Former Australia captain Michael Clarke on Sunday recalled the historic 2015 World Cup final against New Zealand at Melbourne Cricket Ground. The Aussies defeated the Kiwis by 7 wickets to clinch their fifth World Cup trophy, courtesy a brilliant bowling performance from the bowling unit, who bundled out New Zealand for 183. Five years after the massive win, Clarke credited the youngsters for lifting the team up.
“My message throughout the whole tournament was ‘play with freedom’,” Clarke was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.
“The thing about the squad we picked is we had so many superstars who wanted to be on the big stage. There was a lot of big egos on the team and they wanted the bigger game, bigger crowd, bigger moment.”
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“For me it was about our training and preparation being so important because then all I wanted to do was allow these x-factor players – Faulkner, Maxwell, Warner, Starc, Smith – these superstars to get on stage and show the world how good they are, and that’s what happened,” he said.
“Those young x-factor players won us that World Cup because they wanted to shine on the big stage, but they did the hard work to allow them to shine on the big stage. Us older farts, we just sat back and clapped. They were unbelievable, brilliant,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}“Those young x-factor players won us that World Cup because they wanted to shine on the big stage, but they did the hard work to allow them to shine on the big stage. Us older farts, we just sat back and clapped. They were unbelievable, brilliant,” he added.
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