IN the end, it was a horribly one-sided final. Australia just packed too many guns for New Zealand and steamrolled to another world title, their fourth in the last five World Cups. It is a tribute to their system which has consistently produced top class players and will continue to do so for years to come.

There is accountability at all levels; there is no room for sentimentality and only the deserving get to don the country’s colours.

So what is it about Australia that makes them so good at the international level? It could well be the competitive nature of their grassroots cricket at the club level which inculcates a fierce sense of competition as well as loyalty towards the institution and teammates.

New Zealand were completely out of their depth, and perhaps the fact that they had not ventured outside their country for any of the earlier matches came back to haunt them, for suddenly they found themselves in the cauldron of the MCG and the massive crowd support that the Aussies get there. It can get too much at the easiest of times, and this was the final of the World Cup on the biggest day in the lives of New Zealand’s cricketers and cricket-loving public. They just wilted under that pressure, and the relentless way that the Australia skipper applied it, meant that there simply was no way out.

Brendon McCullum did his team a huge favour by winning the toss which meant that, for the first time finalists, they did not have to undergo the pressure of an asking rate in a chase. Their batsmen could bat freely, but it was crucial that they got a good start which is what they did not get.

McCullum, looking to play the way he has throughout the tournament, was bowled by a beauty from Mitchell Starc, and when Martin Guptill fell to part-timer Glenn Maxwell, the writing was pretty much on the wall.

The partnership between Taylor and the hero of the semi-final, Grant Elliott, did raise some hopes but they had also consumed plenty of overs as they tried to repair the innings. When Taylor and the dangerous Corey Anderson were dismissed in the space of three balls, any hope that the Kiwis had of finishing strongly had evaporated.

Still, they would have tried to build their hopes by the coincidence of the total they had put up which was exactly what India had when they restricted the defending champions West Indies and won the trophy for the first time in 1983. It wasn’t to be, as the man of the season Steve Smith and skipper Michael Clarke, playing his last one-day game, ensured there were no alarms. Though Clarke got out just before the winning hit, he had seen that he would retire as a winning skipper.

Australia are the champions again, and it will take something really extraordinary to wrest the cup from them again.

By Special Arrangement for Dawn