Australia’s cricketers celebrated long into Sunday night. Monday morning, even. They were at the MCG until several hours after the game was over, singing the team song on the pitch just before it was dug up and transported out.
Darren Lehmann posted a picture on Twitter at 7 a.m., players still in their kits, medals around their necks, rejoicing on the rooftop of the team hotel as dawn broke over Melbourne behind them.
“What is your over-riding feeling?” Michael Clarke was asked at the team’s public event at Federation Square in the afternoon. “A little hung-over,” he said. The crowd roared. When you’ve just won the World Cup, you’re allowed these excesses.
Australia’s triumph was not just emphatic, it felt inevitable. Clarke later called it ‘the Australian way’, the manner in which to dominate a final, to raise performance so much on the big day as to leave the opponent without a hope of victory. Cast the mind back to 1999, 2003, and 2007 — only for the briefest of periods did the other side sense an opportunity. Somehow, Australia never froze or wobbled or felt nervous: these things only happen to rival teams.
Ruthless “The ruthlessness is what we’re all about,” Mitchell Johnson said.
“We play hard cricket. We built up to the final to play that kind of cricket.”
On Sunday, the course of events was more or less clear once the fifth ball was bowled, when Mitchell Starc left Brendon McCullum looking like an amateur.
What would that have done to the rest of the dressing room? Not a lot of good. McCullum was no exception in finding Starc’s bowling too hot to handle.
But Australia also had the excellent Josh Hazlewood at the other end with the fury of Mitchell Johnson to follow. And then there was James Faulkner, who just seems to know what to do to win cricket matches.
“They all complement each other,” Shane Watson said. “Against India, Pakistan and the Kiwis, we just didn’t give them a chance to get in all game.”
Watson’s turnaround
When Watson was dropped for the Afghanistan fixture in the group stages, it felt like the end of his one-day career. Three weeks later he was at the non-striker’s end when the winning runs were scored in the final.
“When I got dropped, for me it wasn’t the end. I knew I was very close to turning things around,” he said. “I was lucky to get another opportunity.” He got one and he took it, making 67 against Sri Lanka. Ten days afterwards, the team would thank him for his match-winning half-century in the quarterfinal.
The Australian squad has a number of these stories, of individuals who made vital contributions at pivotal moments. Like Mitchell Johnson against India, Faulkner in the final, Glenn Maxwell over Sri Lanka, and Steve Smith pretty much in every game since he was promoted to three.
Australia was expertly led by Clarke, who shuffled his bowlers around intelligently.
In the semifinal, he brought back Hazlewood for a second spell after only two overs from Faulkner. It worked a treat: the left-armer got Shikhar Dhawan and then bowled a maiden to Virat Kohli, who fell the following over.
Clarke has departed now, but Australia will be in good hands with Smith, who is widely expected to take over as the next one-day captain.
He wanted to leave the team better than he found it, Clarke said when he announced his retirement. He appears to have succeeded. Seven members of this current squad are 26 or younger: it bodes well for the next World Cup.
“The team is in a great place,” Clarke said.
“They’ll continue to have success. They’ll continue to get better.
“Talent will not just be talent, it will be consistent performance.”
