ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 - Final - India v Australia - Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, India - November 19, 2023 Australia players celebrate with the trophy after winning the ICC Cricket World Cup.
Credit: Reuters Photo
Ahmedabad: This Australian team is not one for the ages. Pat Cummins is not the greatest Australian skipper alive. Travis Head is not the greatest opener they have come to a World Cup with.
And yet, Australia’s record after losing the first couple of games read: 8-0.
This Indian team is arguably the best one this format to date. Rohit Sharma may not be the best Indian skipper of all time, but he sure does make a case for being one of their best openers.
India’s record after the first ten games read: 10-0.
Here’s a lesson: Numbers and figures don’t mean a thing when you really want something.
India wanted it bad. After all, they haven’t won an ICC event since the 2013 Champions Trophy title.
Australia wanted it more because it’s hard-wired in their DNA.
So, as nearly 1 lakh Indians at the Narendra Modi stadium looked on in disbelief, Travis Head (137) and Marnus Labuschagne (58 n.o.) put on a 192-run stand for fourth-wicket to give Australia their sixth World Cup crown.
It also ended India’s hopes of celebrating as was planned well before their final.
Some of those plans took a hit after their stint with the bat when they were bowled out for 240 in 50 overs, but in reducing Australia to 47 for 3, the side which hadn’t conceded 300 runs in a single innings to date, was back, and the crowd let the Aussies know that.
But the demographic majority didn’t take into account that the opposition, five-time champions no less, weren’t going to take it lying down like the rest of the teams in the competition, nor were they going to be swayed by India’s confidence.
They were going to play cricket and let fate decide who the worthy winner was. Final score: Australia: 241 for 4 in 43 overs.
India, playing a World Cup final for the fourth time, looked a restless lot, it’s unfair to ask them to brush off the expectations of some 1.5 people.
But then again, as Rohit said during in the pre-match press conference, they are professionals and they should know how to do that. Well, they didn’t.
Besides Rohit’s mouth-watering start, Virat Kohli’s eye-catching half-century and KL Rahul’s hermetic 66, India’s batting had let them down in a rare instance in this tournament.
But one can hardly point a finger at them because they could only do so much in the face of one the most calculated bowling performances Australia have orchestrated in this World Cup.
Save for maybe Kohli’s misfortune of inside-edging Cummins onto the stumps, the rest was but pressure and more pressure.
India, what with it’s sterling bowling unit, was expected to do the same, and they did for a period of time. Landing deliveries in all the right spots and getting the Australian batters to poke and prod at them.
It worked well enough to get David Warner and Mitchell Marsh out of the way, but not Head.
Steven Smith was naive to not review his decision after being struck outside the off stump by Jasprit Bumrah because, given the context of the game, that was make or break, or so the majority thought.
Very few people at the venue or behind screens would have thought Head capable of not allowing the Indians to get to the Australian tail. Fewer thought Labuschagne capable of handling the pressure, after all, he was only a replacement player to walk into the side in Aston Agar’s absence.
And yet, as the fireworks went off, it wasn’t Rohit on the podium collecting India’s third trophy, it was Cummins and his band of merry men yelping into the night for they had done the unthinkable.