India and Australia to play in the World Cup 2023 final on November 19 in Ahmedabad.
The last time India and Australia clashed in the Cricket World Cup final was in 2003 when Australia thrashed India to win the trophy in Johannesburg.
Australia lost their first two matches in the league stage but made a grand comeback in the remaining matches to make it into the semis. India, on the other hand, won all the league matches and comprehensively defeated New Zealand in the semi-final to qualify for the final.
“We want to take on the best. They’ve been the best in the tournament so far and we both find ourselves in the finals. So that’s what World Cups are about. It’s why we play the game. We certainly come up against a team that has obviously led from the front through the tournament and they’re undefeated,” Starc at the post-match media interaction.
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India and Australia had played a low-scoring thriller in Chennai in their first match of the ICC World Cup 2023. Australia was bundled for 199 batting first in Chepauk and then Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc picked three very cheap wickets at the top.
But then Virat Kohli and KL Rahul won the game for India with gritty knocks to begin India’s unbeaten run in the tournament.
“We played them in the first game of the tournament, now we get to take them on in the last. So yeah, what a place to be at the end of a World Cup,” he added.
Chasing 213 against South Africa, their batters faltered against the South African spinners to make it a nervy win in the end.
Asked whether they would be wary of facing India’s spinners at Ahmedabad, he said: “I guess we’ll find out when we get to Ahmedabad tomorrow and see if it’s a fresh wicket or an old wicket.”
Starc further added that he was looking forward to playing India in front of a packed 130,000 crowd at Narendra Modi Stadium.
“It’s a big occasion, it’s a World Cup final. Certainly, guys in both changing rooms have been there before in different formats. Both teams played each other in the (World Test Championship) Final earlier in the year. I don’t think either changing room is new to big occasions.
It’s going to be loud. There’s going to be a lot of passion there and no doubt there’s going to be different amounts of pressure at different times on both teams. It’s just going to be a great spectacle of cricket. And certainly, everyone in our changing room is looking forward to the occasion,” he said.
Mitchell Starc spoke about his performance in the World Cup and taking early wickets against South Africa in the semi-final.
“Yeah, that’s probably not been the tournament I would have liked from the get go but nice to step up in a big game. And I think our power-play was probably what got us on our way. There were other key moments throughout the day with bat and ball, but to start the game like that with Joshie (Hazelwood) and I, was great.
Looking at Josh’s pitch map — that’s what he does so well in Test match bowling. The way we run off each other to have that power-play that we did and carry some momentum through to the middle overs was how we want to start matches. Power-play wickets have probably not been our strong suit throughout the tournament, so it’s nice to have a power-play, of two for 18 or something like that.
I think a lot of guys in the field as well, the way Davey stepped up in the field and led by example. You could probably name everyone at different circumstances through the day to really step up in a big game,” said Starc.
(PTI inputs)