Australia crush New Zealand to win 2015 World Cup

MELBOURNE: The well designed, state-of-the-art museum inside the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCG) premises allows you ­ for a fee of $30 ­ to catch a glimpse of Australia's rich cricket history. Walls of fame are aplenty and videos with the catchy Channel Nine music in the background make for good viewing. The museum's exclusive collection is growing at an alarming rate.
Ashes triumphs are galore.There are the Champions Trophies, bilateral and triangular tournament wins and Boxing Day accomplishments are also given a special mention. It's a long list the museum's already accommodating. And now, there's another World Cup.Australia's fifth to be precise.
But this one's the first at home and will always have a very special ring to it. Wiping out the 23-year-old ignominy of bowing out in a World Cup played on their home soil for the first time in 1992, Australia made up for it at their beloved ground on Sunday , beating New Zealand by seven wickets.
Scorecard | As it happened: Australia vs New Zealand | Match in Pics
Going into the game, a lot had been spoken about this New Zealand team and rightly so, given the form they had come riding on. On Sunday , they ran into Australia, and suffered.
Winning the toss was the lucky thing to do and electing to bat first most appropriate.New Zealand captain did both here on a sunny afternoon and it seemed like there was going to be a contest to look forward to. That was before Mitchell Starc ­ the player of the tournament with 22 wickets ­ got it swinging swing right in the first over. It was the one that came in, a ripper of a delivery pitched between the bat and the toes, finding its way to the stumps.
Full Coverage: ICC World Cup 2015
Starc ran across the field and his teammates ran behind him. New Zealand fans, who'd taken costly last-minute flights to be in Melbourne, stood in disbelief. Their captain Brendan McCullum, on whose shoulders rested plenty of Kiwi hopes, was gone for a duck.
The giant board displayed a giant zero. Silence took over.

The Australian players spray champagne as they celebrate their win over New Zealand in the 2015 Cricket World Cup final in Melbourne. (AP Photo)
Grant Elliott would come up with a brilliant knock ­ 83 off 82 balls ­ but McCullum's dismissal and a couple of quick ones after him, would deprive the Kiwis of the mental strength to surge ahead.
A target of 183 never looked enough and Australia chased it with 101 balls to spare. Michael Clarke, playing his last ODI, scored 74 while Steven Smith (56) and David Warner (45) contributed their bit to the chase.But Australia had won the battle long before it came upon these men to finish it off.
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