The Indian cricket team lived up to their billing as the greatest ODI team, until the fateful day of ‛19-11-23’, which left a mark in the hearts and minds of a nation where people consider cricket a religion. A team captained by Rohit Sharma who walked his talk, with morals high throughout the tournament succumbed to their destiny because luck on the biggest day of the sport favored the Australian captain, Pat Cummins.
It was a clash between a team that not only defeated but humiliated their opponents in a dominant run of 10 games and a team that initially faced struggles but intimidated their counterparts with their reputation, stitching together a remarkable journey. The final of the Cricket World Cup embarked with a display of India’s defence capabilities, the valiant IAF officers made a ‘SURYAKIRAN’ formation which left the Ahmedabad crowd mind boggled.
The hopes were all up and it was a sea of blue, the supposed 12th man for India throughout the World Cup. Australia won the toss and put India to bat on a slow track that would play better under the lights, they learned from their mistake in Chennai a month back. This was a brave decision to make, against the wider opinions of the cricketing pundits. The Indian Batters and the Australian team made a majestic entry in the biggest colosseum of cricket, pumped up after their national anthems.
The Vande Mataram chants echoing in the stadium, dripped through the veins of the Indian openers where all nervous energy disappeared, and they took the Australian fast bowlers to the cleaners. Rohit Sharma did what he had done best during the World Cup, he smacked the reputation of dangerous Australian bowlers, the noisiest crowd could listen to the crunch of the stroke making by this genius. At 80 for 2 after 10 overs, India were in the driver’s seat, but no one could imagine what this slow pitch had in its bag.
The irony is that India had the chance to choose the pitch and they went ahead with this black soil pitch with some unique properties for sure. Between 10 to 40 overs India’s boundary count was 3, impossible to digest for a team that only dealt in boundaries for the better part of the tournament. KL Rahul and Virat Kohli went into their shells, fearing their tail end getting exposed. The interesting part is India never faced this situation and their wickets kept toppling whenever they wanted to attack, as quoted by Rahul Dravid in the post-match interview.
Suryakumar Yadav played a blunder of an innings, he jumped into the trap placed by the Australians. Overall, it was not a sensible and satisfactory batting display by the Indians, considering their dominance throughout the tournament. India ended with a score of 240 but they made Australia falter at 47-3 at the mark of 7 overs. This was expected looking at the lethal Indian bowling and their ruthless approach. Some legends have said that this is the best Indian bowling line-up ever fielded.
After the mark of 10 overs, the ball stopped moving, and unlike in the first innings when India was batting this wicket started playing well for the batters. The ball neither turned nor did the wicket stop and the bounce suddenly became a lot even. Blame it on destiny because with that target and pitch behaving so nicely with its guests, India had to pull out a miracle from under their sleeves which they weren’t able to.
The pitch behaved exactly like it was assessed by Sanjay Bangar, former batting coach of team India. Out of the vivid options this ground provides, the match was played on a black soil pitch which is sluggish by nature. It was two-paced with uneven bounce because the pitch had no shine and the sunlight exploited the cracks of a loose surface making it slow.
During India’s innings, we saw the ball reverse swinging which is a dead art now thanks to the rules of the game and this happened because the ball was decently scratched due to the harsh pitch and good ball maintenance from the Australians. Whereas, under the lights with due settling on the surface, it became a belter with initial survival from the evening breeze.
Australia known for their reputation and warrior traits didn’t give up and won the match very comfortably by 6 wickets in hand and 7 overs to spare to extend their legacy to 6 World Cup trophies. A special mention to Travis Head, India’s most wanted after snatching two trophies from them within a year and both these innings had a stamp of class. One the Umpires for the finals was Richard Kettleborough, who has officiated in 8 out of 9 ICC semi – finals India has lost. He was booed at by the Ahmedabad crowd during the closing ceremony, rightly so after he made an unfavorable decision against India which could have been a turning point.
Celebrities like Shahrukh Khan and Ranveer Singh were in attendance for the finals and were seen cheering up the team. Richard Marles MP the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, along with PM Modi presented the World Cup trophy to the Australian captain during the closing ceremony. Happiness in one camp and agony in the other but we all come back, some stronger and some like the English Cricket team in Cricket World Cup 2023.
“THE REALITY IS THAT IT IS ONE BAD GAME BUT THE IRONY IS THAT IT IS THE CRICKET WORLD CUP FINAL”
The Sports Drip
