The Australian bowling attack produced a stunning performance in the World Cup 2023 final, effectively exploiting the challenging pitch conditions to restrict India to a modest total of 240 runs after winning the toss and electing to field. Prior to the highly anticipated match, Australian captain Pat Cummins had expressed his desire to silence the Indian fans, and his bowlers delivered on his promise. Mitchell Starc struck an early blow for Australia by dismissing Shubman Gill for a mere four runs, while Rohit Sharma, after playing an aggressive knock, fell for 47 runs. However, Sharma's shot selection drew massive criticism from former India's star batter Virender Sehwag.
Hitman continued the same aggressive approach in the 10th over and dispatched Glenn Maxwell for a boundary and a maximum. He attempted to hit yet another six on the fourth ball of the over. However, Maxwell astutely shortened his length, forcing Sharma to adjust his shot mid-stride. As a result, the 36-year-old mistimed the ball and ended up lofting the ball towards the cover. Travis Head, who was stationed at the cover, pulled off a sensational catch to halt Sharma's blitzkrieg.
“He may or may not be disappointed by it, but team management would certainly be. The coaching staff will tell him that when you have already hit a 6 and a four, you should not have played that shot. But Rohit thought, it was the last over of the Powerplay and he didn't want to let Maxwell go easy. No doubt, it was a bad shot. You gave a chance. If he had played it out, situation could have been very different,”Sehwag told Cricbuzz.
“But it seemed a completely different wicket after Rohit was dismissed. Neither anyone could hit a shot, nor the batters were able to rotate strike,” he added.
Steadying India's boat Virat Kohli (54) unleashed a flurry of three boundaries off Starc's bowling. However, India's batting fortunes took a sharp turn for the worse in the 11th over when Shreyas Iyer was dismissed by Pat Cummins, leaving India reeling at 81/3. Undeterred by the early setbacks, Kohli and KL Rahul (66) embarked on a cautious rebuilding effort, even if it meant enduring a prolonged period of 16.1 overs without a boundary. Kohli, the tournament's leading run-scorer, notched up his ninth half-century in 11 innings, but his stay was cut short when he chopped a Cummins delivery onto his stumps. Rahul, known for his elegant strokeplay, found the going tough on the testing pitch and managed just one boundary in his half-century. His struggle highlighted the difficulties faced by batsmen in finding fluent scoring opportunities. Meanwhile, Australia's wicketkeeper Josh Inglis pouched five catches, etching his name in the record books for holding the most catches in a World Cup final.
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