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| April 30, 2007 | Monday | Rabi-us-Sani 12, 1428 |
McGrath bows out on winning note
BRIDGETOWN, April 29: Glenn McGrath said linking up with old comrade Adam Gilchrist was the perfect way for him to take his last wicket in international cricket after Australia had won their third successive World Cup final on Saturday.
McGrath, 37, and the man of the tournament after a record-breaking haul of 26 wickets, the most at a single World Cup, had a relatively subdued end to his illustrious career.
But he got in on the act, when having Sri Lanka's Russel Arnold — also playing his last match for his country before his retirement — caught by diving wicket-keeper Gilchrist.
The duo, now only two out of three players along with Ricky Ponting to have won three World Cups after starring in the 1999 and 2003 triumphs, have formed a potent combination in both Test and one-day cricket, ‘caught Gilchrist bowled McGrath’ a familiar mode of dismissal for many batsman.
“I guess it was nice to finish off with a catch behind with Gilly,” McGrath said after Saturday's match having become during the course of the tournament the World Cup's most successful bowler of all-time with 71 wickets.
That was well ahead of Wasim Akram's mark of 55 in 38 matches to the Australian's 39. “It was the perfect way to finish and I'm happy with that.”
And McGrath said he hoped the over-riding cricketing memory of the first World Cup staged in the Caribbean would be Australia's sustained excellence rather than the chaos in the final's closing moments.
Players, rightly thinking the game was over, were forced back onto the field by an umpiring blunder after officials wrongly ruled Sri Lanka had to bat out the day in pitch-black conditions.
“I think it would be disappointing if you focussed on 15 or 20 minutes of the whole tournament rather than the way we played throughout,” said McGrath.
Ponting had wanted McGrath, Test cricket's most successful paceman, to bowl the last over in the quick's 250th one-dayer.
Although the gloom prevented that, McGrath joked: “Some people say at the speed I'm bowling at I'm bowling all arm balls anyway!”—AFP
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