Warnie's magic, perfect Ponting and a squash ball: Gilly on Aussie CWC hat-trick

THE 1999 WORLD CUP

By the time the 1999 World Cup rolled around, Australia had established themselves as cricket’s new dominant force in both Test and one-day cricket, with their greatest threat to that crown being South Africa.

Three years earlier they had been stunned by Sri Lanka in the ’96 final at Gaddafi Stadium and this year’s edition offered them the chance to get the job done.

The core of the team that finished runners up in that edition were still around in ’99, with some new additions in the likes of Gilchrist and Darren Lehmann.

It was a team full of greats in the making but in Gilchrist’s memory, not one that went into the event high on morale.

“We weren’t chockfull of confidence, there was a bit of drama off the field around selections,” he told icc-cricket.com.

Just three matches into the tournament their hopes were hanging by a thread.

They had started the campaign in style, beating Scotland by six wickets, but things got ugly from there. Successive defeats to New Zealand and Pakistan left Australia needing to virtually win every match they played from then on if they were going to lay their hands on the trophy.

“After the third game we knew we had sort of hit rock bottom,” Gilchrist recalled. “There was some pretty open and honest discussion, as is the way in a lot of sporting teams when you’ve bottomed out.

“We probably needed a bit of a shake-up. We weren’t exactly functioning to full capacity at the start of the tournament and the fact we were on the edge of falling out of the tournament sparked us up, gave us a bit of a reality check and kicked us into gear.”

The wicketkeeping great pins much of the turnaround on the presence of Tom Moody in the squad. A grizzled veteran at that point, Moody had been there when Australia first won the men’s World Cup in 1987 and was a staunch ally of Steve Waugh, who was captaining the side for the first time at a global event.

Moody was brought into the XI from the fourth match onwards and immediately made his presence felt in a Player of the Match performance against Bangladesh. Both Moody (56* off 29) and Gilchrist (63 off 39) smashed rapid half-centuries against the World Cup debutants to take Australia to victory inside 20 overs, kickstarting a campaign that had threatened to hit the rocks.

“Tom came into the team against Bangladesh and that was where we started to win, we didn’t lose another game after that. His off-field presence and his on-field experience went a long way to stabilising our team and allowing us to start to build momentum.”

Australia’s final match of the group stage was a must-win clash against a West Indies outfit featuring the likes of Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh and Phil Simmons.

Heading into the match, Glenn McGrath wrote in his newspaper column that he would take care of Lara and snare five wickets. They were big words from a man who had been below his best for much of the tournament but they proved prophetic.

In the fifth over of the match he accounted for Sherwin Campbell and Jimmy Adams with consecutive deliveries and while Lara survived the hat-trick ball, he only made it to the ninth over before having his off-stump knocked over by the seamer.

McGrath went on to take 5/14 as the Australians won by six wickets with nearly 10 overs to spare, securing their spot in the Super Sixes.

Comfortable wins over India and Zimbabwe followed in Australia’s first two matches of the Super Sixes but only a victory over South Africa in the final match of the stage would guarantee them a spot in the semi-finals.

In the years since the ’96 World Cup, South Africa and Australia had been duking it out to be considered ODI cricket’s best team with a handful of memorable clashes along the way.

A victory for the Proteas here would be a decisive blow in their favour and end Australia’s tournament. They were in the driver’s seat to do just that after reducing the Australians to 48/3 in pursuit of 272. Enter Australia captain Waugh.

In the infancy of his captaincy, Waugh stepped up with one of the finest ODI performances of his career, scoring an unbeaten 120 off 110, making the most of a famous life granted to him by a Herschelle Gibbs drop.

The five-wicket win with two balls to spare was enough to lift Australia to second place in the Super Sixes, locking them into a semi-final clash against the same opponents they had just defeated.

As things turned out, finishing second in the Super Sixes proved to be crucial. In one of the greatest matches in ODI history, there would be no splitting Australia and South Africa in a semi-final which would see the World Cup’s first tie. Having finished higher on the Super Sixes ladder, Waugh’s team went through to the final and South Africa went home.

“I don’t think you can bracket games as the best ever but certainly one of the most dramatic for all that was riding on it,” Gilchrist said of the heart-stopping semi-final. “A spot in the World Cup final, the rivalry between us and South Africa through that period of time, what had happened three days before in that (Super Sixes) game.”

