As captain, it is a proud moment for me to lead Australia to the finals. This is our third consecutive World Cup finals and there are three of us who have been part of the earlier two games — Micheal Bevan, Glenn McGrath and myself. Three others, Adam Gilchrist, Darren Lehmann and Damien Martyn were there in 1999. This means six players have been here before, so we know what it takes to play and win in the biggest game in cricket. For this Indian squad, it is the first World Cup finals, so there will be nerves and this could be to our advantage.
The Wanderers has plenty of pace and bounce, and this could be to our advantage, a pretty Australia type wicket. It was a flat track when we played Pakistan a month ago and I’m sure it will be the same this round as well. This should suit our batsmen, all of whom are due some runs after three low scoring games.
While there is room for improvement in our top order, we have done enough to win all our games, so I am not overly worried. I would instead view it as a lull before the storm, a slow buildup for the final game.
Looking at the Indians, there is no doubt that they are playing very good cricket at the moment. Plenty has been written about how the Aussies will target Sachin Tendulkar, but while he is a key player, we are focusing on some others as well. We are planning for this game just like we would plan for any other game. We have tactics worked out for each Indian player and would like to execute them as best as we can.
Our bowling has really been firing, with even our fourth and fifth bowler also making good contribution. The cutting edge has been provided by Brett Lee and Glen McGrath. Before every game, we hear that the opposition wants to see off their opening spell before attacking the other bowlers. However, this is easier said than done, since no team has got through 15 overs without losing couple of wickets. Andy Bichel, too is in the best of form of his life, so we are able to sustain pressure right through the innings. But the surprise for me has been Brad Hogg. He has unerringly got us wickets at key stages, and his economy rate has been pretty impressive as well.
As has been the pattern in this tournament we still have an injury worry with Damien Martyn. He has been doing some light training over the last couple of days, so we will have to keep an eye on that.
For today, we will have to keep it simple and ensure that we don’t try too hard or do anything drastic or different just because it is a final. We came here as favorites, but always try to down play that tag and stick to focusing on our on-field play. We must look to do just that today as well.
Whenever the Australians go into a big tour or a competition of this stature, we like to have a theme. “No regrets” was the theme during our winning campaign in 1999. This time round, we have had quite a few, but the two words that have kept recurring are “intent” and “intimidate”. Our aim in today’s final would be to ensure that we sustain the aggression that is implied by those two words. If we succeed in doing that, I’m sure we will be the World Champions once again.
Arab News Sports 23 March 2003
