Australia Are The Champions Again
They were given a scare in a global final for the first time since the 1996 World Cup but Australia still remain the team to beat on the big day
. If Australia were typically aggressive and opportunistic in setting themselves just 201 to chase, they were made to play out of character in the chase against exceptional opening spells from Kyle Mills and Shane Bond, which Shane Watson and Cameron White did with smartness and with determination.Watson's best innings at international level, a century that earned him the Man-of-the-Match award for the second successive Champions Trophy final, was key to Australia's win. The opening spells of Mills and Bond even overshadowed that of Brett Lee and Peter Siddle. In defence of a meagre total, their lengths were immaculate. The ball that got Ricky Ponting was a perfect example: neither full enough for him to come forward, nor short enough to carry over the stumps, and the inswing trapped him in front. By then Bond had nailed Tim Paine with a full outswinger.
However, fresh from an unbeaten 136 against England on Friday, Watson greeted the arrival of New Zealand's second-string seam attack with disdain, dispatching anything short and wide for four. Although White succumbed to Mills, the second of his three dismissals for 62, Watson continued his sensational form, smashing two successive sixes off Jeetan Patel to bring up his fourth one-day hundred as well guide Australia to victory with 28 deliveries to spare.
New Zealand's task was made the more difficult when captain Daniel Vettori one of the stand-out candidates for Player of the Tournament was forced to withdraw before the match because of a hamstring problem. With off-spinner Jeetan Patel the only change from the team which beat Pakistan in the semi-final. Having been up against it right through the tournament, Vettori was the one blow from which they really couldn't be expected to recover. The only hope then lay in a burst of genius from somewhere, some individual, most likely Brendon McCullum, but maybe even Ross Taylor. It goes against the very ethos of modern New Zealand sides but it is what was needed and it never came.
This final will be remembered for the top-class new ball bowling from both sides, on what was a true surface that yielded neither variable bounce nor much seam movement. Sadly, New Zealand didn't get enough runs on the board and that why Australia are Champions Trophy winners once again.
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