Australia crushed New Zealand in yesterday’s World Cup final, wrapping up a fifth one-day title with seven wickets in hand and 101 balls to spare.
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Michael Clarke top-scored for Australia with 74 in his 245th and final one-day international.
From the moment Brendon McCullum was dismissed for a duck in the opening over, the trans-Tasman tussle was on Australia’s terms.
Grant Elliott’s plucky 83 pushed the Blackcaps to a total of 183, their innings ending after 45 overs and a woeful collapse of 7-33.
McCullum’s aggression remained unchecked, with the New Zealand skipper employing four slips early and Trent Boult’s opening spell lasting seven overs.
But the visitors simply didn’t have anywhere near enough runs to play with.
Outgoing captain Clarke and Steve Smith, the man widely tipped to be his successor, shared a classy 112-run stand.
Clarke and Smith were in the middle when the hosts eased past the halfway mark of their chase in the 19th over.
The pair remained until Clarke was bowled by Matt Henry when the victory equation was nine runs from 19 overs.
“He’s been a terrific one-day player for a long time,” Smith said.
“I just wish he was out there with me until the end. I was just saying ‘Pup, Pup — stay with me!’. Unfortunately he got out.”
Smith brought up the winning runs by pulling Henry to the fence, with his teammates charging onto the field in celebration and a record crowd of 93,013 leaping to their feet.
“The bowlers really set it up for us on a great wicket,” Smith said, having starred in every knockout game the Australians played.
The result means Australia have won four of the past five World Cups, with a quarter-final exit in 2011 the only blemish.
McCullum won the toss but fell victim to a superb in-dipper from Mitchell Starc, who finished with two scalps to be the World Cup’s leading wicket-taker alongside Boult on 22 victims.
New Zealand stumbled to 3-39 in the 13th over, with dangermen Martin Guptill and Kane Williamson back in the sheds after tame dismissals to Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Johnson respectively.
Elliott, the hero of his side’s dramatic win over South Africa in their semi-final, stepped up under immense pressure again.
This time he received scant support from teammates.
The Johannesburg-born batsman shared a 111-run stand with Ross Taylor, the pair knuckling down particularly well in a two-over spell from Starc.
Taylor’s dismissal, engineered by James Faulkner but completed thanks to a diving one-handed catch from Brad Haddin, was the beginning of the end.