Written off, packed up in a casket, and buried in deep peril, do whatever may, they will still find a way to irk the soil and make for the skies. Australia’s journey in the ICC Cricket World Cup could be summed up in these words: they defeated the hosts and favorites India by 6 wickets in the Grand Finale at Ahmedabad. Pat Cummins‘ yellow entourage dominated the hosts across all three departments to clinch their sixth World Cup title in the last 10 editions.
Team India’s juggernaut crumbled under the pressure of the finals, as they failed to make an impact with the bat or ball, as Travis Head called shots when Australia came out to bat under lights. Gritty half-centuries from Virat Kohli and KL Rahul along with another blitzkrieg 40 from skipper Rohit Sharma could not put enough runs on board to stop the Aussie onslaught. Australian bowlers executed all their plans perfectly, as they completely stopped the run flow on a slow pitch.
The packed Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad which saw more than a lakh people cheer for the home team was all set to witness Rohit Sharma lift the much-eluded trophy. Pat Cummins won the toss and asked India to bat first hinting at the plan they had in place to play a different game. Throughout the tournament Rohit Sharma had made business easier for the middle-order batters by providing explosive starts in the powerplay, the Indian skipper treated the finals as just another game that he had to play and continued scoring in a similar fashion.
Sharma charged Josh Hazlewood on the second ball he faced, smashing him for a boundary and later a six. Shubman Gill, who was kept on the other end for a good part of the first 4 overs tried to make a move, but an attempted short arm jab off a quicker delivery by Mitchell Starc ended Gill’s stay at the crease, as he was caught at Long-on. Virat Kohli, who had already scored more runs than any other batter in a single edition of the World Cup tried to punch his authority by banishing Mitchell Starc for three consecutive boundaries.
Probably the defining moment of the match came in the final over of the powerplay. Rohit Sharma had already scored 10 runs off the over, and he tried to step out and loft one over the long-on off the bowling of Glenn Maxwell, a miscued shot flew over cover and ended up in the hands of Travis Head, who took a sublime catch reminiscent of Kapil Dev’s match-defining take of Viv Richards in the 1983 World Cup finals.
Despite conceding 80 runs in the powerplay in a final, Australia sensed a way to stage a comeback. The prospects of this were heightened when Shreyas Iyer poked a delivery just outside the off-stump of Pat Cummins’ second ball. A prolonged period of hushness prevailed in the innings after Iyer’s wicket as Virat Kohli and KL Rahul tried to rebuild the innings, often eating up deliveries and being over-defensive. Australia played this to their advantage by bowling part-timers quickly and tight fielding.
The Indian innings did not have a single boundary for 97 balls after the powerplay, and that reflected heavily in their scoring rate. Just when both batters looked to have adjusted to the slowness of the pitch, Pat Cummins reintroduced himself to the attack, and a slow ball of an awkward length to Virat Kohli was underedged onto the stumps with an angled bat, silencing the whole stadium. KL Rahul prevailed further, but there was no acceleration in the scoring rate. The pitch used for the final was a dry surface, which brought reverse swing into play towards the end of the innings, which Australian pacers had plenty of.
Mitchell Starc got KL off a delivery that straightened after pitching, which ended in the hands of Inglis. Ravindra Jadeja was promoted to number 6 and even survived a close review for caught behind. However, the very next ball ended Jadeja’s stay, with Hazlewood’s late movement getting him. The Indian tail, which had the lowest contribution for a lower order in the tournament was put to the test without any prior experience. The paceless wicket did not allow Suryakumar Yadav to play his natural shots and ended up lobbing a slower ball to the keeper after a miserable 18 off 27 balls. Mohammed Siraj and Kuldeep Yadav kept India from being bowled out until the last ball, but a stubborn Australian team executed their plans to perfection, by restricting India to 240.
The fans expected a great contest between bat and ball, especially with the Indian pacers extracting wild swing of the surface in the opening overs. Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami clawed the top order with utmost ferocity even as they tried to counterattack. Shami dismissed David Warner off his first legit delivery creating an opening for India, however, the pacer could not bowl with sufficient control with a wild swing going too wide of the keeper. Shami scalped the wicket of Mitchell Marsh and Bumrah trapped Steven Smith in front of the wicket to put Australia under immense pressure at 47-3.
Travis Head had been weathering the storm until that point, serving many close calls off Jasprit Bumrah’s bowling. Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne, two players whose place in the team was uncertain for different reasons held on, patiently seeing off Shami and Bumrah’s opening ravage. They slowly put pressure back on the hosts by promptly rotating the strike, something that the Indian batters had failed to do. The partnership slowly picked up pace, and by the time Jasprit Bumrah was introduced for his second spell in the 27th over as a final roll of dice, both batters were set and banished India’s talisman bowler for 3 boundaries.
Indian spinners were the least effective as they could induce very wicket-taking deliveries, and Head played them with relative ease with the ball turning into him. Travis Head joined the League of Legends by completing his century with utmost ease, on a pitch that looked completely different under lights. Travis Head was finally dismissed 2 runs short of the target but only after scoring a mammoth 137 runs in a World Cup final. Marnus showcased his Test-match batting acumen with a crunch 58 off 110 balls. Glenn Maxwell completed the formalities by hitting the winning run, as Australia registered a comprehensive 6-wicket victory over India.
We’ve been batting first pretty much for the whole tournament, today we thought, it’s a good night to chase down, we thought it might actually get a little bit easier – Pat Cummins
Australian skipper Pat Cummins was speaking at the final post-match presentation and lauded his team for executing their plans to perfection. He had special praises for the fielders as they threw themselves around to block crucial singles on the leg side putting pressure on the batters.
“Everyone was pretty keen to get out there. It was a bit slower than I thought, didn’t particularly spin probably as much as we thought either. Everyone adjusted pretty well and bowled some tight lines. On a slow wicket like that with variable bounce, we thought a couple of catchers on leg-side, you got to score in ODI cricket, so put a few catchers there and make them make a couple of decisions.” said Pat Cummins.
The Aussie skipper was all praises for Travis Head and Marnus Labusghane who kept their head to bat Australia to victory. He lauded the decision of the selectors to keep Head in the squad despite his injury, and was satisfied that it had paid off.
” I was one of those blokes with the heart fluttering. Magnificent. Marnus walked in with a cool head and Travis does what he does. Really brave, he takes the game on, puts some pressure back on the bowlers and to do it on the biggest stage shows a lot of character.” he added.
That brings everyone to the end of the World Cup campaign, with India suffering a massive heartbreak at the end of an impressive campaign and Australia continuing their dominance in World cricket.