Team History at Cricket World Cup – Australia (1975-2011)
There is no other cricket team in the world that invokes fear the way the Australians do. Having dominated the cricketing arena for over a decade – managing to achieve feats such as a streak involving a mind-boggling 34 unbeaten games at the World Cup (WC), 16 Test match victories (twice), things eventually came to a halt in the 2011 edition of the World Cup when they were brushed aside by the Indian Juggernaut who eventually went on to lift the coveted trophy.
Nevertheless, going into the 2015 World Cup, the Australians, apart from having the home advantage (they will not need to cross the bridge to New Zealand even once), are the best team on paper and have the bookmakers’ nod, too, to go all the way this time around.
A brief History
The following table provides a glimpse as to why the men from Down Under have been one of the most formidable outfits in the WC history:
| Matches | Won | Lost | Tied | NR | W/L | Highest Score | Lowest Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 76 | 55 | 19 | 1 | 1 | 2.894 | 377 | 129 |
Only 19 losses in 40 years, which saw 10 different World Cups, and not more than 2 in a single edition! They have also won the Cup four times. Apart from India and West Indies, no other team has even won it twice.
Needless to say, World Cup winning teams would have had a legendary captain at the helm. The Australians have had 3 of them – Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting and Allan Border. Waugh was as much instrumental with the bat as he was with his astute decision-making in the 1999 World Cup. Ponting, on the other hand, simply had one of the best teams to play the game ever and went unbeaten in 2003 and 2007.
Statistically, Ponting may be the best captain for the Aussies; if you go beyond numbers, however, Border is easily the best World Cup winning captain Australia has ever produced, more so because he took over when the Australians were on their lowest ebb and turned an ordinary side into world beaters overnight. Michael Clarke, Ponting’s successor, has a brilliant team at his disposal, perhaps the best on paper in the given conditions and certainly would not settle without carving his name on the honours board.
The Australians have dominated every country in the world with the exception of West Indies and Pakistan. The West Indian conundrum is understandable: till 1987, the Australians were nowhere near the shadow of their current self to match the Calypso Kings who were at the peak of their prowess. Till date, they remain the only country to have a better win-loss ratio,
Pakistan, though, have managed to hold on to their own, winnings as many matches as they have lost.
Best Performance
A difficult question indeed. The 1987 WC was won in their most testing conditions – the Indian sub-continent. The 1999 WC saw them go past a phenomenal South African side and an even more challenging Pakistan team.
However, these two World cups weren’t without a blemish – the 1987 WC saw them lose against India, while in 1999, Pakistan beat them once and the Africans were famously involved in a tie in the semi-finals.
The 2003 and 2007 WCs, though, saw absolute and utter carnage by the Aussies as they rolled on unbeaten, unchallenged even. However, the quality of the other teams can be questioned a tad bit when compared to the ones playing the 1987 and 1999 versions.
To pick a single contender would be very unfair to the other three equally historic triumphs and is a fool’s errand.
Worst Performance
It has been thrice that the Kangaroos have been eliminated without the need of a knockout: 1979, 1983, 1992.
All three of these have been unexpected and absolute shockers to say the least: in 1979, the Aussies failed to cross the score of 200 even once; in 1983, the odds were heavily stacked against India to progress from the group, which they did; and in 1992, no one expected the defending World Champions to crash out in their own backyard in the round robin itself.
However, a World Cup campaign involving a solitary win and no scores in excess of 200 (1979) hardly has any serious contenders to take away this unwanted award.
Top Performers
No prizes for guessing this – The Australians ruled the roost for 9 years winning three consecutive World Cups, and Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist were the centre spokes of this giant wheel. The other instrumental run-getters are compiled in the following list:
| Player | Matches | Innings | Runs | Highest Score | Average | 100s | 50s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ricky Ponting | 46 | 42 | 1743 | 140* | 45.86 | 5 | 6 |
| Adam Gilchrist | 31 | 31 | 1085 | 149 | 36.16 | 1 | 8 |
| Mark Waugh | 22 | 22 | 1004 | 130 | 52.84 | 4 | 4 |
| Matthew Hayden | 22 | 21 | 987 | 158 | 51.94 | 3 | 2 |
| Steve Waugh | 33 | 30 | 978 | 120* | 48.90 | 1 | 6 |
Among all batsmen with over 400 World Cup runs, Andrew Symonds averages the highest: a staggering 103.00. Current Australian captain Clarke comes in next with 83.62 and Shane Watson, striking at a whopping 109.02. completes the trio with 62.14.
Bowlers
This list does contain a few surprises as could be seen below:
| Player | Matches | Wickets | Best | Average | Economy | Strike Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glenn McGrath | 39 | 71 | 7/15 | 18.19 | 3.96 | 27.5 |
| Brett Lee | 17 | 35 | 5/42 | 17.97 | 4.57 | 23.5 |
| Brad Hogg | 21 | 34 | 4/27 | 19.23 | 4.12 | 27.9 |
| Shaun Tait | 18 | 34 | 4/39 | 29.50 | 5.35 | 24 |
| Shane Warne | 17 | 32 | 4/29 | 19.50 | 3.83 | 30.5 |
Gary Gilmour does deserve a special mention. He played only two World Cup games and picked up a fifer in each of those games at a mind boggling average of 5.63. Andy Bichel averaged a miserly 12.31 for his 16 wickets, whereas Nathan Bracken got as many wickets at 16.12 apiece.
Memorable Matches
v England, semi-finals, 1975. The match began with England as favorites, only by a slight margin, but Gary Gilmour, coming in for Ashley Mallet, ripped apart the English line-up with figures of 6-14. In all, he had 3 wickets before this match and had not batted before even once in an international game. The spell was rated the best ever by Wisden. Having restricted the Englishmen to 93, one would have thought the match was a walk in the park for the Aussies, but the Poms responded by reducing their opposition to 39/6. Out came Gilmour and stroked a masterful 28 to bring them home safe and sound.
v South Africa, semi-finals, 1999. A match more famous than perhaps any other in the history of the game. The Australians, batting first, sauntered to 213 with fifties from Michael Bevan and Steve Waugh; Pollock was the wrecker-in-chief with 5-36. The Africans, in reply, had lost their way at 198-9, but Lance Klusener, the man of the tournament, took them perilously close before a brain fade meant Allan Donald was run-out with three balls to go and the scores level. The Aussies did brilliantly to hold on to their nerve in an almost lost cause and progressed on account of beating the Proteas in the group stages.