Held to 213 after being sent out to bat, Australia were firmly on the backfoot as South Africa enjoyed a 48-run opening stand.

“It was just such a tense affair. I remember fighting my way in my innings to get a bit of a start. Everything you had to scrap for. Every run. Allan Donald bowled a beautiful spell. And they were a really tough, well-drilled team.

“We really had to fight and claw our way to 213. It always felt like we were going to have to do something pretty magical to make that competitive and Shane Warne came out and really triggered that for us. He was the catalyst to open the door and instil a little bit of belief in the rest of us.

“It truly was a fine example that when the toughest situations arise, the greatest characters and those high profile, high level, high skilled individuals rise to the top. Warnie did that beautifully.”

Across two overs, Warne, who had had a quiet tournament up to that point, resuscitated Australia’s hopes. He took three wickets in the blink of an eye before Daryll Cullinan was run out to leave South Africa in trouble at 61/4.

An 84-run stand between Jaques Kallis and Jonty Rhodes swung the match back in South Africa’s favour but again the Australians rallied and by the time the ninth wicket fell, South Africa still needed 16 runs to win.

Weighing in South Africa’s favour was the presence of Lance Klusener, who would go on to be named Player of the Tournament. Going into the final over, the Proteas needed nine runs to win. In the first two balls, Klusener took an Australian victory off the cards, hitting successive boundaries off Damien Fleming. The third was a dot, with Lehmann missing the chance to run out Donald who had backed up too far.

The fourth was a calamity for South Africa that remains one of the World Cup’s most iconic moments. Klusener drove Fleming to mid-off, calling Donald through for an ill-advised single. Donald held his ground at first before realising Klusener had committed, and jetted for the striker’s end, losing his bat along the way.

The throw from mid-off missed the stumps at the non-striker’s end only for Fleming to underarm the ball to Gilchrist who whipped off the bails with Donald nowhere near making his ground. With that Australia were through to the final by the tightest possible margin.

“Psychologically I think we managed to just create enough doubt there. It’s a bit like a tennis player and the old saying – ‘just make your opponent hit one more shot, if you just keep getting the ball back, that next shot from the opponent might be the error that gives you an opening and an opportunity'.

“That’s all we could do, it was just try to force South Africa (to play) one more ball, one more ball, one more ball. That pressure ultimately got to them and a lack of communication opened the door for us.

“It was just an extraordinary feeling. It was as exciting and as nerve-wracking as you could possibly imagine.

“The jubilation and the euphoric feeling once we got through and realised we were in the final, that was enough to carry our wave of momentum through down to London and out to Lord’s that day (of the final).”

The final itself was a much less see-sawing match, with Australia cruising to an eight-wicket win over Pakistan, who slipped from 68/3 to 132 all out as Warne spun his way to figures of 4/33. A quickfire 54 off 36 from Gilchrist, who would make a habit of big scores in finals, made light work of the chase from there.

THE 2003 WORLD CUP

Australia set out to become the second team to ever win consecutive men’s Cricket World Cups in the 2003 edition, riding a wave of six straight ODI wins into the tournament.

If they were in a two-way race for cricketing supremacy with South Africa in 1999, in 2003 they were firmly established as the world’s best team.

But before a ball had been bowled, their hopes took a hit as Warne, one of the heroes of the '99 World Cup, was hit with a one-year ban by the Australian Cricket Board. The bona fide great of the game had tested positive for a banned diuretic.

The timing could not have been any worse either, with the news reaching Australia the day before their first game of the tournament.

“That was something we had to overcome,” Gilchrist said. “I thought our leadership group, mainly in the form of (coach) John Buchanan and (captain) Ricky Ponting, the two of them they really handled that situation well.

“They allowed us as a team to address it, talk about it, deal with it so that the next morning when the rest of the world were talking about that situation with Warnie, we were there ready to focus on our first game.”

That first match proved a difficult one for Australia. Taking on one of the format’s greatest ever attacks in Pakistan’s pace trio of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar, the Australians were limping at 86/4 inside the first 16 overs.

A brilliant maiden century from Andrew Symonds righted the course from there and Australia went on to win the match by 82 runs. They did not look back from that moment on, going on to win the tournament without losing a single game.

