Shot Stories

Two fast, two furious

Shane Bond and Brett Lee went head to head in a 2003 World Cup match in Port Elizabeth. One emerged victorious

March 2015

Chris Harris: In his fourth and final World Cup, Harris did little of note. While in 1992, as part of the dibbly dobbly, wibbly wobbly medium-pace quartet, he had taken 16 wickets in nine matches, in 2003 he took two in six. In 1996, he scored a famous quarter-final hundred, under a run a ball, against Australia, only to be overshadowed by a Mark Waugh spectacular.

Shane Bond: Having bowled with devastating pace to reduce Australia to 208 for 9, he came to the crease as the No. 11 with New Zealand needing 101 to win. He lasted ten balls, a wild pull to Lee resulting in his dismissal. Bond's figures of 6 for 23 are the second-best in a losing cause. All six of his victims - Hayden, Gilchrist, Ponting, Martyn, Hogg and Harvey - feature in this photo.

Brett Lee: After hitting two sixes off the last two balls of Australia's innings, Lee opened the bowling. His first spell gave no sign of what was to come: none off five overs. When he came back on, with the 11th ball of his second spell, he got New Zealand's captain, Stephen Fleming, to edge a pull to the keeper. In his next over, two 90-plus mph yorkers dismissed Brendon McCullum and Jacob Oram. Then another super-fast inswinger, aimed at Andre Adams' toes, knocked over the off stump. Lee bowled a short one to Bond in the first ball of his final over and ran up in his follow-through to take a tumbling catch and dismiss New Zealand for their lowest total in World Cups. It had taken him 15 balls to take the last five wickets.

Glenn McGrath: It was his opening spell that turned the match Australia's way. He took three wickets in his first four overs, even as Lee leaked runs at the other end. McGrath not only holds the records for most wickets in World Cups, and the most in an individual World Cup but also the best figures in a World Cup game - 7 for 15 against Namibia two weeks before this Super Six encounter.

Adam Gilchrist: Gilchrist and Hayden hold the partnership record for the most runs in World Cups - 1220, nearly 250 more than the second-placed Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag. Gilchrist also holds most major keeping records in World Cups: most dismissals in World Cups, most in a game (six, against Namibia in 2003) and most in a single World Cup (21 in 2003).

Ricky Ponting: His first World Cup as captain started ignominiously, when Shane Warne was banned for drug use and Jason Gillespie was out injured. But back then even Australia's bench was invincible - Andy Bichel stepped up marvellously in South Africa - and Ponting lost only two of his 29 World Cup games between 2003 and 2011. He is one of six batsmen to have scored a hundred in a World Cup final - against India in Johannesburg in this tournament.