not out to guide Australia from 4/86 to 8/310 en route to an 82-run victory, a performance described by Kanta Murali of The Hindu as "one of the best knocks in one-day cricket history". The innings went on to become the turning point of his career. In the semi-final against Sri Lanka, Symonds top scored with 91 not out and was named Player of the Match, as Australia won by 48 runs. With Australia's defeat of India in the final, they claimed their third World Cup triumph, becoming the first team to go undefeated in an edition of the tournament. Following this breakthrough, The Age described Symonds "as a true one-day star", who had "become an essential part of the one-day team." He batted in five innings during the victorious 2003 World Cup campaign where he made 326 runs at an average of 163. He was also the third leading runscorer for Australia during the World Cup campaign just behind Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden. He remained unbeaten in three of the five innings and his only failure with the bat in the tournament was against England where he was dismissed for a duck. ODI regular, Test debut A tour of the West Indies followed, with Symonds playing all seven ODIs, scoring half-centuries in the third and fifth matches. He ended as Australia's top run scorer in a 4–3 series victory. In March 2004, Symonds made his Test debut in Australia's tour of Sri Lanka, with the selectors citing his bowling and his power hitting against spin bowlers as "ideal" for the subcontinent conditions. He replaced Simon Katich, who had scored a century and unbeaten fifty in Australia's previous Test. Playing as a batsman, Symonds encountered difficulty against Muttiah Muralitharan on the dusty, spinning Sri Lankan tracks, failing to pass 25 in any of his four innings, and was dropped after two Test matches in favour of Katich. He was recalled in November 2005 for South Africa's tour of Australia, following an injury to Shane Watson, as Australia's search for an all-rounder continued. After five Tests, with a batting average of 12.62 and a bowling average of 85.00, he was under pressure to retain his place in the team going into the 2005 Boxing Day Test. On the first day of the match, he was out caught behind for a golden duck. But Symonds then took 3/50 in the South