Sports
Head knocks the wind out of India as Australia clinch sixth World Cup
After 10 consecutive wins to reach the final, India were outplayed by Australia on a slow Ahmedabad pitch as the visitors clinched an eye-popping sixth men’s World Cup title. If Australia’s bowlers put the choke-hold to restrict India to 240, it was Travis Head who delivered the final slam with his rollicking 120-ball 137 as they cruised to a six-wicket win.
Head, playing decisive roles in the semifinal and final of a World Cup, ensured he placed his name in history and joined an elite list of Mohinder Amarnath, Aravinda de Silva and Shane Warne to win Player of the Match awards in the knockout games.
The chase was not without stutters early on, as Australia slipped to 47/3 albeit with a healthy run-rate. Mohammed Shami, tasked with the new ball for the first time in this World Cup, struck with his second ball to have David Warner caught at slip. Jasprit Bumrah, after conceding 15 in his first over, bounced back to have Mitchell Marsh caught behind and outfoxed Steven Smith with a slower ball. Smith chose not to review with replays later confirming that he was struck outside off, and it betrayed signs of nerves in the chase.
However, Head along with a disciplined Marnus Labuschagne slowly and steadily reversed the pressure with a 192-run stand. With the spinners not getting much purchase on a slow surface, the duo stuck to their plans of rebuilding with a mixture of defence and attack. India’s second line of attack fell apart as Head first slog-swept Kuldeep Yadav for a six and Jadeja was consistently milked. It meant that the final became the only game in this World Cup where India’s spinners went wicketless, with the slowness off the surface largely negating their threat whatsoever.
Nevertheless, the duo played the conditions perfectly hitting boundaries early in the return spells to ensure that India never had an opening thereafter. They put on a massive partnership for the fourth wicket, to take the game away clinically from India. Head fell eventually with Australia needing just 2 more which was duly completed by Glenn Maxwell, to finish off the job started by their captain with the ball.
Earlier in the day, a clinical display of bowling to the conditions had enabled Australia to restrict India to a middling total of 240 after putting them in to bat.
In front of a capacity crowd over 100000, Pat Cummins decided to take a chance and bowl first on the dry pitch despite India’s imperious batting record through the tournament. His judgement call threatened to be proven wrong as India, led by Rohit Sharma once again, got the momentum in the powerplay.
Sharma set the tone with a string of boundaries hitting Josh Hazlewood off his lengths even as Shubman Gill fell miscuing to mid on. But Virat Kohli got going just like Sharma, hitting Mitchell Starc for three consecutive boundaries to keep India’s run-rate up.
So far it had played to India’s template with Rohit racing towards a quickfire fifty. But Australia kept them on their toes with the introduction of spin which paid dividends. Sharma tried to hit Maxwell out but ended up miscuing one high up and Travis Head completed a superb catch running back and across from cover-point. An already silenced crowd was stunned further when Shreyas Iyer fell nicking behind to a cutter from Cummins.
Losing two wickets in the space of four balls forced India into a position of consolidation, which was done resolutely by the duo of Kohli and KL Rahul. While they remained steadfast, it was also a period where Australia were equally standout with the ball, allowing no freebies whatsoever. The duo went through a period of 97 balls without a boundary with even the likes of Mitchell Marsh keeping the lines tight.
Leading the way with the bowling plans for the pacers was Cummins (10-0-34-2 without conceding a boundary) who had set the tone with his off-pace cutters. But India had their hopes up as Kohli brought up his 9th fifty of the tournament and 5th consecutive one. Those hopes were dashed though by Cummins’ ploy, as another banged-in cutter saw Kohli chopping on after 54. The weight of the 765 runs that Kohli had amassed through the tournament mattered little at this point as India were pushed into another corner.
They responded by changing up the batting order with Ravindra Jadeja getting a promotion. But even this ploy did not mess up Australia’s lines as the boundaries simply did not come. Rahul, who held up one end, also brought up a fifty but there was no big finish to cap it off this time. Australia now found reverse swing as well which added to the challenge. Hazlewood had Jadeja nicking behind from round the wicket while Starc mirrored that at the other angle to prise out the defiant Rahul.
Suryakumar Yadav’s attempts to shepherd the tail as well as give India a boost did not come off as he gloved a slow bouncer from Hazlewood, effectively ending any chance of a late surge as India were eventually bowled out for 240 – a total that proved too little on the back of Head’s calculated assault.
Brief scores
India 240 in 50 overs (Rohit Sharma 47, Virat Kohli 54, K L Rahul 66; Mitchell Starc 3-55, Josh Hazelwood 2-60, Pat Cummins 2-34) lost to Australia 241/4 in 43 overs (Travis Head 137, Marnus Labuschagne 58*; Jasprit Bumrah 2-43 ) by six wickets
(Cricbuzz)
Hosts Sri Lanka made a winning start to their Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group IV campaign, edging out Qatar 2-1 in a closely contested opening-day tie at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association courts in Colombo on Wednesday.
The visitors struck first when Mubarak Alharrasi defeated Sri Lanka’s Apna Perera 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 in a hard-fought opening singles encounter, giving Qatar an early 1-0 lead.
Sri Lanka bounced back in the second singles as Thehan Wijemanne produced a spirited comeback to overcome Mossa Alharrasi 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. After dropping the opening set, Wijemanne showed great composure to win the next two sets and level the tie at 1-1.
