The hungrier team won yesterday.
Aussie ruthlessness overcame West Indies submissiveness in a telling display of authority over the last two days in Antigua.
West Indies was the team riding a wave of three comprehensive victories helped by massive crowd support in Jamaica, reproduced at the Sir Vivian Richards stadium, but Australia performed like the side enjoying the home advantage.
As a result of their one-sided 103-run victory, Aus-tralia has made themselves firm favourites to pull off the hat trick of World Cup cricket title wins they are seeking.
The defending champions came hard at West Indies; jumping all over them from the get- go. They never let up even after the rain affected one-day game was extended to a two-day affair.
West Indies seemed to feel the brunt of the pressure from the beginning and did not display the positive type of body language needed to let the opposition know they were in a tooth and nail fight.
Players were moving around with heads down even before Matthew Hayden launched his onslaught which set up the platform the Australian bowlers and fielders built upon after the game’s first half on Tuesday.
Hayden took the attack to the bowling with an extraordinary display of powerful shots that bordered on the agricultural at times, but which limited overs competition calls for in these days of restricted fields and power plays.
Himself and Ricky Pon-ting to a lesser extent, showed the gains to be had from calculated risks for teams prepared to take the bull by the horns.
Daren Powell and Jerome Taylor started well enough, but once they were attacked, their control disintegrated and the bad balls began to flow. It is a basic tactic that works most of the time and Australia utilises such elementary strategy more than any other team.
It explains why they win more than any other team.
And West Indies made it easier for their opponents by not applying enough pressure in the field after they got rid of Adam Gilchrist and before Ponting, had shifted fully into third gear.
“I wouldn’t say that they were tested.” More to the point, “Australia didn’t permit themselves to be tested,” Lara said afterwards.
Maybe had he given his pacemen more fielders, moreso catchers close to the wicket, with Australia 10-1 Australia might not have dictated terms the rest of the way.
Hayden’s epic 158 eventually put West Indies out of the game with a little help from Clarke and Watson to post the unreachable 322 total.
Australia showed how pressure should be applied when West Indies batted.
They packed the circle with men designed to prevent pressure- relieving singles that resulted in the Windies top order cracking. Shiv Chanderpaul went via a wild shot, albeit a flawed lbw decision by umpire Aleem Dar, Marlon Samuels was also pressured into losing his head through a suicidal heave as was Chris Gayle. At that stage it was only a matter of time before the cookie crumbled completely.
Not that Gayle and Chanderpaul could not have done better.
Both are proven free scoring batsmen who can go down the pitch and reel off runs over the infield, but chose not to try yesterday.
Most international top order batsmen, (Hayden included) use that approach, especially with the introduction of power plays.
Lara is known for tinkering with the order of the bowling attack but he seems loathe doing the same with the batting line-up even when the situation begs for a shuffle.
Yesterday was a good example. With his team facing a massive 323-run target Lara needed to bat higher than at number five.
Even if he plays to 40 years old he will remain the most competent batsmen in the line-up and his brilliant 77 was wasted. Had he moved up to number three his half century could have yielded twice its value especially when confronting a mainly inexperienced Australia attack.
Today’s clash with New Zealand could not have come at a better time for the host team as it is always better to have an early wake up call. Their Super Eight campaign begins in earnest now.