In Michael Clarke and Steven Smith, two generations of Australian cricket steered their team through the final leg of their long trek to a fifth World Cup. The outgoing captain and the incoming; the elder who has battled his health all summer to get in, and the younger who has been almost impossible to get out.

With Clarke's retirement from the one-day game, Australia is already in transition. Brad Haddin, and presumably Shane Watson and Mitchell Johnson, will not be defending their title in England in 2019, but otherwise the strength of the current team is its youth, and many of those who celebrated in Melbourne will, like Clarke and Watson, strive to be multiple cup-winning players.

In a sentimental farewell innings to a form of the game in which he has scored nearly 8000 runs, Clarke ventured out under no little pressure, with Australia two wickets down and still 123 runs from their goal. He wore a black armband for Phillip Hughes. He struggled to find his timing early, and stepped back into his crease to counter the short ball. By the time he passed his half-century, though, he was travelling so smoothly that the only shock was that he chopped a ball onto his stumps with the end in sight.

Like all Australian batsmen this summer, he was reassured by the presence of his successor. Together, Smith and Clarke eased through the nervous shoals of a small run chase. Smith deserved the privilege of pulling the winning runs forward of square leg, a part of the field that has been worn smooth by his strokeplay since November. Clarke had gone, but Smith was, as ever, unbeaten.

A near-perfect final performance capped a tournament during which Australia, aside from two hours of batting in Auckland and one in Adelaide, had revived the heights of their campaign in the West Indies in 2007. In an event dominated by batsmen, it had been Australia's bowlers who laid the foundation.

During the afternoon's play, after losing the toss, Australia set their left hand on the World Cup through the southpaw trio of Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Johnson and James Faulkner. Left-handers are apparently more prone to allergies, insomnia and migraines. In this tournament, they have given batsmen all three. Left-arm fast bowling has been an outstanding feature of the event, with Pakistan's pace battery, New Zealand's Trent Boult and Corey Anderson and Afghanistan's Shahpur Zadran to the fore, but no attack has matched the Australians for their thoughtful use of angles and changes of pace.

Starc, who bowled the first ball of the final, has become a most imposing sight. In perfect Melbourne autumn sunshine, with the 49-match event now reduced to the simplicity of gold versus black on a green field, Starc destroyed New Zealand's Plan A in his first over. Brendon McCullum tried to charge down the pitch to his second ball from Starc. Realising such a bowler might be easier played from 21 metres than 18, McCullum then stayed in his crease but got no closer to the ball.

McCullum, blasted out for a duck: a definitive opening statement. But this New Zealand team had not panicked on their way to the final, and the good news for Kane Williamson and Martin Guptill was that they saw off the new ball. The bad news was that Australia's first-change bowler was Johnson, looming out of the shadow of the members' stand like Boris Karloff. If there is something funereal about Johnson, it is not his pace.

The figures may not show it, but he has been frightening throughout this World Cup; it is Australia's great luxury to have had the depth to use Johnson as a second wave, just when batsmen thought they might be safe. He becalmed Guptill, who went scoreless for 14 balls spread across four overs before giving his wicket meekly to Glenn Maxwell. Then Johnson ran his fingers across the ball to deceive Williamson. From there, the visitors had to contemplate an afternoon of salvage.

Ross Taylor, front-on and wristy, settled in with the stick-man Grant Elliott. There was no need to throw it away; if they had been watching television the night before, they would have seen Imran Khan and Javed Miandad get to 249 from a situation worse than this in 1992. Taylor pushed it around and Elliott found several different ways to get the ball to the boundary between third man and fine leg. They made it to the Power Play at three for 150.

Just as the Black Caps were starting to think of 250, the third cack-hander, Faulkner, bowled the game-changing over, his fifth, number 36 of the innings. As dexterous as an old-school barber, Faulkner's rocking action produces deliveries out of the front, back and sides of his hand. His first ball, a googly-looking thing speared wide of the off stump, had Taylor thinking and re-thinking and finally chasing. His bat chipped both the ground and the ball, and replays confirmed what had been quicker than the naked eye could perceive, Brad Haddin taking a spectacular diving catch with, it should be noted for balance, his right hand.

Anderson, pivotal to New Zealand's hopes, was given two faster balls, one stroked to mid-on and the next, closer to his pads, through the gate. Faulkner punched the air, left-handed. All of New Zealand's momentum was punctured there. Nine overs later they had melted away, Faulkner going around the wicket and capturing Elliott for a sensible 83 off 82 balls, Johnson and Starc doing the rest.

The batsmen took the glory in the last minutes of the final, but the crowd of 93,016 were singing Working Class Man. Faulkner, who turned the course of the match, was judged its most valuable player. Without question, this was a World Cup built upon the efforts of Australian pace bowling.