2003 Cricket World Cup

Result

Player of the Match (Final)

Ricky Ponting, Australia

Tournament format

14 teams, the largest field to that point, split into two groups, round-robin, with the top three from each group advancing to a Super Six stage before semi-finals and the final. Co-hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya -- the first Cricket World Cup played on African soil.

Full match archive

Every match of the 2003 tournament, not just the final — all 53 group-stage and semi-final matches, plus the final round-robin standings. See all 53 matches →

Final: match context

Australia claimed their third World Cup title in 2003 with an utterly dominant 125-run win over India at The Wanderers in Johannesburg, a result built on one of the great individual innings in World Cup final history and the platform for what would become an extraordinary run of tournament dominance through the decade. India's captain Sourav Ganguly won the toss and chose to field first -- a decision that, in hindsight, was heavily second-guessed almost immediately. Australia openers Adam Gilchrist (57 off 48 balls) and Matthew Hayden (37 off 54) put on 105 to launch the innings, before Ricky Ponting and Damien Martyn added what was then a record 234-run partnership for any wicket in a World Cup final. Ponting finished unbeaten on 140 off just 121 balls, striking 4 fours and 8 sixes, with Martyn contributing an unbeaten 88 off 84 -- the pair propelling Australia to a massive 359 for 2 from their 50 overs, comfortably the highest total ever posted in a World Cup final at that time. India's chase never had any realistic chance against a target of that size. Sachin Tendulkar, the tournament's outstanding batsman all campaign, fell early for just 4, and although Virender Sehwag (82 off 81) and Rahul Dravid (47) offered some resistance in the middle overs, Glenn McGrath's 3 for 52 and disciplined bowling from the rest of Australia's attack mopped up the innings for 234 in 39.2 overs, a brief rain interruption after the 17th over doing nothing to change the outcome. Australia's 125-run margin of victory remains one of the most one-sided finals in the tournament's history. Two forfeited matches reshaped the group stage well before the final was reached. England refused to travel to Zimbabwe for their scheduled fixture over safety and political concerns tied to Robert Mugabe's government, conceding the match by forfeit -- a decision that indirectly helped Zimbabwe edge out England for a Super Six place by two points. New Zealand similarly forfeited their own match against Kenya over separate security concerns, a result that helped Kenya, a non-Test-playing nation, become the first Associate country ever to reach a Cricket World Cup semi-final (where they were eventually beaten by India). Elsewhere, Pakistan's Shoaib Akhtar delivered the first officially recorded delivery to break 100mph (161.3 km/h), one of the tournament's standout individual moments. Sachin Tendulkar was named Player of the Tournament with 673 runs, while Australia's win in Johannesburg was itself just one victory inside an extraordinary run that saw the side go undefeated through the entire tournament, a form of dominance that would carry them to consecutive titles in 2007 as well.

Sources

• Wikipedia: 2003 Cricket World Cup
• Wikipedia: 2003 Cricket World Cup final
• ESPNcricinfo