His 83 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground kept the New Zealand innings afloat in last night's final.
Think back to January 8 and the naming of the New Zealand World Cup squad. When the 36 year old Elliott's name was read out there was a fair dose of the ''what the'' about the reaction.
For one thing, he took the place expected to go to Jimmy Neesham and for another, Elliott just didn't seem that smart a pick.
That is, there were others who might have been rated ahead of him in the pecking order.
But how wrong they were.
Elliott has now batted twice at the MCG in ODIs, for scores of 61 not out and now 83.
That first effort was a fine performance in February 2009 which steered New Zealand to a six wicket win.
The recall for the cup squad represented a type of third birth for Elliott, international cricketer.
The first ended in December 2010, at which point the player now known as the hairy javelin, dropped out of the international game until January 2013. Then he played 14 games through 2013 before again being dispatched.
Come World Cup naming time and he was back.
After a wobbly first innings at Christchurch against Sri Lanka in the warmup ODI series, Elliott found his feet and his 104 not out at Dunedin was part of a world record sixth wicket stand of 267 with Luke Ronchi.
Now fast forward to the semifinal against South Africa, his finest hour, when he slammed Dale Steyn into the crowd for a match winning six with a ball to spare.
Yesterday he was, by a mile, the most composed New Zealand batsman. He steered singles, lofted drives over cover, top edged a six and without actually threatening to rip the Australian attack apart, he presented the calmest of demeanours and clear sense of organisation.
Elliott had a life on 15 when given out lbw off spinner Glenn Maxwell. The referral showed the ball sliding well past off stump.
He stood his ground when gobby Australian wicketkeeper Brad Haddin was mouthing off. As he gave Martin Guptill a spray upon his admittedly soft dismissal you thought of all the weasel words when Philip Hughes died about Australian players pulling their socks up.
He oversaw a 111 run fifth wicket stand with Ross Taylor, who, although battling for form, scrapped hard. But three wickets for one in eight balls at the start of the power play seriously undercut New Zealand's modest ambitions.
Enlarge that to the last six wickets falling for just 33 in 10 overs and it was a grim 45 minutes.
Elliott deserved a century. He came up 17 shy - having scored at a run a ball - caught behind and sent on his way with another dose of the verbals.
Australia throttled New Zealand early. Take out Elliott and there was little New Zealand was able to do about it.
