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Melbourne, March 29
A collective display of disciplined bowling from the Australians helped them restrict a nervous New Zealand to a paltry 183 in the final of the ICC Cricket World Cup here today.
A mid-innings collapse, which saw New Zealand lose their last seven wickets for only 33 runs in 10 overs, effectively ended their hopes of putting up a respectable total despite semi-final hero Grant Elliott's gutsy innings of 83 off 82 balls.
Ironically, this is the second time that a team in a World Cup final has been bowled out for 183 after India in the 1983 final against West Indies, which they won by 43 runs.
Seamer James Faulkner's brilliant change-ups during the middle overs saw him end with impressive figures of 3/36 in 9 overs as the Black Caps collapsed from a decent 150/3 after 35 overs to 183 all-out in 45 overs in about an hour.
This was after Elliott along with Ross Taylor (40) had added 111 runs for the fourth wicket after the visitors were tottering at 39 for three.
Faulkner was well complimented by the two Mitchells -- Starc (2/20 in 8 overs) and Johnson (3/30 in 9 overs) -- who had the opposition batsmen in trouble with pace and movement on a lively MCG track in front of 91,000 plus spectators.
Mitchell Starc bowled a brilliant delivery first up, to get rid of Brendon McCullum, who was out without scoring.
McCullum charged and missed out on a couple of balls dug short and the result was a full delivery at the base of off-stump which the batsman had no answer.
Guptill, at the other end, got a freak six when his intended pull off a Josh Hazlewood short delivery flew behind the wicketkeeper for a six. Before that, he had hit a copybook square drive.
Both Guptill and Williamson were cautious during the first 10 overs in which New Zealand scored 31 runs as they got rid of the impetuosity that brought about McCullum's downfall.
The best shot during that particular phase was a straight drive from Williamson off Hazlewood's bowling. PTI
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