Already acknowledged as the top Test playing nation, Australia won the world's premier limited overs title with time, overs, and wickets to spare in the most anti-climactic finale imaginable after a competition that lasted an exhausting six weeks and 42 games.

The Pakistanis fizzled and spluttered like damp gunpowder from a disused ordnance factory as they collapsed to 132 in just 39 overs. It was small beer for the Aussies as they knocked off the runs in 20.1 overs losing just two wickets. It was over before it was over.

Australia won in style. Rather too much style, much to the dismay of a capacity crowd that came primed for mortal combat between two great teams.More than just style in this game, the hardscrabblemen from Down Under showed through the competition the kind of grit and stamina they are justly famous for, winning the last seven games back to back to lift the trophy. If it was `one of those days' for Pakistan, it was an awful one to be part of. Some 30,000 spectators crammed into Lord's, having paid anything between 60 pounds and 300 pounds for what promised to be a gladiatorial contest between two evenly rated teams of matchless resolve and grit. On paper, as it turned out.

The Pakistanis not only woke up on the wrong side, they also lost the script, and sleepwalked through the final. Slogans of `Pakistan Zindabad' died within the first hour as wickets fell like bowling pins. Outside the hallowed ground, ticketless faithfuls who had occupied the rooftop of three high-rise buildings -- quickly renamed Kargil, Drass, and Batalik by Indian scribes -- were cleared out by the police even as the Aussie bowlers were evicting the batsmen. The batting was as dismal as the weather was bright andsunny.

All morning, Pakistani supporters waited for the partnership which never came. Pakistani batsmen walked in and walked single file out of the hoary pavilion in a steady parade. Only Inzamam, now certifiably known by the epithet aloo, got a tikki of a bad decision. There was enough space between his bat and the ball to fly in one of those nifty F-16s, through but Umpire David Shepherd, proving that error or incompetence knows no race or nationality, sent him packing. The dozy maestro dragged himself away aggrieved. But he would hardly have had time for a siesta as the rest of the Pakistani batsmen returned hurriedly, two of them done by outstanding catches. A trifling 132 was all they got, the lowest score in a World Cup final. Extras topped with 25. The highest partnership was 47 between Ejaz and Razzaq.

The only thrill came in the first five overs when Saeed Anwar hit three boundaries in his 15. The only spill came when McGrath dropped the sitter of the competition. If anyone thought they heard theclatter of the World Cup dropping along with McGrath's spilled catch, the famed leggie Shane Warne, later declared man-of-the-match, quickly disabused the idea. The bleach-blond bamboozler from the outback deflated the Pakistani innings with lethal strikes, his four wickets making him the competition's joint highest wicket taker -- with Kiwi Geoff Allott -- at 20 wickets. Those who wrote finis to his career, present company included, are going into hiding momentarily.

In the end, 132 was indefensible even if the Pakistanis were purposeful, which they could hardly be in the face of Adam Gilchrist's breathtaking assault. A sledgehammer 50 off just 34 balls took the wind out of the subcontinental tigers, including a certain Shoaib Akhtar who went for 37 in four overs.

The game was over by half past four, much to the dismay of scribes unable to write unless faced with a stiff deadline, not to speak of other stiff sundowners. Even the Australian supporters were far from gruntled. They hardly had time to quaffall the beer they had brought.