# Bethak - The Desi Lounge > Teen Talks >  Gilchrist credits squash ball after Cup final heroics

## Bluehacks

*Australia's Adam Gilchrist credited a squash ball stuffed inside his glove after pulverising Sri Lanka's bowlers with his match-winning 149 in the World Cup final on Saturday.* 
*Gilchrist hit 13 fours and eight sixes from just 104 balls and pointed to his glove as he celebrated the fastest hundred in the history of Cup finals.*

*"I was pretty pumped up," he told a news conference after being named the player-of-the-final. Australia beat Sri Lanka by 53 runs on the Duckworth-Lewis method for truncated games to complete a unique hat-trick of World Cup titles.*

*Australia piled up 281 for four in the 38-overs-a-side match after a delayed start due to rain. Sri Lanka ended at 215 for eight after two more overs were deducted due to the weather.*
*"I also had a little message, to wave to someone at home in Australia about something in my glove," he said.*
*"(It was) the guy (Bob Meuleman) who helps me with my batting at home," he explained. "I had a squash ball in my bottom hand in the glove that I use in training just to help with my grip.*
*"I decided I will use that in this World Cup in a match but hadn't.*

*LAST WORDS*
*"His last words to me before I left the indoor training centre where I train with him in Perth were 'if you are going to use it, make sure when you score a hundred in the final you show me and prove to me you got it in there'.*
*"I had stayed true to that."*

*Gilchrist bettered skipper Ricky Ponting's 140 not out in the 2003 final against India, the previous highest score in a World Cup final.*
*"What I do know is the belief that arrives from the team mates around you and the coaching staff around you and everyone involved," he said.*
*"That belief those guys gave me allowed me to go out and play with freedom."*

*Sri Lankan skipper Mahela Jayawardene said Gilchrist had put the game out of his side's reach.*
*"It was a brilliant innings," he said. "Unfortunately, I was the opposition captain looking at it."*

*Source:Rediff*

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