India captain Rohit Sharma rued the fact that after bowling well for the first session on day one, the bowlers let the Australian batters off the hook, as the Pat Cummins-led side defeated Rohit and co. by 209 runs to become the WTC 2023 champions.
Australia was put into bat by Rohit Sharma, who won the toss at the Oval and after being reduced to 76/3, Travis Head (163) and Steve Smith (121) put on 285 runs, and with Alex Carey contributing 48 valuable runs, propelled the side to 469 runs.
In reply, Australia had India wobbling at 71/4 and then Ajinkya Rahane’s 89 and Shardul Thakur’s 51 took them to 296 runs, reducing the deficit to 173 runs.
But in the second innings, on a flat pitch, Australia posted 270/8d with Alex Carey making 66* and put a 444-run target for India to chase.
Indian top order got started but was soon reduced to 93/3. But then Virat Kohli (49) and Ajinkya Rahane (46) added 86 runs for the 4th wicket and fired up hopes of an upset win. But Scott Boland, on day 5, extinguished that hope quickly by removing Kohli and Jadeja in one over.
It was the only time when Australia wrapped up Indian innings for 234 and won the WTC 2023 title by 209 runs. With this, they also became the first men’s team to win all ICC trophies.
After the match, Rohit Sharma talked at the presentation ceremony and said that though it was a good toss to win and good bowling in the first session, the bowlers dropped the ball afterward and allowed Australia to score big.
“I thought we started well with winning the toss, putting them to bat in those conditions. We bowled well in the first session and then we let ourselves down with how we bowled. Got to give credit to the Australian batters. Head came in and played well along with Steven Smith. That just took us off guard a little bit. We knew it was always hard to come back, but we put up a good show. We fought till the end,” he told ICC.
He further talked about the effort put in by Indian team in these two years to qualify for the WTC final but said that he wants the team to go all the way next time and win the title.
“We've worked hard for all those four years. Playing two finals is honestly a good achievement for us. But we'd like to go a mile ahead as well. You can't take the credit away from what we've done in those last two years to come here. Great effort from the entire unit. Unfortunate that we couldn't go on and win the final but we'll keep our heads high and fight,” he added.
He thanked the crowd for their support throughout the match.
“It's been brilliant. They've gotten behind the time. I'd like to thank each one of them. They were cheering for every run and every wicket,” he signed off.
The Indian team will now have a short break before flying to the Caribbean where they will play two Tests to begin their next cycle of ICC World Test Championship, 3 ODIs, and 5 T20Is.
(ICC inputs)
