Australia hold most of the aces but is that enough to win a fifth World Cup?

New Zealand defeated Australia in the group game at Eden Park but the MCG is a fortress for the Aussies, who have not lost an ODI there since March 2012

For the second successive World Cup the joint hosts will contest the final. Australia against New Zealand, a final of which the organisers might have dreamt once the commercial imperative of India had been taken out of the equation.

Whether it is cricket, or both rugby codes, or indeed any form of competition, there is no stronger rivalry in sport, much as the English like to revere the Ashes. These are the two best teams in the 2015 competition, the one unbeaten, the other beaten only by their final opponents in one of the matches of the tournament. Both are playing cricket in a style that has resurrected the ODI format in the public eye to one in which the thunder of T20 can be incorporated into the terrific narrative that is largely absent from the shortest format but can unfold over 50 overs.

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