MELBOURNE // New Zealand’s Martin Guptill finished top of the cricket World Cup run-making charts with 547 runs.
The top 10 runs scorers list at the tournament contained just one Australian, Steven Smith in sixth place with 402 runs.
The key numbers, though, were that in the matches that mattered – the knockout games that define careers and legacies – Smith made 65, 105 and 56 not out.
That was the recurring theme throughout this Australian campaign.
Apart from Mitchell Starc, who finished level with Trent Boult on 22 wickets and deservedly took home man-of-the-tournament honours, there was no individual with eye-popping individual statistics.
David Warner had an underwhelming tournament and his opening partner Aaron Finch faded after his opening-day hundred against England.
Michael Clarke, the captain, saved his best for last, while Shane Watson’s most notable knock was the half-century against Pakistan, an innings during which Wahab Riaz had him ducking, weaving and grimacing like a boxer.
Mitchell Johnson, who turned it on in the semi-final to scuttle India’s chase, finished with 15 wickets.
No one else took more than James Faulkner’s 10, but, again, the numbers did not reveal the full story.
Josh Hazlewood may have taken just seven wickets in five games, but the tourniquet-like effect he had – economy rate of 4.10 – forced batsmen to take chances against others. Glenn Maxwell was one of the beneficiaries in the final.
None of the batsmen came anywhere near matching Matthew Hayden’s tally of 658 runs in 2007.
When they first won the trophy in 1987, David Boon and Geoff Marsh were second and third on the run charts.
In 1999, the Waugh twins, Steve and Mark, were second and fourth.
In 2003, Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist were third and fourth, and played the innings in the final that knocked the stuffing out of India’s challenge.
But even without any monumental run-making feats, Australia’s batsmen did more than enough to back up the best bowling line-up in the tournament.
In the quarter-final, Smith and Watson rode out the Riaz storm to set up a straightforward win, abetted by some dismal catching.
In the semi-final, a stodgy but valuable 81 from Finch supplemented Smith’s sublime hundred, then, when there was the danger of India’s bowlers finishing the innings the stronger, Johnson stepped up with 27 from nine balls.
Other players from other sides came into the tournament with more formidable career records and some of them left it with individual highlights.
But when the crunch games called out for heroes, they were invariably wearing gold and green.
Some would say that is how it has been ever since Mark Taylor’s team were beaten in the Lahore final in 1996.
Since then, Australia have won four World Cups and two Champions Trophy finals and each of those triumphs has been as emphatic as this MCG tour de force.
While others with lofty reputations find themselves diminished on the biggest stage, the Australians take it over much like Angus Young at an AC/DC concert. They revel in situations that inhibit lesser men.
“I think the Australian way has always been about the big games,” Clarke said afterwards.
“I think it’s probably something I learnt at a young age, that the big players always stood up in major tournaments. They weren’t scared of losing.
“They always wanted to bowl or wanted to bat in that big tournament, and I guess I was probably lucky enough to grow up in a team that had six, seven, eight of those players that wanted the ball, that wanted the bat on that stage.
“That’s something I hope I’ve been able to do through my career when the team has needed me, stand up and perform.
“I think there are a lot of players in this current change room that now love that as well, and I think we showed that today on the biggest stage.
“With as much expectation and pressure as you have on you, playing a World Cup final in front of your home fans, every single player wanted to bowl or wanted to bat or wanted to take that catch. It’s a special feeling.”
It is also why they are quite simply the best.
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