March 23, 2003, is a date which no Indian can forget, especially someone from the 90s. This was the day Sourav Ganguly’s Indian team met Ricky Ponting’s Australia in the finals of the ICC World Cup 2003 in South Africa.
It was the first time India reached the finals of this ICC event since 1983 and everyone was excited to see Ganguly’s youth brigade doing wonders against the juggernaut of the Australian team. The two teams met at Johannesburg’s Wanderers Stadium. India won the toss and surprised everyone by choosing to bowl first on a bouncy pitch.
The script went awry from ball one, as Adam Gilchrist went after Indian bowlers ripping them apart. However, it was Kangaroo’s captain Ricky Ponting who stole the show with his aggressive strokeplay deflated any enthusiasm that Indian bowlers had.
He stroked 140* in 121 balls with four boundaries and eight massive sixes. He, along with Damien Martyn’s 88* off 84 balls, out on 234 runs for the third wicket and took Australia to 359/2 in 50 overs.
After 17 years to the day, Ricky Ponting shared the photo of the same bat with which he had smashed the Indian bowlers all around the Jo’Burg ground.
He tweeted,” Given we’ve all got a bit of time on our hands as we stay at home, thought I’d go through what I’ve kept from my career and share some of it with everyone on a regular basis - this is the bat I used in the 2003 World Cup final.”
In response, India was bowled out for 234 as Australia were crowned world champions for the third time. They would go on to defend their title in 2007 and win it again in 2015.
