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| Preview of Finals - Same teams as World Cup 1975 |
| by Gulu Ezekiel |
| Nov 04, 2006 |
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The history of one-day cricket has come full circle as
West Indies and Australia face each other for the
first time in a major ODI tournament final since the
very first World Cup in England in 1975.
Most cricket fans would agree that the 1975 match-up
remains the best final of them all. And now the
cricket world will be hoping the two teams can produce
something of the same magic when they meet in the
final of the Champions Trophy in Mumbai on Sunday.
Australia are the World Cup holders (since 1999)
while the West Indies shocked one and all—including no
doubt, themselves—by winning the Champions Trophy
final last time around in England in 2004.
Sunday’s contest can therefore conceivably be
considered as the dream final, though die-hard Indian
fans would no doubt disagree—and to think the
title-holders had to go through the humiliation of the
pre-tournament qualifying stage before reaching the
main stage!
So did Sri Lanka who were one of the hottest teams at
the start of the competition and one of the favourites
for the title. Especially after they crushed the
Windies by nine wickets, routing them for 80 all out
in the final preliminary match. What a complete
turnaround!
Lanka, like the other two Asian teams in the main draw
(plus Bangladesh who fell at the qualifying stage)
failed to make it to the last four. And that too was a
case of history repeating itself after 31 years as bar
the very first World Cup in 1975, at least one Asian
team has made it to the semi-finals of all major ICC
tournaments.
There has been much debate over the inescapable fact
that on wickets affording some help to the bowlers
(amazingly, we are yet to see a 300-plus total and
only three tons in the main draw in this tournament),
Asian batsmen tend to struggle.
The main focus naturally enough was on India, being
the hosts. And they failed miserably. The wheels fell
off in the second game against West Indies at
Ahmedabad that was played following a long gap of 11
days from the opening match against England at Jaipur.
That gap may have caused the team to lose some of its
rhythm. But then despite beating England quite
comfortably, the cracks had been obvious in the
opening match itself and then things fell apart both
at Ahmedabad and then last Sunday against Australia at
Mohali.
While the Indian bowlers did well to skittle England
out for just 125, it was the batsmen who flopped
against the reigning champions in the next match. And
then Mohali saw India fail to put up even the
semblance of a fight in defending a decent total. The
number of selection and tactical blunders just kept
piling up.
As for the final, West Indies will surely take heart
from their win over the Aussies in their first match
in this tournament. And they beat them in Kuala Lumpur
in September too before losing in the final.
Australia though have peaked at the right time and
look formidable.
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