AUSTRALIA CHAMPIONS!
Australia were inside a wall of noise.
“WHOOOOOAA” they screamed as Bumrah ran in.
“OOOOOOOH” they gasped when it produced a false shot.
Those first 10 overs were as suffocating as cricket can get. But once that had been dealt with, the only noise that came from the biggest stadium in the world was the ball pinging off the Australian bats and heading to the boundary.
Their whole campaign has been about weathering storms. Andrew Fidel Fernando wrote it best. “Although you threw every atom of yourselves into the battle, although you crashed into us time and again in mighty, unrelenting waves, we know that eventually the storm breaks, the tide goes out, and the waters recede. What is left are the cliffs, which are tall, timeless, unyielding.”
Travis Head, all by himself, hits more boundaries than all of India did, and secures Australia’s sixth men’s ODI World Cup trophy. There have only been 13 of these tournaments in history. They’ve cornered this market. They were bottom of the table after their first two games. Now they’re champions. The resilience that Pat Cummins – whom Ricky Ponting says has come of age because of how he has held the team through these struggles - and his men have shown throughout this campaign has been spectacular.
Australia in 2023 have won a Test in India, they became World Test champions, then they retained the Ashes and now they've won the ODI World Cup.
Nagraj Gollapudi: Where did India lose the final? A plethora of analysis will follow, in India, until possibly the next World Cup. It would be interesting if anybody names Cummins as the chief reason. Australia’s captain came inside the first Powerplay and straightaway imposed himself and put the breaks on India’s run rate. Using cleverly the cutters banged hard into a slow pitch, Cummins also kept Kohli, Rahul and Yadav guessing with quicker deliveries. As a leader, one of Cummins’ key strengths has been not wearing his emotion on his sleeve. Possibly that has allowed him to stay in the moment and make clear decisions. With the Indian middle order reluctant to press the intent button, Cummins raced through his part-time bowlers quickly before bowling his strike bowlers and himself in mini spells to put the pressure on.
His calmness allowed him to cleverly activate the match-ups plan which worked to the T. Cummins will be a proud man to become the first specialist fast bowler to lift the World Cup. Cricket should celebrate Cummins.