Australian captain Pat Cummins’ surprise decision to field first against India in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 final has raised eyebrows and raised suspicions from former skipper Allan Border.
According to Border, he initially thought Cummins had ‘lost the plot’ and expressed doubt over the decision. However, Cummins’ gamble paid off as the Australian bowlers dominated and restricted India to 240 runs on a reportedly dry surface. Despite Rohit Sharma’s explosive batting and half-centuries from Virat Kohli and KL Rahul, the dew factor favored Australia in the second half of the match.
travis head and marnus labuschagneTheir partnership while chasing the target ensured that Australia clinched their sixth World Cup title with ease. Border praised Cummins, highlighting the captain’s growth as a leader and saying he has made the team his own.
“Pat Cummins’ call to “bowl first” in the World Cup final was one of the bravest decisions I have seen from a cricket captain. I have to be honest, when I heard Pat say “we will bowl first” I thought “Oh no”, Patrick, you’ve lost the plot, guys. When Rohit Sharma was bowling hard in the beginning, I thought “What are we doing?” Speaking to Fox Sports, Border said, for the first half-dozen to 10 overs, I was thinking, ‘Oh my God, the decision to bowl first backfired.’
We tried everything but it was not to happen – Rohit Sharma
Indian captain reflecting on the match Rohit Sharma Admitted that they were 20-30 runs short and acknowledged the tremendous partnership between Head and Labuschagne that took the game away from India. He also said that the wicket has become a little better to bat on in the light. Despite the defeat, he refused to use it as an excuse, and insisted that he did not put enough runs on the board.
“The result did not go our way. We were not that good today. We tried everything possible but it should not have happened. Another 20-30 runs would have been good, KL and Kohli were having a good partnership and we were expecting 270- At 280 but we kept losing wickets. When you have 240 runs on the board, you want to take wickets, but credit to Head and Labuschagne, who put together a big partnership and took us out of the game completely, “Rohit said.
,We knew it would be a little better to bat under floodlights, but we didn’t want to use that as an excuse. We didn’t put enough runs on the board. With the fast bowlers, we took those 3 wickets and with one more wicket, we could have started the game. Credit goes to those two guys in the middle order for building a great partnership.”
