In terms of talent, I can admit our current Australian side has absolutely nothing on the 1999/2003/2007 World Cup winning sides, so it will be a very big achievement for us if we win on Sunday.
It hasn't been easy for us to build momentum this tournament. After we crushed England in the opening match, we had a two week layoff due to the Bangaldesh match being abandoned before narrowly losing to a team who already had played three matches and were playing at their home ground. We bounced back and put on a clinical performance to annihilate Afghanistan, held our nerves to beat a strong Sri Lankan side who had one of the legends of the game scoring his third consecutive ODI century (this match would've been much closer had Chandamal not gone off with that hamstring injury after scoring a quick fifty), and then had to abruptly beat Scotland due to the inclement weather in Hobart in order to avoid a Quarter-Final against South Africa.
We bowled very well against Pakistan in the Quarter-Finals and now with the win against India tonight, will take a lot of confidence into Sunday's final: this time at the MCG, and having a 90k+ home ground with larger boundaries, compared to 40k NZ'ers at Eden Park, may just be enough to get over the line. However, like India with Sharma and Kohli, NZ have McCullum/Anderson/Guptill/Elliott who are capable of scoring big runs and putting pressure on bowlers. Mitchell Starc is the X-Factor in Australia's bowling lineup and will need to bowl just as well as in that Eden Park group match for Australia to win, especially if they're defending a sub-300 total if we bat first.
