before the tournament began. Then, leg-spinning maestro Shane Warne tested positive for a banned drug, leaving the team on the day of its World Cup opener against Pakistan. And when Jason Gillespie flew home midway through the tournament, again through injury, Ponting believes a lesser side might have crumbled.
That, he added, fails to mention the intense emotions that surrounded the Zimbabwe security negotiations, the controversy regarding Lehmann’s suspension for a racial slur, the drama of Adam Gilchrist’s racial abuse charge against Pakistan’s Rashid Latif.
“To [score a century] when it counted today, in a big game, I mean, it’s the best moment in my life by a mile … cricketing moment,” Ponting said. "We’ve been really tested through this World Cup with our fair share of injuries and obviously with the Warney issue as well. We were really tested there and the guys that have come in, Andy Bichel and Andrew Symonds, those guys have just had sensational World Cups and, you know, it just says a lot about our depth.
"I suppose you’ve got to look at the game today and realise that they [India] are a very good side and we’ve beaten them pretty comprehensively. I think that, in itself, says we’re a fair way ahead of what was the second-best side in the World Cup.
“The pleasing thing … is that we’ve done it all fairly quietly, just gone about our business right the way through the World Cup. The 17th straight win doesn’t mean much to us either. What does mean a lot to us is the standards that we set for our side and they are very high, and we’ve reached and almost set higher standards today, so that was the very pleasing thing that came for today’s game.”
Lehmann, meanwhile, could not recall a more complete one-day international victory than Australia’s demolition of India - a team that entered Sunday’s match at the Wanderers with eight straight victories. “We played the perfect game, that’s all we were after at the end of the final,” he said. “It was just a great feeling to get 359 and play the perfect game batting-wise and put them under pressure with the ball. I thought we bowled and fielded really well in this game as well, which is good. We did the whole thing, much like '99, really. That final was pretty much a cakewalk.”
Lee and Symonds rated Sunday’s victory as lifetime highlights - Symonds’s eyes misting over when asked to recount his World Cup final experience.
Lee rated the win as perfect, the experience as emotional.
“It’s definitely up there as the most brilliant thing that’s ever happened to me as a cricketer and an athlete,” Lee said. “The way that [Ponting] led the team and the way that the guys all hugged each other and just got out when we got the last wicket, the guys, it just meant so much to us, we’ve just worked so hard for it. Words can’t explain how we felt at that exact time, so it’s a pretty terrific moment.”
Bevan concurred, pondering the possibility that this Australian side may eclipse the Clive Lloyd-led West Indian squads of the 1970s and ‘80s as the greatest yet seen. Certainly, statistics indicate as much - the West Indies’ longest winning streak was 11 matches.
But, Bevan said, the brutality with which Australia have dispatched opponents - more than any other factor - is testament to the side’s stature as the world’s top one-day side.
“Today was just a culmination of continually beating teams and asserting our authority and how good we were as a team,” he said. "In 1999 there was that two- or three-week period where we had to play awesome cricket. Because we had talented guys with great attitudes and we came away with an amazing victory.
"This one was more satisfying given the fact that for the last year and a half we’ve been building brick on brick and continually winning and becoming a better side.
"It’s a great moment. I guess I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of three World Cup finals, two of those we won.
“In the last World Cup final I didn’t get to bat either in that final, which was great in terms of the way we played that game. I guess that means we’re playing good cricket. One of the special things is being part of a team that’s formed like it has in the last 12 months.”