Australia Vs India Final

Unbeaten through the tournament

Australia reached the final of the 2003 World Cup in South Africa without losing a single match, a run that included a group-stage win over India inside the first fortnight of the tournament. Ricky Ponting, in his first World Cup as captain, had built an attack around Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee, and a top order that scored fast and rarely lost early wickets. India, under Sourav Ganguly, had reached the final on the strength of their own bowling attack, led through the tournament by Javagal Srinath and a young Zaheer Khan, and a middle order anchored by Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar that had carried them through a difficult group stage and into the knockout rounds unbeaten in all but one match. Ganguly won the toss at New Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg and chose to field first, backing his bowlers to make early inroads against an Australian top order that had, on its day, shown itself capable of being broken open cheaply.

Gilchrist and Hayden set the tone

Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden put on 105 for the first wicket inside the first 14 overs, Gilchrist making 57 from 48 balls before he was caught off Harbhajan Singh, and Hayden went on with Ponting for a further 20 before he too was caught off Harbhajan for 37, both wickets falling by the 20th over. It meant Australia had lost two wickets inside the first third of the innings, but the platform they had built, and the depth of batting still to come, left India's bowlers with little margin for error against Ponting and Damien Martyn, who came together with the score still comfortably placed at 125 for 2.

Ponting's unbeaten hundred

Ricky Ponting made 140 not out from 121 balls, an innings that only accelerated as it went on: he brought up his fifty in measured fashion and then took apart the death bowling in the last ten overs, striking the ball to all parts of the ground with a series of straight and lofted drives that the Indian fielders simply could not cut off. It was the highest individual score ever made in a men's World Cup final at that point, and it settled the match as a contest long before India came out to bat. Ponting was named man of the match, capping a tournament in which he had captained with the same calm authority he showed with the bat that evening.

Martyn at the other end

Damien Martyn played the perfect supporting innings, finishing unbeaten on 88 from 84 balls, and the pair added an unbroken 234 runs from 184 balls for the third wicket, taking Australia from a merely solid position to one of the biggest totals in World Cup final history. Harbhajan Singh, India's most successful bowler on the day, finished with 2 for 49 from his eight overs, while Zaheer Khan, Javagal Srinath and Ashish Nehra all went wicketless as Australia finished on 359 for 2 from their 50 overs.

Sehwag's fast start

India needed 360 to win, a total that had never been chased successfully in a World Cup final, and the chase began in the worst possible way: Sachin Tendulkar, the batter India needed most on a day like this, was out for 4 in the very first over, caught off Glenn McGrath. Virender Sehwag, at the other end, refused to let the dismissal change his approach. He made 82 from 81 balls, playing with the same fearless intent that had made him one of the most watchable batters in the tournament, adding 54 with Sourav Ganguly for the second wicket. Ganguly was caught off Brett Lee for 24, well before Sehwag's own dismissal, and Sehwag went on to add 88 with Rahul Dravid for the fourth wicket, before he was run out with the score on 147. His innings kept India in touch with the required rate for longer than the scoreline of the match would later suggest.

The chase slips away

Once Sehwag went, India's chase never recovered. Rahul Dravid made 47 before he was bowled by Andy Bichel with the score on 187, and Yuvraj Singh added 24 in a stand of 40 with Dravid before he too fell, caught off Brad Hogg with India on 208. Dinesh Mongia was caught off Andrew Symonds for just 12 as the required rate climbed further and further out of reach. Glenn McGrath took 3 for 52 from his eight overs, Brett Lee and Andrew Symonds took two wickets each, and Andy Bichel and Brad Hogg claimed one apiece, as the innings folded through its last twenty overs, the last four Indian wickets falling for just 26 runs. India were bowled out for 234 in the 39th over, and Australia won by 125 runs, retaining the World Cup they had first won in 1999, Australia's second title won without a single defeat across the whole tournament.

A third title still to come

Australia would go on to win a third consecutive World Cup in 2007, a run of dominance in the one-day game that no side has matched since. Ponting's 140 not out in Johannesburg remains one of the defining innings of his career and one of the great World Cup final performances, and it announced him fully as Australia's captain in his own right rather than simply Steve Waugh's successor. For India the final was a heavy defeat after a tournament that had otherwise gone almost entirely to plan, and it would take until 2011 for the team to win the World Cup again, this time on home soil in front of their own supporters. The full scorecard, over by over, is on this page, and both sides' wider World Cup histories are on the Australia and India team pages. In The Chase you can build Australia's top order and see how close you can get to Ponting's total.

Sources

• CricArcade World Cup archive: the full scorecard, fall of wickets and bowling figures on this page
• ESPNcricinfo: ICC World Cup 2003, final scorecard and report
• Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2004: the 2003 World Cup