Finally the team who is having all the ICC trophy i.e. Australia. They defeated India by a margin of 209 runs and wins the World Test Championship (WTC).
India started their Day nicely, played the first half an hour quite but then Boland came and struck two wickets (Kohli and Jadeja) in the same over. After that Rahane went back after scoring a solid 46 runs. Bharat showed some good shots but that was not enough to get par the huge score. Lyon clinched 4 wickets while Boland took 3 wickets. Starc got 2 and Cummins with 1 wicket in their pockets.
India’s last ICC trophy came in 2013 under MS Dhoni‘s leadership which was the Champions Trophy. And 10 years later the ICC trophy still remains dry.
Travis Head was awarded player of the match and he said “ Lots of hard work over the two years. It’s been nice. That’s been the approach for two years. Said through the week that I want to be able to be proactive. I was tested throughout the innings. It was nice to be out there for a period of time with Smudge. Amazing week. Amazing Test from him and what we have come to expect (from him) here in England. Hope it’s a big couple of months from him. And I have always said that it feels like all the plans go to him, all the attention he draws, and I can just go about my work.
Nice to spend some time out with him. I have always had confidence. It’s about going out there and expressing that. It took me some time and everyone goes through that. I’ve always been open to change, open to learning. I’ve bedded down somewhat of a blueprint. It’s not always going to work. It’s nice to work that out in such a big game and hopefully continues in the next couple of months. Lots of what-ifs going to bed last night. We’ve come across such moments through the two years where we have had to grind it out. Were able to do that again today.”
Rohit Sharma (Indian Captain) said: “ I thought we started well with winning the toss, putting them to bat in those conditions. We bowled well in the first session and then we let ourselves down with how we bowled. Got to give credit to the Australian batters. Head came in and played really well along with Steve Smith. That just took us off guard a little bit. We knew it was always hard to comeback, but we put up a good show. We fought till the end. We have worked hard for all those four years.
Playing two finals is honestly a good achievement for us. But we would like to go a mile ahead as well. You can’t take the credit away from what we have done in those last two years to come here. Great effort from the entire unit. Unfortunately we couldn’t go on and win the final but we’ll keep our heads high and fight. (for crowd support) It’s been brilliant. They’ve gotten behind the times. I’d like to thank each one of them. They were cheering for every run and every wicket.”
Pat Cummins (Australian Captain) said: “ We made the most of it (on losing the toss). We were certainly going to bowl. The way Travis and Smith put up that partnership, gave us comfort after a nervy morning. Head has been brilliant right throughout this campaign, started with the Ashes a couple of years ago. He just puts the pressure right back on the bowlers and suddenly you are thinking about how to contain runs rather than taking wickets. We left day one feeling like we were on top of the game. When it counted, we played really well. We could have really driven the game, didn’t have our best day and let India closer back in.
For the most parts, we were in control. Boland is my favorite player. He just continues to be my favorite. Everyone did their role pretty well. Coming off a break, everyone switched on when it mattered. Everyone played really well and we will savor this for a few years before we turn our attention to the Ashes. This is our favorite format, we grew up watching Test cricket. It challenges you. When you win, it’s the format you get most satisfaction with. We love playing.
Records made during WTC final:
→ Steve Smith became the 3rd Australian with most catches (157) surpassing Alan Border.
→ Virat Kohli becomes the 5th Indian batter who scored more than 2000 runs against Australia.
→ Ajinkya Rahane completed his 5000 runs.
→ Ravindra Jadeja became the 4th left arm spinner surpassing Bishan Singh Bedi in terms of wickets (267).
→ Steve Smith’s century tally goes 31 surpassing Mathew Hayden and comes 3rd in the list of Australian players.
→ 9 centuries against India by Steve Smith joins the list of most test centuries against India along with Joe Root.
→ Ajinkya Rahane completed his 100 test catches and is currently the 7th Indian to do so.