Team India missed another chance to get their hands on the ICC trophy as Australia defeated the Men in Blue by six wickets in the ODI World Cup final to lift the coveted trophy for the sixth time.
Despite Virat Kohli and KL Rahul's fifties, India posted a modest total of 240 after Mitchell Starc's sensational three-fer in the World Cup final at the Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad on November 19, Sunday. In reply, Australia didn't get off to best of the start after early dismissals of David Warner, Mitchell Marsh and Steve Smith. However, Travis Head with a robust century and Marnus Labuschagne with a steady fifty took the game away from India.
India remained unbeaten until the final, but yet again they got cold feet and wilted under pressure to miss yet another chance to clinch the ICC trophy. The last time they won the ICC trophy was in 2013 when India won the Champions trophy.
Meanwhile, India skipper, who scored a blistering knock of 47, while ruing India's heartbreaking loss said,"I mean the result hasn't gone our way and we know that we were not good enough on the day. But proud of the team. It wasn't supposed to be. Honestly, 20-30 runs would've been good. I thought when KL and Virat were batting, we were looking at 270-280 at that point and we kept losing wickets."
When Australia were reeling at 47/3, Labuschagne (58 off 110) and Head (137 off 120) came to Australia's rescue and stitched a match-winning 192-run partnership for the fourth wicket, which decided the course of the match.
“Australia stitched a big partnership after losing three wickets. With 240 on the board, we wanted early wickets but credit to Travis Head and Marnus. They put us completely out of the game and I thought the wicket got better to bat under lights. I mean we knew under lights, it would be better but don't want to give that as an excuse. We didn't bat well enough, but credit to those two guys in the middle for stitching that big partnership,” Rohit said in the post-match presentation.
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