Aussies win record third World Cup

Australia have became the first team in World Cup history to wear the one-day crown for a third successive time as Adam Gilchrist's 149 carried them to a 53-run Duckworth-Lewis win over Sri Lanka.

Gilchrist hit the highest individual score in any final to power his team to 281 for four in a match shortened by rain to 38 overs per side at Kensington Oval.

Chasing a revised target of 269, Sri Lanka could finish on only 215 for eight as bad light made batting hazardous in the later overs before a farcical ending in which Sri Lanka appeared to take the bad light before play continued.

Sri Lanka, handicapped by the return of bad weather and a short interruption in their innings, took up the challenge on the back of half-centuries from Sanath Jayasuriya (63) and Kumar Sangakkara (54).

Gilchrist, without a hundred previously in this competition or in any one-day international cricket for more than a year, had earlier hit 13 fours and eight sixes from 104 balls.

The wicketkeeper-batsman had only two half-centuries under his belt in his Caribbean campaign but dominated an opening stand of 172 with the prolific Matthew Hayden.

He dispatched a succession of bowlers from a Sri Lanka attack rated by many the best in the world, planting high-class pace and spin straight and square - rows back into a sell-out crowd.

Sri Lanka's second-wicket pair Jayasuriya and Sangakkara subsequently shared a stand of 116 - but just as they were beginning to cast a few doubts about the outcome, left-arm spinners Brad Hogg and Michael Clarke nipped out an important wicket each.