Australia’s ICC World Cup 2023 winning captain Pat Cummins said that the way he silenced the Ahmedabad crowd in the CWC final by taking Virat Kohli’s wicket will be his deathbed moment 70 years from now.
Australia and India had clashed in the summit match of the ICC World Cup 2023 in Ahmedabad on November 19 and saw Pat Cummins and co. comprehensively winning the title by 6 wickets in the end.
A day before the final, Cummins bragged about wanting to silence a crowd of 1.3 lakh people in the biggest cricket stadium in the world. And boy, did he succeed in his pursuit of doing so. India was put into bat first by Cummins who won the toss.
And despite fifties by Virat Kohli and KL Rahul and a flying start by Rohit Sharma (47), India only managed 240 runs. They only managed to hit 4 boundaries in the last 40 overs, Australian bowlers and fielders upped their game for the final.
Then in the chase, despite losing three wickets inside the powerplay, Travis Head with 137 and Marnus Labuschagne with 58* ensured Australia won the game comfortably and lifted the World Cup trophy sixth time.
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In an interview with the Age, Pat Cummins was asked "On your deathbed, in 70 years, what is the moment you will think of from that final?"
The Australian captain replied: "I think the Virat Kohli wicket I was very pumped. And then, we're in the huddle after that wicket, and Steve Smith says, 'Boys, listen to the crowd for a second'. And we just took a moment of pause, and it was as quiet as a library; 100,000 Indians there, and it was so quiet. I'll savor that moment for a long time.”
Australia had qualified for the knockouts despite losing their first two games but then won 7 in a row. They then defeated South Africa in Kolkata in the second semi-final to make it into the final.
"On the one hand, yeah. And I think we were a bit timid to start the tournament. So it was a good reality check. But we are a good side and, as long as we committed to how we wanted to play, I thought we were going to give ourselves a good shot," added Cummins.
Australia will now prepare for the three-Test series against Pakistan at home.