The decisive doubles match proved to be a tense affair, with Apna Perera returning to partner Saha Kapilasena. The Sri Lankan duo held their nerve in two tie-breaks to defeat Jabar Al Mutawan and Mossa Alharrasi 7-6, 7-6, sealing the tie 2-1 for the hosts.
Sri Lanka’s ability to recover from the opening singles defeat highlighted the team’s resilience as Wijemanne’s comeback victory and the doubles pair’s clutch performance ensured a successful start to their campaign. The hosts will now look to build on the opening-day victory as they continue their quest for promotion in the Asia/Oceania Group IV competition.
MCA PREMIER LEAGUE 2026
A 253 run sixth wicket partnership between Vinuka Rubasinghe [142 runs off 124 balls] and Lahiru Samarakoon [177 runs off 77 balls] set the foundation for David Pieris Group of Companies to amass 411/7 against DFCC Bank in the opening match of the Mercantile Cricket Association’s Premier League Cricket tournament played at the Thurstan Ground on Thursday [23]
Lahiru smashed 18 fours and 13 sixes in his 177 while Vinuka smashed 16 fours and 3 sixes in his 124 ball 142. Nipun Premarathne, Sandaru Wickremarathne and Raveen de Silva captured two wickets each.
In the chase Mihiranga Nimsara and Tharindu Nirmal captured three wickets each to restrict DFCC Bank to 257/8 in their 50 overs. Raveen de Silva top scored with 79 off 103 balls while Pavan Pathirajah chipped in with 65 runs.
SCORES:
David Pieris Group of Companies
411/7in 50 overs [Vinuka Rubasinghe 142, Lahiru Samarakoon 177; Nipun Premarathne 2-67, Sandaru Wickremarathne 2-65, Raveen de Silva 2-79]
DFCC Bank
252/8 in 50 overs [Raveen de Silva 79, Pavan Pathiraja 56 ; Mihiranga Nimsara 3-57 , Tharindu Nirmal 3-35]
Reeza Hendricks scored his second fifty of the tournament and took his team over the line without getting dismissed for the second time as Dambulla Sixers defeated Galle Gallants at their home, Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium, in the eighth match of the Lanka Premier League.
Hendricks came into bat at number three in the third over after Niroshan Dickwella departed and soon saw the back of Sahibzada Farhan as well. He then stitched a quickfire 36-run stand with Pavan Rathnayake and then took the game away in a 69-run stand with Marques Ackerman.
Rathnayake took the attack to the impact sub Eshan Malinga in the last over of the powerplay. Before that, he had a single six in his LPL career in 7 innings; then he deposited three maximums in a single over against Malinga, ending the powerplay at 70/3, as he departed for a 11-ball 29 on the last ball.
Hendricks, joined by his countryman, Ackerman, took the team’s total to 102/3 inside 10 overs, as the latter hit a massive six against Akif Javed in the 10th over to cross the 100-run mark.
The flow of boundaries continued as Hendricks and Ackerman continued with massive sixes from both batters in back-to-back overs against Malinga and Mehidy Hasan Miraz, leaving the equation required to 54 runs off 48 balls.
Ackerman was finally dismissed as Karunaratne showed up with the ball in hand as well, breaking the 69-run partnership for the fourth wicket. Hendricks still did not stop as he reached his second half-century of the season off just 30 deliveries.
The new batter Gulbadin Naib hit a couple of straight maximums against Mohammad Nawaz, ending the expensive over which had already seen Hendricks start with back-to-back boundaries, leaving just 16 runs off the last five overs, which also kickstarted Dambulla Sixers’ power blast as well.
Gulbadin hit 3 maximums in his six-ball cameo to finish the game in style with 23 balls remaining, chasing down the target set by Galle Gallants with ease.
At the start of the match, Galle Gallants’ Sam Harper (40 off 22 balls including 3 sixes and 3 fours) and Charith Asalanka (25 off 19 balls; 2 fours, 1 six) started well after losing Lasith Croospulle in the third over to Vishwa Lahiru. The duo gathered 64 runs off 37 balls for the second-wicket.
Chamika Karunaratne rescued the innings after Harper was bowled by Gulbadin Naib in the ninth over and Asalanka was caught and bowled by Ackerman.
While wickets fell on the other end, skipper Dasun Shanaka came and arrested the collapse with a cameo. Later he made full use of the power blast’s first over, scoring 15 runs before Farooqi came back with a double-wicket over, dismissing Karunaratne for 45 runs off 30 deliveries and Mohammad Nawaz for two.
Shanaka chipped in with 20 runs off 10 balls, while Mehidy Hasan Miraz’s 16 runs off 13 balls took Gallants’ total to 178/8 in 20 overs.
Brief Scores
Dambulla Sixers
won by 6 wickets with 23 balls to spare
Galle Gallants:
178/8 in 20 overs [Chamika Karunaratne: 45 (30), Sam Harper: 40 (22), Fazalhaq Farooqi: 3/39 (4) Marques Ackerman: 2/27 (3)]
Dambulla Sixers:
180/4 in 16.1 overs [Reeza Hendricks: 64* (37), Marques Ackerman: 35 (25)
Pavan Rathnayake:
29 (11), Chamika Karunaratne: 1/7 (1), Dasun Shanaka: 1/18 (2)]
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