Australia announced to the world that they may have lost some of their key players but they are still the best in the world after beating New Zealand quite comprehensively by six wickets in the ICC Champions trophy final at Centurion. Chasing a modest target of 201 runs to win, Australia achieved the target with ease in the 46thrd over of their run chase. over for the lost of just four wickets. But not before they have scared by fine opening bowling spell by Shane Bond and Kyle Mills. Both bowled there heart out in their opening spell to reduce the Australians to 6/2 in the 3 However young lad Cameron White (62 runs of 102 balls) and Shane Watson (105* runs of 129 balls) stood their in the middle with full determination to win the game for Australia and in the end they did exactly the same. Shane Watson went on to score his second consecutive century of the tournament. Shane Watson reached his fourth century in style by hitting two consecutive sixes of off-spinner Jetten patel to wrap up the game also. Watson's best innings at international level, a century that earned him the Man-of-the-Match award in back-to-back Champions Trophy finals and semi finals, was critical to Australia's win. During his inning of 105 runs, Watson showed lots of determination to save his wicket and he & Cameron White went on to test match mode once Australia reduced to 6/2 and scored just another 12 runs in the next 9 overs but they manage to see out the best bowling pair opening spell. Once Mills and Bond opening spell is over both batsman switched their gear to up the anti to reduce the pressure mounting on Australians required rate. Rest of the bowlers looks really ruthless and never left an impact of getting wickets and gave away too many runs in the middle overs. Vettori's last minute pull-out with a hamstring injury was just the start of New Zealand's woes and they never got going after opting to bat first at the SuperSport Park. New Zealand never got going after electing to bat first. There had just two decent partnership during their innings, first Martin Guptill (40 runs of 64 balls) and A.Redmond (26 runs of 45 balls) put on 61 runs for the second wickets, then N.Broom (37 runs of 62 balls) and James Franklin (33 runs of 43 balls) added 65 runs for the sixth wickets. However in the end they manage just 200 runs on the board probably 50 runs short of what could have been winning total. Shane Watson was declared Player of the Match for his superb batting display. R.Ponting was declared player of the series for scoring 288 runs in five innings with an average of 72. R.Ponting was also awarded Golden Bat for scoring most runs in the tournament. All Australian Players has been awarded Cream Color Jackets on which ICC Champions trophy 2009 Winners was written. Australian team has been awarded prize money of $4 million as well as Champions Trophy. Match Summary (Australia won by 6 Wickets) New Zealand– 200/9 in 50 Overs M.Guptill- 40 N.Broom– 37 N.Haurtiz– 10-0-37-3 B.Lee- 10-1-45-2 Australia– 206/4 in 45.2 Overs S.Watson- 105* C.White– 62 K.Mills– 10-2-27-3 S.Bond- 10-2-34-1 |
