Australia pulled off an upset, defeating hosts and undefeated tournament favorites India by six wickets to clinch the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 in Ahmedabad.
Australia won the toss and elected to field first, restricting India to a sub-par 240 all-out – with Virat Kohli (54) and KL Rahul (66) scoring half-centuries for India.
Australia suffered a top order wobble but opener Travis Head’s 137 off 120 balls saw them romp home with seven overs to spare.
Head becomes the third Australian after Ponting’s 140* in 2003 and Gilchrist’s 149 in 2007 to score a century in a World Cup final.
It was India’s first defeat of the tournament after they had won all 10 if their previous matches. Australia came into the final on an eight-game winning streak, but had lost the group encounter with India.
Australia secure a sixth ODI World Cup title, while India will look upon today as a huge missed opportunity considering they were playing in their backyard, and had been far and away the best team in the tournament.
“We saved out best for last and a couple of big-match players stood up – we’re pretty chuffed,” said Australia captain Pat Cummins.
“We’ve been batting first for pretty much the whole tournament.
“Today we thought it was a good night to chase down and we thought it might get a little bit easier.
“(The pitch) was a bit slower than we thought, it didn’t really spin either and I thought everyone adjusted really well and bowled some tight lines.”
“We were really chuffed with 240 (for India) but we thought we could chase anything up to 300.”
“Marnus walked in with a cool head and Trav just does what he does – really brave again. He takes the game on and put some pressure back on India.”
“To do it on the biggest stage shows some character. He’s a legend and how fun is he to watch.”
“The passion in India is unrivalled around the world. It’s pretty special when you look around and everyone is wearing the blue shirt – no matter what happened we were never going to forget a day like today.”
