page_title: 2007 Cricket World Cup
section_title: Final
hierarchical_section_title: 2007 Cricket World Cup / Knockout stage / Final
caption_attribution_description: Australia complete World Cup treble. A large crowd of over 10,000 fans give a warm welcome to the Australian cricket team on returning home with the trophy - Martin Place, Sydney.
context_page_description: The 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup was the 9th edition of the Cricket World Cup tournament that took place in the West Indies from 13 March to 28 April 2007, using the sport's One Day International format. There were a total of 51 matches played, three fewer than at the 2003 World Cup.
  The 16 competing teams were initially divided into four groups, with the two best-performing teams from each group moving on to a "Super 8" format. From this, Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, and South Africa won through to the semi-finals, with Australia defeating Sri Lanka in the final to win their third consecutive World Cup and their fourth overall. Australia's unbeaten record in the tournament increased their total to 29 consecutive World Cup matches without loss, a streak dating back to 23 May 1999, during the group stage of the 1999 World Cup.
context_section_description: This was the first World Cup final to be a repeat: the sides previously met in the 1996 World Cup final, which Sri Lanka won. Australia had won every World Cup match against Sri Lanka apart from that loss. The match was Sri Lanka's second World Cup final appearance, and Australia's fourth in a row and sixth overall.
  Australian captain Ricky Ponting won the toss and elected to bat. However, the start of play was delayed due to rain, and the match was reduced to 38 overs per side. Wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist played an innings of 149—the highest for any batsman in a World Cup final—to give Australia an imposing total going in at the break.
  While Sri Lankan batsmen Kumar Sangakkara and Sanath Jayasuriya were adding 116 for the second wicket, the contest was alive, but after the pair got out, Sri Lanka's chances slowly diminished. Further rain forced the reduction of Sri Lanka's innings to just 36 overs, with the target revised to 269. At the end of the 33rd over, with Sri Lanka still trailing the adjusted Duckworth-Lewis target by 37 runs, the umpires suspended the game due to bad light. While Australia's players began to celebrate their victory (since the minimum 20 overs had been reached), the umpires incorrectly announced that because the match was suspended due to light and not rain, the final three overs would have to be bowled the following day. With Sri Lanka needing 61 runs from 18 deliveries, Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene agreed there was no need to return the following day, and instructed his team to resume batting; Ponting agreed to play only spin bowlers. The last three overs were played in almost complete darkness, during which Sri Lanka added just nine runs to give Australia a 53-run victory by the D-L method. The umpires later apologised for their error, saying that the match should have ended then with Australia winning by 37 runs.
  Australia won the tournament undefeated, extending their streak of World Cup matches without a loss to 29. Australian bowler Glenn McGrath was named 'Player of the Series' and retired from all forms of international cricket.
caption: A large crowd of over 10,000 fans welcome the Australian team on completing the first World Cup hat-trick – Martin Place, Sydney.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Make": "OLYMPUS CORPORATION", "Image Model": "u30D,S410D,u410D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "314", "Image YResolution": "314", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Version 1.1", "Image DateTime": "2007:06:01 12:29:01", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "266", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 20, 0, 1, 0, 20, 0, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "8084", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6616", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/100", "EXIF FNumber": "26/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "160", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:06:01 12:29:01", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:06:01 12:29:01", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "163/50", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "87/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2272", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1704", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "722", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "High gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}