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BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - Australian skipper Ricky Ponting hailed Adam Gilchrist for his "unbelievable" 149 after sweeping to an unprecedented hat-trick of consecutive World Cup titles on Sunday.
Wicketkeeper Gilchrist scored the biggest and fastest hundred in a World Cup final to cap Australia's virtually unchallenged run through the tournament with a 53-run victory over Sri Lanka at the Kensington Oval.
"He hasn't played a better one," Ponting said. "To go out in a World Cup final and play 149 off 104 balls, hardly missed the middle of the bat for most of the day, it is an unbelievable innings.
"One of the best innings you will ever see and it was one of the best innings I have ever seen.
"Matty Hayden in many ways has been the batsman of the tournament and he (Gilchrist) has been at the other end looking pretty shaky and scratching.
"There was one difference in both teams today, in the outcome of the game and that was Gilly's innings.
"To take the game away from the opposition as Gilly did was pretty special stuff and to happen in the final says a lot about the bloke."
Gilchrist has scored half centuries at least in each of his three World Cup final appearances.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard praised the Baggy Greens for recording the country's fourth world cup victory and made special mention to pace bowler Glenn McGrath, who played his final match in the green and gold.
"Congratulations to Ricky and the boys," Howard told local television on Sunday after the 53-run victory on the Duckworth-Lewis method.
With the match scheduled to have started at 2330 local time, Howard slept as rain delayed the opening of the match at the Kensington Oval, but awoke at his home in Sydney to watch Adam Gilchrist pulverise the Sri Lankan attack for 149 from just 104 balls.
"The rain sort of delayed the start, I then got up in the middle of the night to see some of Gilchrist, then I went back to bed then I watched the last two hours," he said.
"To Glenn McGrath, that lanky bloke from Naramine, thanks for a wonderful contribution to Australian cricket," Howard said.
"He joins the greats of Australian fast bowlers, he's a wonderful bloke, he's been a wonderful player and he went out on a very high note."
- REUTERS
