Last Update on: November 20th, 2023 at 10:44 am
India suffered another heart-wrenching loss in the finals of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023. Australia cruised to their sixth World Cup title carrying themselves on the back of Travis Head’s scintillating innings. Australian skipper Pat Cummins won the toss and put India to bat on a dry wicket. India had a flying start to their innings with 80 runs on the board in the first 10 overs.
Former England skipper Nasser Hussain believes that the pitch backfired on India and it was because of their tactic of protecting their lower order. Indian batters failed to score boundaries in the middle overs which led to the pressure mounting in the death overs and Australia was able to choke the Indian batters in these important phases.
“India is still a great side – but the pitch brought Australia into it,” Hussain said on Sky Sports. “India’s four bowlers not being able to bat that well came back to haunt them. That’s why Rahul and Kohli couldn’t go hard. They were worried about Shami at No 8.”
Australia Over-Powers India For The Second Time In ICC Finals In The Span Of Five Months
The Men In Blue lost a second ICC final against the mighty Aussies in the span of just five months. June 2023 saw the World Test Championship Final where Australia and Travis Head gave a heartbreak to the Indian cricket fans. Now, the same Travis Head and Australia over-powers India at their home to win a sixth World Cup title.
Travis Head won the Player of The Match for the finals for his terrific knock scoring 137 off 120 deliveries. He slammed 15 boundaries and four sixes in his innings to help Australia coast to victory. In fact, Travis Head also won the player of the match in the World Test Championship finals for his 163 off 174 balls in the first innings.
Indian players have led the charts in this World Cup in terms of both runs and wickets. Virat Kohli finished as the highest run-getter with 765 runs in 11 innings. Whereas Mohammed Shami was the highest wicket-taker with 24 wickets to his name in seven matches. Virat Kohli was awarded the Player of the Tournament for his outstanding performance with the bat but he will still be disappointed for not being able to win the World Cup.
