Direct Hit- Slow and dry wicket spoils India’s final party

My article yesterday was, will Australia spoil India’s party in the final and unfortunately for all Indian fans they did by putting up a clinical performance in all three departments, first with the ball and fielding and then Travis Head played the innings of the final to break Indian hearts.

India were the team to beat who had beaten all the teams convincingly and excelled throughout the tournament and were out right favourites to lift their third World cup. More so because it was in their own backyard and with 120,000 fans’ backing them. So where did India falter? If I had to be honest, it was because the wicket prepared was very dry and slow which made batting difficult.

Rohit Sharma as he has been doing all the tournament, gave India a rousing start but once he got out India found batting difficult on this pitch and went into their shell. Yes, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul had to consolidate but hitting boundaries on this wicket was challenging and India managed just five boundaries in the last 40 overs.

When Australia came to bat, the ball did move around in the first 10 overs, but the wicket settled down in the evening and batting became definitely much easier than what was in the afternoon. This is without taking anything away from the Aussies who were absolutely brilliant and bowled to their field, their fast bowlers got the reverse swing because of the abrasive nature of the wicket which was not the case when India bowled.

This wicket was similar to India’s first match in Chennai where Pat Cummins had decided to bat first, and their batters struggled on that slow pitch and were bowled out for just 199. Even though India was three down for nothing, India beat Australia in that game comprehensively because batting became easier in the evening and India capitalised.

I believe had the wicket been a proper ODI wicket, India would have had better chance as man-to-man India were better but once you prepare a wicket which is slow and dry, you get the opposition in the game and Indian paid the price for it.

But there is nothing to take away from this Indian team who were simply outstanding throughout the tournament and need to keep their chin high. Yes, India faltered at the last hurdle but that’s the beauty of this wonderful game.