Top 5 batsmen with most runs between 2003 and 2007 World Cup
The 2003 ICC ODI World Cup saw Australia defend the crown they won in 1999 as they humbled India in the final at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg, winning the contest by 125 runs.
The hero in the final for Australia was skipper Ricky Ponting who led from the front with an undefeated knock of 140, and Adam Gilchrist, who scored a quick-fire half-century that helped the defending champions score a mammoth total of 359 runs after being put into bat.
The two batsmen carried on with their exceptional scoring as Australia continued their success at the international level, marching their way to a third successive World Cup triumph in 2007.
The period in between saw the introduction of the T20 format at the international level as well as the powerplay overs being brought into the shorter formats of the game.
The batsmen started to adopt a more aggressive approach and with grounds tending to become smaller, big totals became a norm as batsmen scored more freely than ever before.
A list of the Top 5 batsmen with most runs in the period between the 2003 and 2007 World Cups (25 March 2003 to 12 March 2007) proves that it was still the more accomplished batsmen in the game that adapted to the changes quicker than others.
Here is the Top 5 starting with one of the fore-mentioned Australian batsmen.
#5 Adam Gilchrist (Australia) - 3360 runs
The period in between the 2003 and 2007 World Cups, saw Adam Gilchrist's form fluctuate from on song to mediocre as he was even sidelined by Australia for a few ODIs.
Still, Gilchrist managed to find himself in the Top 5 batsmen for most runs scored in that period, which saw Australia win the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy in England.
Gilchrist scored 3360 runs from 95 ODIs at an average of 37.33 with the highest score of 172, scored against minnows Zimbabwe in the 2004 VB series.
His most significant knock, however, has to be the undefeated knock of 121 in the third match of the ODI series against England in 2005 that helped Australia edge out their bitter-rivals 2-1 in the ODI series.
Gilchrist secured as many as 12 Man-of-the-Match awards in ODIs and a Man-of-the-Series award during the period and also reached the top of the ICC ODI rankings for batsmen in February 2004.
