India captain Rohit Sharma recalled the heartbreaking feeling after India's loss in the ODI World Cup final to Australia last year in Ahmedabad. India had come into the final unbeaten in the league stage and high on confidence.
Pat Cummins won the toss and chose to bowl first on Ahmedabad wicket. The pitch proved to be a sticky one and though Rohit Sharma scored 47 in 31 balls, his dismissal in the 10th over put brakes on India’s scoring.
Virat Kohli (54 in 63 balls) and KL Rahul (66 in 107 balls) tried their best, but Australia's bowlers and fielders didn’t let them score freely and India only managed 240 runs.
In reply, India removed three Australian wickets early, but Travis Head with 137 and Marnus Labuschagne with 58* safely took Australia to victory and made them six-time World Cup winners.
Rohit Sharma revealed that he had asked his wife the following day morning whether it was all "a bad dream". Rohit said the team badly wanted to lift the trophy and were confident after having been on a 10-match winning run in the lead-up to the final.
"When I woke up the next day after the World Cup Final, I had no idea what happened last night. I was discussing it with my wife and told 'Whatever happened last night was a bad dream, right? I think the final is tomorrow. It took me two to three days to realize that we lost the final and that we will get another chance only four years later,” Rohit said in an interaction with Adidas.
The captain said he wanted to finish the post-match routines as quickly as possible and get out of the field.
"Before the final, the thought of losing did not even occur to us. Everyone believed we would run through and keep going in the same direction because we were playing very good cricket. I ran. I was in no mood to stand there in the middle. Honestly, I just wanted this so badly. When you want something that desperately and you don't get it, you get frustrated, you get angry and you get all these negative things. At that time, you won't even understand what's happening in your life," Rohit added.
