India restricted to below par 240

Rex Clementine in Ahmedabad

Many had expected a belter for the World Cup final, but Ahmedabad produced a wicket not so easy to score runs and at one stage a total in the range of 260 looked on par. However, India could manage only 240 as Australia’s seamers were on the money and their fielding was superb to keep the competition’s unbeaten team in check.

India had cruised to the World Cup final with ten wins in a row and although Australia had gained some momentum having won their last eight games, on paper India looked to be too strong.Captain Rohit Sharma was India’s key player. Not that he posts big hundreds, but he produces quick starts to his side and yesterday too he raced to 47 off 31 balls with four fours and three sixes.

Having hit Glenn Maxwell for a four and a six, Rohit miscued one in the same over and Travis Head from covers ran backwards and pulled off a stunning diving catch.

Rohit’s dismissal slowed down India’s scoring. They had scored 76 runs inside the first ten overs but there was little momentum once the skipper was dismissed. In the last 40 overs, India managed just four boundaries.

All hope wasn’t lost once Rohit was gone as Virat Kohli was expected to bat deep and post yet another hundred to give his side a competitive total.

But soon after scoring a half-century, Kohli chopped a Cummins delivery onto the stumps and Australia were elated. Kohli ended the competition as the highest run getter with 765 runs with an average of 95.

K.L. Rahul with a half-century pushed India’s total beyond 200, but they needed much more from him. The big hitting Suryakumar Yadav was held back when India lost the fourth wicket and Ravindra Jadeja came in at number six.

The ploy was obviously to let T-20 specialist Suryakumar smash a few in the last ten overs but that didn’t pay off as he struggled with his timing and was dismissed for 18 off 28 balls.

Mitchell Starc was the pick of the bowlers finishing with three wickets while he was well backed up by Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, who took two wickets each.

The venue was packed with 132,000 fans with all tickets sold out. People all across India and overseas flew in to Ahmedabad to witness the team winning their third World Cup, but the batting wasn’t up to scratch.