In the final match, the Indian team scored 240 runs and Australia won in just 43 overs thanks to Travis Head's century. Everything was going well in the beginning of this match. Rohit Sharma was batting in his explosive style. Despite scoring thirty runs in four overs and opening partner Shubman Gill being out in the fifth over, he maintained his aggressive stance.
Rohit had hit a six and a four on the second and third balls of the 10th over. Even 76 runs had been scored and the run rate was above eight. Glenn Maxwell was bowling and this was also the last over of the powerplay, so Rohit again wanted to play a big shot. However, many people are saying that considering the run rate, there was no need for that shot at all.
The biggest turning point of the match came on this shot of Rohit which ultimately became the biggest reason for the World Cup slipping from the team's hands. Maxwell bowled a good length ball to Rohit. On which Rohit wanted to hit a shot over long off, but the ball took the edge of his bat and bounced in the air in the cover area.
Travis Head, standing at the point, started running backwards from there and took a seemingly impossible catch and sent Rohit back to the pavilion.
Travis Head was injured at the beginning of this World Cup. When he returned to the team after getting fit, he scored a century in 59 balls and led the team to victory over New Zealand. After this catch in the semi-final and now in the final, he not only won the match for his team by scoring a record century but also became the 'Player of the Match'.
After Rohit's dismissal, commentator and cricket expert Harsh Bhogle tweeted, "Australia is showing how fielding can make a difference on a big day." After the match, former cricketers Sunil Gavaskar and Sanjay Manjrekar also admitted that Rohit Sharma's catch was the turning point of this final. Rohit Sharma batted at a strike rate of 151.61 and as long as he was on the pitch, 62 percent of the team's total scores came from his bat.
Just a day before the final, the Australian captain had said that his team should keep the audience in Ahmedabad silent with its performance and this is exactly what happened after the dismissal of Rohit Sharma. After the match, Indian coach Rahul Dravid also said that "Rohit's wicket falling was unfortunate.
Coach Dravid also said that we kept losing wickets continuously and did not bat well. So Rahul Dravid was talking about the dismissal of Shreyas Iyer immediately after Rohit and the dismissal of Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul after the wicket of Virat Kohli. The truth is that while Virat Kohli played an inning of 54 runs in 63 balls, KL Rahul spent 107 balls to score 66 runs. During this period his strike rate was only 61.68.
Not only this, after the dismissal of Rohit and Shreyas, the Indian team could not hit any boundary in the next 16 overs and the run rate which was above 8 fell to around five runs per over.
When Virat was out, Ravindra Jadeja, who was replaced by Suryakumar, slowed down the run pace so much by scoring only 9 runs in 22 balls at a strike rate of just 40.90 that the hopes of a big score were dashed. Ultimately the team could score only 240 runs on the scoreboard.
However, while talking to the media after the match, coach Dravid, in response to a question regarding slow batting in this match, said, "In this tournament, we have not played out of fear. In this match too, we scored 80 runs in 10 overs." You have to play on the front foot. But in this match, whenever we thought of playing a little attacking game, wickets fell. If you lose wickets in the middle, you have to play a little defensively."
He said, "We knew that we had scored 30-40 runs less. But we kept losing wickets continuously. When the wickets of Virat, Jaddu and then Rahul fell, we were out after scoring 30-40 runs less. If we were close to 280, Had we scored, the outcome of the match could have been different."
After losing the match, Indian captain Rohit Sharma also reiterated that he was expecting a score at least close to 280. He said, "Today we did not play well. To be honest, when Virat and Rahul were on the pitch, we were aiming for 270-280 runs but we lost wickets quickly. We lost at least 20-30 runs. "Make it."
Whatever Rahul Dravid or Rohit Sharma may say, the Australian captain had different intentions. From what Pat Cummins said after the match, it can be clearly understood what he was thinking when he bowled first and what score he was expecting.
Australian captain Pat Cummins said, "We were expecting 300 runs." From this it can be estimated how fighting this Kangaroo team is and what is the level of their preparation before a big match.
He does not underestimate his opposition team and that is why in this World Cup, after losing the first two matches to India and South Africa, he reached the semi-finals by winning seven consecutive matches. Look at their luck that there they got a chance to defeat the same South African team to which they had lost the second league match of this tournament.
When the final came, again the same team was in front against whom they had lost the first league match of the tournament. That is, even though India has won 10 consecutive matches, the Australian team has also established its dominance by defeating all the teams in capturing the World Cup for the sixth time. Although the Indian team definitely lost the final, it has achieved a lot from this World Cup.
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