Team India led by Rohit Sharma ran through a heartbreaking defeat against Australia in the ICC Men’s ODI World Cup 2023 final at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
Billions of fans were hoping that the result would end in India’s favour but Pat Cummins and Co ensured to pull off a tactical masterclass in the final as they performed well in clutch moments of the game when it really mattered the most.
Besides that, they were head and shoulders better than India across all facets of the game. Rightly so, they were able to come out on top much to India’s annoyance in the high-voltage encounter.
The Australian cricket team defeated the Indian cricket team by six wickets and deservedly won the sixth ODI World Cup, the most by a team in the history of the sport. Pat Cummins couldn’t be any happier as he won his first ODI World Cup as captain.
Australia were considered favourites despite losing the first two games of the ODI World Cup. The Men in Yellow came up with a decisive strategy to beat all major opponents with such ease, including India in the final.
Meanwhile, the prize amount for the winners, runners-up and the semi-finalists have been revealed. New Zealand and South Africa were the semi-finalists of this World Cup as they earned a staggering $800,000 which comes to around INR 6.6 crore.
On the other hand, the winners of the tournament, Australia take home $4 million (Rs 33 crore) whereas the runners-up India $2 million (Rs 16 crore).
After the match, Rohit Sharma said, “The result has not gone our way. We were not good enough today. We tried everything but it wasn’t supposed to be. 20-30 runs more would have been good, KL and Kohli were stitching a good partnership and we were looking at 270-280 but we kept losing wickets.”
“When you have 240 on the board, you want to take wickets but credit to Head and Labuschagne who stitched together a big partnership and put us completely out of the game. We tried everything we could but I feel the wicket got slightly better to bat under lights,” he added.
“Don’t want to give that as an excuse. We knew under lights it would be slightly better to bat, but don’t want to give that as an excuse. We didn’t put enough runs on the board. With the seamers upfront, we took those 3 wickets and another wicket there, we could open up the game. Credit to those two guys in the middle for stitching an outstanding partnership,” he said.