ICC World Cup 2015: Australia vs New Zealand Final - Stats of the match

After restricting New Zealand to 183/10 in 45 overs at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), Australia – riding on fifties from captain Michael Clarke (74 off 72) and Steven Smith (56* off 71) – chased down the target in 33.1 overs to win the 2015 World Cup. Grant Elliott top scored for the Kiwis with an 82-ball 83. Mitchell Johnson and James Faulkner picked up 3 wickets each to run through the middle order, while Mitchell Starc set up the game for his team by dismissing Kiwi captain Brendon McCullum for a duck in the first over of the match. Here are numbers that matter from the game:

#1 Kumar Dharmasena

Kumar Dharmasena, who was one of the two on-field umpires in the match today, has now featured in two ODI World Cup finals – as an umpire in one and as a player in another; he is the only player to have achieved the feat.

Dharmasena was part of the 1996 World Cup winning Sri Lankan team. He played as the team’s second spinner under the captaincy of Arjuna Ranatunga. The 43-year-old has represented his country in 141 ODIs, scoring 1222 runs and picking up 138 wickets.

#2 Brendon McCullum\'s duck

New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum was dismissed for a duck in the very first over of the match, which was bowled by Mitchell Starc: it is the lowest score ever made by a captain in a World Cup final. Given below is a list of top 5 lowest scores made by a captain in an ODI World Cup final:

Player	Country	Score	Opposition	Edition
Brendon McCullum	New Zealand	0	Australia	2015
Clive Llyod	West Indies	8	India	1983
Wasim Akram	Pakistan	8	Australia	1999
Clive Llyod	West Indies	13	England	1979
Kapil Dev	India	15	West Indies	1983

#3 Grant Elliott and Steven Smith\'s special feats

New Zealand’s semi-final hero Grant Elliott came to his team’s rescue again today. He scored 83 runs off 82 balls and put together a 111-run stand with Ross Taylor to lift his team from 39/3 in 12.2 overs to 150-4 in 35 overs, before a terrible collapse brought a quick end to the Kiwis’ innings with just 183 runs on the board.

Elliott, who came into this match on the back of a match-winning 84* against South Africa, became only the 5th batsman to score back-to-back half-centuries in the semi-final and final of a single World Cup. Australian No.3 Steven Smith, too, joined the list later. Smith backed up his 105 against India with an unbeaten 56 today.

Only 4 other players have achieved the feat, and they are Mike Brearley (1979), David Boon (1987), Javed Miandad (1992) and Aravinda de Silva (1996).

#4 Leading wicket-taker of 2015 World Cup

The left-arm pacers Trent Boult and Mitchell Starc have both ended the tournament with 22 wickets each to top the wicket-taking charts. Starc, however, edges Boult when it comes to economy rate and bowling average. While Starc took a couple of wickets today, Boult was able to manage only one.

Given below is the list of top 6 leading wicket-takers in the 2015 World Cup:

Player	Country	Matches	Wickets
Trent Boult	New Zealand	9	22
Mitchell Starc	Australia	8	22
Umesh Yadav	India	8	18
Mohammed Shami	India	7	17
Morne Morkel	South Africa	8	17
Jerome Taylor	West Indies	7	17

#5 Martin Guptill - Leading run-scorer

Martin Guptill didn’t have a great day with the bat today, but the 15 runs he scored were enough to topple Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara from the top spot in the list of leading run-scorers in the 2015 World Cup. Guptill had a slow start to the tournament before turning it all around in a remarkable fashion with a century against Bangladesh and a double against West Indies in back-to-back matches.

On the other hand, Sangakkara’s magnificent run in the World Cup – which included four consecutive centuries – was stopped by Sri Lanka’s elimination from the tournament in the quarter-final stages.

Player	Country	Matches	Runs
Martin Guptill	New Zealand	9	547
Kumar Sangakkara	Sri Lanka	7	541
AB de Villiers	South Africa	8	482
Brendan Taylor	Zimbabwe	6	433
Shikhar Dhawan	India	8	412

#6 World Cups for fun

With this triumph in their home soil, Australia have won a total of 5 World Cups in ODI cricket so far – 1987, 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2015. India and West Indies are at the second spot with 2 World Cups. While Pakistan and Sri Lanka have won the trophy 1 time each, England, New Zealand and South Africa are yet to open their account.

Australia, however, haven’t won a single T20 World Cup so far.