Ricky Ponting recalls 2003 final win ahead of India-Australia World Cup summit clash in Ahmedabad
Ponting recalls 03' final's thrashing ahead of India-Australia World Cup tie Photograph:( AFP )
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Ponting led from the front and played a captain’s knock alongside Damien Martyn, who, even with a broken thumb, slammed an unbeaten 88 off 84. A 234-run stand for the third wicket saw Australia post a mammoth 359 for two batting first.
Ponting led from the front and played a captain’s knock alongside Damien Martyn, who, even with a broken thumb, slammed an unbeaten 88 off 84. A 234-run stand for the third wicket saw Australia post a mammoth 359 for two batting first.
It’s been 20 years since the 2003 World Cup final in Johannesburg, where Ricky Ponting’s record-breaking 140* crushed a billion Indian hopes as Australia walked over the Men in Blue with a 125-run win. With both teams to face off in the summit clash for the first time in two decades on Sunday in Ahmedabad, Ponting recalls the inning his coach John Buchanan then labelled ‘the finest knock in World Cup history.’
The former Australia captain led from the front and played a captain’s knock alongside Damien Martyn, who, even with a broken thumb, slammed an unbeaten 88 off 84. A 234-run stand for the third wicket saw Australia post a mammoth 359 for two batting first.
Revealing how he approached his inning in the final, Ponting said he began relatively slowly but picked up during the fag end of the innings. Ponting even admitted informing the 12th man of asking everyone in the dressing room to tighten their seatbelts as he was about to unleash.
As promised, Ricky did that by hitting a couple of sixes to Harbhajan Singh in the 39th over. Without looking back after changing gears, he hammered each bowler to all parts of the ground, hitting eight sixes and four fours in his 121-ball stay at the crease.
"It had taken me about 70 balls to get to 50," Ponting recalled, speaking with cricket.com.au.
"And because the game was so under control and we were scoring quickly, I wanted to make sure I was there at the end."
"The 12th man came out, and I said, 'Tell the boys to strap the seatbelts on, I'm gonna go flat-out from now and see what happens'.
"I got most of them in the middle from there on in,” Punter added.
Confident of putting Australia in the driver’s seat with his tremendous hundred, Ponting said, "As the captain, it was my turn to stand up, and I walked off 140 not out, having shared (an Australian record) partnership with Damien Martyn at the time and posted 360 in a World Cup final.
"You're walking off there, and you're thinking, 'Well, that's done, game over – we've stood up here'," Ponting added.
Buchanan in awe of Ponting’s masterclass
Much like in this ongoing World Cup campaign, the way India had cruised ahead with momentum, Sourav Ganguly’s team was also on a rampage but fell shy of delivering on D-day.
Australia coach John Buchanan even went on to say, "You'd go a long way to find better. As captain ... leading by the front and leading by example, taking the attack, both to the spin and the quick bowlers of India ... at the end of a long tournament. Probably hard to go past that one.”
India and Australia will square off for the coveted World Cup trophy on Sunday at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
