Calcutta: Former Australia coach John Buchanan, who guided Australia to successive World Cup wins, has termed Ricky Ponting's blazing 140-run knock in the 2003 final against the Sourav Ganguly-led India as one of the finest ever in World Cup history.
Recalling Australia's glorious run in the 2003 edition of the tournament, held in South Africa and Zimbabwe, Buchanan said that though Ponting and Damien Martyn were the stars of the final, it were the openers, Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist who provided them with an excellent platform to launch an attack.
'The platform came from Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist. The wicket looked like it had something on offer and India had a very good attack - Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and Javagal Srinath. They were there to exploit the wicket but Matthew and Adam just never let them settle down,' Buchanan was heard saying in an audio statement released by Cricket Australia.
'In fact, Sourav I think was making changes after the third over to try to stop the run flow but it was impossible. Those two just set the scene and Ricky (Ponting) and Damien (Martyn) just carried it on,' he added.
Buchanan, who has also been the coach of the Kolkata Knight Riders, said that the nature of Ponting's knock in the crunch situation made it a class apart. The former coach felt that Ponting's century was a stamp of authority. 'You would have to go a long way in finding a better one,' he said.
'Gilchrist obviously peeled off a pretty good century in 2007 but as a captain in his first World Cup, leading from the front, leading by example, taking the attack both to the spin and quick bowlers of India at the end of a long tournament, yeah probably hard to go past it,' Buchanan explained.
Australia were unbeaten in their 2003 campaign. Buchanan claimed that he never believed in the 'law of averages' catching up at any point.
'While we were undefeated, everybody was saying that we were due to lose a game and my response always was, what should you do to lose a game? If we play well, why wouldn't we just keep winning?
So, it was always about trying to make sure that we played our best cricket and then hopefully the results would keep going our way,' he said.
The tournament did have a controversial incident during Australia's semi-final against Sri Lanka when Gilchrist walked on his own after the umpires seemed reluctant to rule him out. Buchanan admitted it took everybody by surprise including himself. He also revealed that Ponting wasn't too happy with Gilchrist's decision.
'It certainly took us all aback at that stage... Semi-final, crucial game. We are all sitting there watching what happened, just seemed to be total slow-motion.
'Gilly walking off when it appeared that the umpire was going to make a different decision and I guess legends in history have been made of that incredibly so over the years.
'But I can tell you the dressing room, the captain in particular wasn't too happy with Gilly's decision, rather that moment but nonetheless that is history now. It's been consigned to history and one of the moments of cricket. A cherished moment for Gilly and probably for the team too in the end.'
