It was all set up to be the perfect day for India. In front of a full stadium, boasting the top run scorer, highest wicket taker and with a 100% win record at their own tournament, what could possibly go wrong?
In the end, quite a lot actually.
Batting first, India made a quick start through captain Rohit Sharma’s 47 from 31, which featured four 4’s and three 6’s. The tone for the innings had been set by the captain, but no other batsman could match it.
Virat Kohli battled his way to 54 from 63 while KL Rahul’s painstaking 66 from 107 showed that even one of India’s most fluent players was struggling to find the gaps. With six of their 11 batsman failing to make it into double-figures, it always looked like they would struggle to post a truly competitive total.
However, while their batsmen had failed, their bowlers would surely come up trumps. For the whole tournament, India were touted as having the best bowling attack, but they struggled on the biggest stage of all.
Arguably the best bowler at the world Cup in Mohammed Shami took 1-47 with an economy rate of 6.71. Jasprit Bumrah led the way with two wickets, but even he lacked the necessary bite to remove the Australian batsmen.
So what went wrong for India in the final?
Two of the top three run scorers at the World Cup came from the home side, with Virat Kohli (765 runs at 95.62) and Rohit Sharma (597 runs at 54.27) sitting in first and second on the leaderboard. While both got runs in the final, neither could make the most of getting in.
Indeed, Sharma started quickly but could not go past 50, while Kohli scored runs but did it slowly. When players watch arguably two of the best batsmen the game has seen struggle to go big, it will have an effect on them. For the Aussies, removing the pair before they could do major damage would have lifted their spirits massively.
Batting first in any match is also tough, but batting first in a World Cup Final means the pressure is on immediately. For the Aussies, if they were not hitting the right line for the first few overs, they could still drag things back.
However, if you lose early wickets in a final, a team switches to survival mode, trying to use up all 300 deliveries rather than playing their natural game. With India teetering at 81/3, Kohli and Rahul did a good job of rebuilding, but they did not see that job through. If either had stayed late in the innings, then India could have been looking at far closer to 300.
India’s own winning run may have hurt them too. The onus was on the perfect India to complete their stellar campaign with their 11th win in a row. After hammering the Aussies by six-wickets in their opening match, surely it would be more of the same in this one.
While India struggled with bat and ball, the main reason they lost could simply be because they aren’t Australia. Australia began the World Cup with two defeats in a row to India and South Africa, and most betting sites in Australia had written them off.
However, there is a winning mentality in the Aussie camp that no other team can match. In the last seven World Cups, Australia have won five times, while they have won six of the 13 titles. To put that into perspective, Australia have won one less title than the West Indies, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and England have managed combined.
India were without a doubt the form side at the tournament. When looking at their 10 wins in 10 games and the fact they boasted the two top runs scorers and highest wicket taker coupled with paying on their own patch, they were surely going to win the final. However, where India have regularly failed to come good on their glut of talent, the Aussies do not seem to have this complex. Australia can arrive at any World Cup with a team in great form or no form at all and turn it on when it matters most.
Perhaps if India had played any other team in the final, they might have won. Travis Head’s century was a sparkling show of how to play a final. In the field, Australia were superb, while their quicks took them to victory with the ball. All of the noise around them about being the underdog did nothing to negatively impact them, in fact, it probably did the opposite.
A winning mentality is not something that comes quickly or easily. Australia know how to win World Cups. They seem to be born with the knowledge. India and the rest are a long way short of Australia on the biggest stage of them all.