“Again we built and built and built through the tournament to play an almost perfect game in the final,” Gilchrist said. “Different types of tournaments, different stresses and strains and drama but certainly no less satisfying to go on and win it.”

And while Australia grew into that campaign just as they had in ’99, this time it was very much by design.

“In '99 we got through by the skin of our teeth, didn’t we? A tied semi-final. We had the game prior to that against South Africa where the famous Herschelle Gibbs half-caught-half-dropped catch and Stephen gets a magnificent hundred. So we were right on the edge, on the cliff, and maybe the fact we got to the final just allowed us all to relax then and go out and produce our best cricket.”

By 2003, Mike Young had joined the Australian team’s support staff as their fielding coach. Born and raised in America with a background in baseball, Young brought with him a big picture view on success.

“Although in '03 and '07 we didn’t lose any games, we probably weren’t hanging on that tightly to the fact we were undefeated.

“That wasn’t the priority. The priority was just to get to the next round. It was more about building momentum, sharing the experience so that if ‘plan A’ didn’t work by way of selection or execution, we could adjust quickly.

“He (Young) spoke about this term ‘tournament play’. About getting into a tournament, not trying to necessarily win every game, if that happens that is a by-product, but get the process right and build. Just build.

“You don’t have to play your perfect game in the first game, but you’ve got to find a way to get to the next stage and start to build momentum.

“Get to the next stage, then get to the semis, get to the final and that gives you nothing other than the opportunity to play your perfect game in the last game of the tournament. That was his mindset. That gave us a nice focus.

“Even though we were winning all the games, even if we had a shaky game or individual players were missing out, it still allowed you to focus on the bigger picture. It was a nice reminder that we are here for the big picture, not just each individual result.”

And when the final came around Australia’s perfect game came with it.

Against a confident Indian outfit, Ponting’s team ran away 125-run victors – that remains the biggest winning margin in a World Cup final ever. Gilchrist and Damien Martyn, the latter playing with a broken finger, scored half-centuries and Ponting produced one of the World Cup’s greatest ever knocks, scoring an unbeaten 140 off 121.

Australia’s total of 359/2 was always likely to be too big a target to chase down and that proved to be the case despite the best efforts of Virender Sehwag, who scored 82 off 81.

It is a match that could have followed a different path.

The Australian way has always been to bat first in a tournament final if given the chance, but that morning in Johannesburg there was plenty of cloud cover and the pitch looked like it was going to have something in it for the seamers. Genuine thought was given to opting to field first.

Fortunately for the Australians, the coin landed in Sourav Ganguly’s favour and he took the decision out of their hands, electing to give his bowlers first use.

“It was funny as Haydos (Matthew Hayden) and I were walking down out to bat, it was almost as we hit the field it felt like the clouds just opened up a bit,” Gilchrist said. “Some sunshine came through and pretty quickly the clouds disappeared and it was a beautiful sunny period while we batted so that was a nice sign.

“He (Hayden) got us off to an amazing start and then I had a little period of time batting with Ricky but then just sat back and enjoyed the show from Ricky and Damien Martyn, coming back in with a broken finger. It was a remarkable partnership.”

With a 350+ total on the board, only two things stood in the way of Australia and World Cup glory: Sachin Tendulkar and the weather.

Tendulkar had been the tournament’s standout player by the length of the straight, scoring 673 runs at 61.18 – 200 more than the next highest run-scorer.

He looked on course to produce another big performance in the final, pulling the fourth ball of the innings from McGrath for four. On the very next delivery, he fell caught and bowled for four.

“Sachin is Sachin. By that stage he was setting every record in world cricket.

“Glenn McGrath was always someone who wanted to take on the responsibility, particularly with the slightly inexperienced bowling line-up he had around him. Brett Lee was there but no Warnie obviously.

“For Glenn to get Sachin pretty cheapy in the final, that felt like a massive step forward towards the trophy.”

With Tendulkar out, the next target for Australia was getting the job done before rain could wash out the match and force them into a replay.

“Ricky’s good but we weren’t sure whether Ricky could do that again back-to-back. Fortunately, we didn’t have to find that out.”

