Australia silence India into submission in the Cricket World Cup final

Australia won the Cricket World Cup for the sixth time after defeating India by six wickets in the final at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

Over 92,000 fans had gathered in the largest cricket stadium in the world with the hopes of seeing the Indian national cricket team end their decade-long wait for an ICC trophy. It was on home soil that the Men in Blue had last lifted the prestigious Cricket World Cup and the expectation was that home advantage would bear similar results this time as well.

The journey of the Indian team en route to the final had also been one of historic measure. Rohit Sharma and co blew away any and all opposition standing in their wake and were comprehensive in each and every single game, securing a 10-0 lead. That kind of dominance has been hard to come across in World Cups.

Just ahead of the final, Australian captain Pat Cummins sounded a warning. “In sport, there’s nothing more satisfying than watching a big crowd go silent.” And so they did.

When Rohit Sharma got out while trying to hit one big shot too many against Glenn Maxwell or when Virat Kohli unfortunately nicked Cummins’ delivery on to his stumps while trying to play off the backfoot, there was utter and complete silence in the stadium. You could hear a pin drop and get away with it.

Australian players threw their bodies like their lives depended upon it despite fielding under the hot and sultry sun. They stopped boundaries and refused doubles. The pace trio of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, and Cummins, who have shared so many glorious moments together over the years, came to the party once again.

They pulled their lengths back to stop the Indian batters from capitalizing on any space and spinners Adam Zampa and Maxwell kept on the pressure. As a result, there was a period of major chokehold where India failed to hit a boundary for 97 balls - the longest lull for the Indian side between overs 11 and 50 since 1999.

Despite Kohli’s dismissal as well as the quick work Australia made of Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul endured. In fact, India’s number 5 batter faced over one-third of the innings’ deliveries but the tragedy is that he was unable to make it count. Even after spending such a lengthy spell on the pitch, Rahul failed to judge the reverse swing towards the back end of the innings and got out to Mitchell Starc. Ravindra Jadeja, whose nous as a finisher is well documented, also failed to contend with the late movement of the ball.

The final few overs with the bat unravelled inexplicably for the hosts as Suryakumar Yadav exposed the tail-enders to the Australian pace attack. Even on the occasions when he held strike, there was nothing much he could do besides halfheartedly flailing his bat and India were bowled out for a meagre total of 240.

A target of 241 in a World Cup final was never going to be challenging enough to begin with but things went from bad to worse when the Australian openers plundered 41 runs after the first four overs. Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami, who have had such an incredible tournament so far, did well to pull things back for the Men in Blue with Shami striking in his very first over while Bumrah sent Mitchell Marsh and Steve Smith back to the pavillion.

The two of them were bowling Test match lengths and tempting the Australian batters to drive. With the scoreboard at 47/3, a faint sliver of hope had opened up that this could still be a night of glory for India.

But Travis Head, who had watched the chaos unfold from the opposite end and had earlier taken a spectacular catch running back to dismiss Rohit, proved to be the difference. He found ample support with Marnus Labuschagne completely dropping the anchor at one end and this allowed Head to play his natural strokes. There was a brief moment of respite for the southpaw after Richard Illingworth’s umpires call ensured his stay at the crease and he made good use of that second life.

Head became the third Australian to score a century in the final of ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup after Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist and by the time he got to the three-figure-mark, the match had already slipped away from India’s hand.

Head’s onslaught finally came to an end after he racked up 137 runs but by that point, Australia were already on the verge of victory. Glenn Maxwell came on and hit the winning runs as the Men from Down Under pocketed their sixth World Cup!

India’s Virat Kohli was elected as the player of the tournament for his incredible run-scoring prowess but the Men in Blue dressing room had become an emotional mess by that point with several superstars seen in tears and Motera had become as silent as a graveyard.

What should’ve been a night of celebration of Indian cricket had turned into a nightmare of national mourning.

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