2007 Cricket World Cup final

The 2007 Cricket World Cup final was played on 28 April 2007 at Kensington Oval in Barbados to determine the winner of the ninth installment of the Cricket World Cup. This was the first time that Barbados hosted a Cricket World Cup final. Australia defeated Sri Lanka by 53 runs (under the Duckworth–Lewis method) to win their 4th World Cup title and 3rd in succession. It was the second time that Australia and Sri Lanka played a World Cup final against each other, after 1996.

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka started their world cup campaign with victories over Bermuda, Bangladesh and India and became the table toppers of Group B. In the Super-8 stage they finished second as they had defeated West Indies, England, New Zealand and Ireland. However, they lost two of their matches to South Africa and Australia each. In the semi finals, they defeated New Zealand by 81 runs, and qualified for the final second time after 1996.

Australia

Australia had dominated the tournament from the first match to the semi finals. They started their world cup campaign with victories over Scotland, Netherlands and South Africa and became the table toppers of Group A. In the Super-8 stage also they finished at the top as they had defeated West Indies, Bangladesh, England, Ireland, Sri Lanka and New Zealand. In the semi-finals, they defeated South Africa by 7 wickets, and qualified for the final for a record sixth time after 1975, 1987, 1996, 1999 and 2003.

This was the first World Cup final to be a repeat – the sides previously met in the 1996 World Cup Final, which Sri Lanka won. Australia has won every World Cup match against Sri Lanka apart from that loss. The match was Sri Lanka's second World Cup final appearance and Australia's sixth, their fourth in a row.

Both teams remained unchanged from their semi-final matches. Australia's captain Ricky Ponting won the toss and elected to bat first. However, the start of play was delayed due to rain, and the match was reduced to 38 overs per side. Adam Gilchrist's score of 149 – the highest in a World Cup final – helped give Australia an imposing total of 281.

Sri Lankan batsmen Kumar Sangakkara and Sanath Jayasuriya added 116 for the second wicket, before falling with the score at 123 and 145 respectively. Despite the regular loss of wickets, Sri Lanka managed to maintain a run rate of over 6 an over. Further rain forced the reduction of Sri Lanka's innings to just 36 overs, with the target revised to 269. At the culmination of the 33rd over, with Sri Lanka still trailing the adjusted Duckworth-Lewis target by 37 runs, the umpires suspended the game due to bad light.