In the 40th over, McGrath had Zaheer Khan caught at mid-on. With that, he claimed his second World Cup winners’ medal.

­­THE 2007 WORLD CUP

Australia had matched the West Indies by becoming just the second men’s team to win consecutive World Cup tournaments in 2003. In 2007 they eclipsed them with a third straight victory in cricket’s biggest tournament.

It’s an accomplishment Gilchrist ranks in the top three of a glittered career, alongside the two 16-Test winning streaks Australia enjoyed in the 1990s and 2000s.

The 2007 tournament belonged to two players in particular. Hayden topped the run-scoring with 659 at 73.22, while McGrath took a record-breaking 26 wickets at 13.73.

The Australians cruised through the group stage, registering 200+ run victories over Scotland and the Netherlands before beating South Africa by 83 runs. And things didn’t get any harder for them in the Super Eights stage, in which their sternest test was a seven-wicket win over England with 16 balls to spare.

Pushed all the way in the semi-finals of the ‘99 World Cup by South Africa, this time Australia dealt with them with ease, winning by seven wickets.

Australia had been dominant in 2003. They were on another level in 2007 as the likes of Gilchrist, McGrath and Hayden finished their World Cup careers in style.

In the final, they met a star-studded Sri Lanka team featuring Sanath Jayasuriya, Muttiah Muralitharan, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene. They blew them away in the same way they had all prior opponents, winning a rain-shortened match by 53 runs.

Having scored half-centuries in each of the previous finals, Gilchrist took centre stage in his third, notching the first World Cup century of his career in his last ever game at the tournament.

With Australia’s innings reduced to 38 overs by the rain, he belted 149 off 104, hitting 13 fours and eight sixes in an all-out assault. When he raised his ton he saluted the dressing room before pointing to a lump in his left glove.

The southpaw had played with a squash ball stuffed into his bottom glove for the entirety of the campaign on the advice of his batting coach in Perth. It was a training technique he had used for the past decade to ensure he did not grip the bat too tightly with his bottom hand, encouraging him to play in the V.

“I got to the final and I had my doubts over whether I should use it or not, that maybe I should just go back to my natural way. But I trusted my coaching advice and I think in those conditions it worked really well. It helped me hit straighter. Even if it wasn’t a mechanical thing in my grip, mentally it helped me think about that.

“That was just a really pleasing result – I knew then that it was going to be my last World Cup match.

“I had been run out for 99 in a World Cup but I had never gotten to the magical three figures in a World Cup tournament, so I was thrilled to tick that one-off.

“But more so in a rain-shortened game, against a dangerous Sri Lankan team that had firepower with the bat, it was really important we put a big total on the board.”

To think it was a knock that started with fielding coach Young having to shake him awake for the start of Australia’s innings.

“It probably suited me. We won the toss but then the rain came so we had a decent delay between knowing we were batting and going out to bat.

“I actually went out the back in the gym area of the changeroom and just put my head down to rest and actually fell asleep and was woken by Mike Young, to say get ready, the umpires are going out there.

“The fact I was so relaxed and unable to really get tensed probably helped me.”

For Gilchrist, McGrath and Ponting it was a third successive World Cup win in a row – a run McGrath and Ponting featured in every match of, and Gilchrist all but one.

For their efforts in the Caribbean, each member of Australia’s squad was presented with gold rings on their return home.

For Gilchrist, McGrath and Ponting it was the third they had each picked up.

“We can walk around a bit like Liberace and get our bling out every now and then,” Gilchrist joked.

It is a decade of unrivalled success he believes is testament to the strength and adaptability of the teams he was a part of.

“It is nice to see different nations marrying up against each other and they’re all in the same conditions, so who is adapting to the conditions best and who is able to manage change on the run within a tournament.

“They are terrific tournaments in that they do test the resolve of all the squads and how flexible you can be, how well prepared, have you got your selections right as a squad for the conditions and then each game day have you got your selections right.

“It is a true test and that’s why the three in a row will always be in my eyes one of the great achievements of that cricketing group we played together in. To do that and consistently do it over the span of eight years is a fine achievement and one that is full of great memories.”

Across the three men’s World Cups since Australia’s win in 2007, there have been three different winners.

Records are there to be broken, but it could be some time before anyone comes close to matching that hat-trick of trophies.