Month’s after being dubbed ‘soft’ by one of the Australia’s cricket greats, Mitchell Starc was named as the player of the World Cup after leading the wicket-takers chart with 22 scalps in eight matches. The 25-year-old Starc was the unanimous choice of a select group of experts following his sensational form that helped guide his side to its fifth title in 11 tournaments.
During their deliberations, the members of the panel discussed several names, highlighting such players as New Zealand’s inspirational captain Brendon McCullum and his team-mates Boult and Martin Guptill, as well as Kumar Sangakkara of Sri lanka for his four consecutive centuries. Since loads of runs were scored, Starc was happy that ball dominated the bat in the final. “It’s nice to see ball dominate bat every now and again. There’s been some fantastic performances with both. Obviously it’s been a couple of big scores, a couple of double tons. look, it’s just been fantastic the whole tournament and I guess from the Australian point of view, I think we’ve worked really hard at our bowling.
“Not only in the World Cup but leading up to it, and to see it come off, I think every bowler who’s bowled in the tournament, not just the guys who played the final, it’s been fantastic,” he said. On how he managed to get all those wickets (22 in all) at a 3.5 runs per over economy rate, Starc said, “We’ve all complemented each other throughout the whole tournament. I’m speaking on behalf of the Australian squad anyway. But yeah, look, it’s been awesome. We’ve got guys who do things differently in the 15, got guys who can swing it, guys who can bowl — a few guys who can bowl in the 150s. Jimmy (Faulkner) comes in and uses variations better than most people.”
We brought out ‘A’ game in final: Faulkner
All-rounder James Faulkner, who etched his name in history by winning the Player of the Match award in the cricket World Cup final, said that his team brought out their ‘A’ game against New Zealand here on Sunday. “We brought out our ‘A’ game today against New Zealand,” Faulkner said at the post-match presentation ceremony after receiving the award from former Indian batting great Sachin Tendulkar.
“It’s an amazing feeling. To play in front of 93,013 fans here at the MCG and win a World Cup is amazing.” The all-rounder said he took up the challenge when skipper Michael Clarke gave him the ball during New Zealand’s batting powerplay as he loves his job. The pacer finished with figures of 3 for 36, taking the vital wickets of Ross Taylor, Corey Anderson and Grant Elliot.