CWC 2023 Final; IND Vs AUS Review: And so the Midsummer Night’s dream turns into a never-ending nightmare of despair and anguish. A day that started off with a sea of blue ended in a hue of black as India’s wait for ICC glory was once again stopped by the very same opponents that thwarted them at the very same stage 2 decades ago.

Australia managed to outplay, outthink, and outperform India in what was a professional performance that saw them win everything from the toss, the bowling changes, the fielding, and eventually a sixth World Championship. While India did threaten briefly with a stirring riposte, it was another familiar feeling of heartbreak as the wait for ICC glory will go on for at least another year.

We take a look at the key talking points from the CWC 2023 IND vs AUS final that was intense in parts, yet inevitable-

IND vs AUS: Pat calls correctly

Ahead of the game, all talk was aimed towards the nature of the pitch and how exactly was it going to play out through the course of the next 100 overs. The pitch was a used one and was as dry as it could get, which meant that chasing first was the ideal call to make for either captain had they called it right. It was Pat Cummins who won it and had no hesitation in putting India into bat.

It was a very gutsy move from the Aussie skipper putting in India to have a bat with the form that they were in, and Pat by the looks of him was pretty circumspect himself. But little did he know that one right call here cascaded into a chain of events that got better for him and his side as the day went by.

Head holds on

It was the final over of the powerplay. Glenn Maxwell was given the ball and India were going in high and handsome at 66/1 after 9 overs, with Rohit doing things that only he does. He had dominated the early exchanges by bullying Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood with the casual nonchalance and insouciance that only he is capable of. And in the first 3 balls of this over, he continued in the same way. He first carted Maxwell over long-on for a 6 and then cut him with utter disdain for a 4 in the very next ball. With 10 runs of the over, any other batsman would have gone for the single, but not Rohit.

Maxwell pitched it just short enough to entice Rohit into the big shot, and he duly obliged, But the turn meant that the ball went in the opposite direction and hung in the air for a good while. It was a very very difficult chance because there was significant ground to be made and the fielder was a fair distance away as well. But Travis Head ran to the ball like an absolute madman, put in the dive, and made probably the best catch of his career look like a piece of cake. Maxwell got Rohit for 47. 66/1 became 76/2, and quickly turned to 80/3. It was the point where the game well and truly shifted, and fatefully, it shifted away from India and in Australia’s hands.

Australia’s middle over stranglehold

Iyer’s dismissal brought out the pair that bailed them out the last time these two sides met in Chennai. KL Rahul and Virat Kohli set out on a rebuilding job by nudging around the ball for singles and twos. The ho-e was that both set themselves up for a big assault towards the latter stages of the innings by playing out 15-20 overs without any major risks.

Except, that did not happen at all. While Kohli was getting the ones and twos with ease, KL was rooted to the crease for 4 or 5 balls in the over without getting on the other end. The chief reason for this was the excellent bowling by Australia in that kiddle-over phase cooped with some relentless fielding that complemented the bowling beautifully. The fact that only 2 boundaries were scored between overs 11-40 spoke volumes about the squeeze that the Aussies had on the much-vaunted Indian batting.

Head- India’s nemesis in this IND vs AUS final

Boy does Travis Head enjoy playing against India or what? In June he scored a swashbuckling 163 to virtually seal the win for Australia, and fast forwards 5 months later, he once again is the babe of India’s existence- and with more than just a stellar innings with the bat.

First, he displayed an exemplary piece of fielding by catching a blinder to dismiss Rohit Sharma which proved to be a pivotal moment in the game. With the bat, despite the cluster of wickets that fell around him, and he himself being in the midst of a probing spell that saw him have a number of close shaves, he kept going the way only he does. He drove, he cut, he pulled, he slogged, and he swept this gun Indian bowling attack to all corners of the ground with utter disdain, and sometimes with just brute force. Neither of the Indian bowlers had any answers for his onslaught. The writing was on the wall the moment Head smashed Shami over his head for a 4, which was the final nail in the coffin as far as India’s resistance was concerned.

Head was instrumental in Australia winning the semi-final against South Africa in Kolkata. He now finds himself in the company of Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist as the third Aussie to score a century in a World Cup Final. Add to that the sweet feeling of winning a World Cup to boot, it was a good day’s work for Travis Head.

Author Credits- Delwyn Serrao