Australian opener David Warner revealed why Pat Cummins opted to field first against India in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 final, despite the stats saying that batting first would've been a great idea.
Even Warner went on to reveal that Australia was thinking about batting first if they won the toss the night before the ICC World Cup 2023 final, but they changed their minds on the big day itself. The swashbuckling opener said that they wanted to challenge themselves, and it turned out magical.
Notably, Australia first restricted Team India to 240 runs with only Virat Kohli and KL Rahul scoring fifties and then chased down the target in 43 overs to win the final by 6 wickets in Ahmedabad.
David Warner told AB de Villiers on his YouTube channel: “They were discussing it the night before for a good hour and a half or two hours about what to do. All the stats coming through was saying, bat first and put runs on the board. But for once, when we got all got asked that question, I think a majority of us said let's just chase.”
The veteran opener said that batting first would help them to understand the conditions thoroughly before walking out to bat at Narendra Modi Stadium, and that’s why they opted to bowl first in the CWC 2023 final against India.
Warner added, “If we bowl well and understand the conditions like that, we can then chase and then anchor.”
The left-hander also lauded Marnus Labuschagne (58*) who added 192 runs with Travis Head (137) in the final for his batting heroics against India.
Warner said, “What Marnus did was absolutely perfect. You look at when we played India in the first game. I think they were 3/4 (2/3) but then Virat did what he does, KL Rahul as well. They were ice calm. When you know what to get, your best batters generally thrive. They will play the tempo of the game.”
Praising Pat Cummins’ captaincy, Warner said: “He has been so calm the whole time. He was criticised in England for his fielding placements, being defensive and all that. Here as well, he cops it again for the slow start. It's not fair. I get that as a captain he is leading the ship but as a whole unit, we take responsibility ourselves. Yesterday was a testament to that in terms of the way we went about it.”
He also described Cummins’ figures of 2/34 in the CWC 2023 final as the best spell of the tournament, as the star pacer got the crucial wickets of Shreyas Iyer and Virat Kohli.
Warner signed off by saying, “Yesterday was unbelievable the way he bowled. That was his best spell in the entire tournament. The great players stand up when it's time to deliver and yesterday he did that.”
(With Hindustan Times Inputs)
