From the moment that searing Mitchell Starc delivery castled Brendon McCullum in over one, the beer was going flat at our World Cup party. And even though you tell yourself that at just one over into the match it's not the end of the road, there was that awful gnawing feeling in one's pancreas that, in fact, it was.
Starc's extraordinary first salvo, the genesis over of the final, with six lethal and arcing arrows, demonstrated the power and excellence of this Australian side. It was the fifth curving missile that fatally pierced the flailing McCullum and it somehow seemed to mortally wound the rest of the Black Caps' innings. Although there was a stout fightback from a disciplined Ross Taylor and the yeoman-hearted Grant Elliott that threatened to breathe life back into the Kiwis, slowly the innings bled out from the damage inflicted early on.
Starc's curtain-up kill had placed Australia in the dominant position and they made it clear they would not be relinquishing it.
The Black Caps, however, walk from the final with their heads held high. It wasn't just the quality and courage of the cricket they played during the tournament that they can be proud of it was the way in which they grabbed the imagination of the sporting public with the free-spirited entertainment they provided.
And don't undervalue the respect that they engendered from every team they met during the World Cup that has elevated them in the eyes of their international foes. Add all of this to the likely financial enhancement due for many of the players after a rollicking set of performances on the world stage and you've got a great tournament all around for our cricketing folk, regardless of a final's loss.
