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Australia vs India, Final at London, WTC, Jun 07 2023 - Ball by Ball Commentary

RESULT
Final, The Oval, June 07 - 11, 2023, ICC World Test Championship
PrevNext
469 & 270/8d
(T:444) 296 & 234

Australia won by 209 runs

Player Of The Match
163
travis-head
New
IND 2nd Innings
Full commentary

1.15pm Pat Cummins and his team are presented with the WTC mace as the fireworks go off. Australia claim the title that was two years in the making for them. India leave England frustrated after a second successive finals loss. They are consistently one of the best two Test sides in the world but can't get over the hurdle and that will cause of a lot of consternation and examination back home. Keep an eye out for our analysis over the coming days. Australia will celebrate but only briefly. They start the next WTC cycle on Friday with the first Ashes Test against England at Edgbaston. The cricket keeps on coming. On behalf of the entire team, thanks for your company from the Oval.

1pm Presentation

Pat Cummins: "We made the most of the toss. We were certainly going to have a bowl. The way Travis and Smith played it gave us all a little bit of comfort after a pretty nervy morning. Travis has been brilliant throughout this whole campaign. He is always putting pressure back on the bowlers. We left day one on top of the game, mainly down to those two guys. At times we weren't at our slickest. But when it counted we played really well. I thought a couple of days ago we could have really driven the game home but we let India a little bit closer. For the most part we were in control. Scotty Boland is now my favourite player. He just continues to be my favourite. Everyone just did their role. Coming off a bit of a break for most of us. We'll savour this for a few days before we turn our attention to the Ashes."

Australia receive their winners medals.

Rohit Sharma: "It was a tough one. We started well winning the toss and putting them into bat in those conditions. We bowled pretty well in the first session and then we let ourselves down a little bit with how we bowled. But again, credit to the Australian batters, in particular, Travis Head came in and played really well. That took us off guard a little bit and then we knew it was always hard to come back. We put up a show. We fought hard but congratulations to Australia. We spoke of a lot of things. We spoke of bowling tighter lines. But it didn't work out. Things like that can happen. I thought it was a great fightback from Rahane and Shardul after being 5 down for 150. They stood up and put up a good partnership there and kept us in the game. We bowled pretty well in the second innings. Again we didn't apply ourselves with the bat. It was a good pitch to bat on. All five days the pitch behaved pretty well and we didn't capitalise. We've worked really hard for four years to make two finals. It's disappointment for us. We would like to go one better. But you cannot take anything away from what we've done in the two years. It's a great effort. A lot of players took part in those series. We'll keep our heads high and fight for the next championship as well."

12.54pm Scott Boland: "It was good fun. Nice for our bowling group to come over here and put up a good performance and take 20 wickets. You needed to hit similar areas all the time. There was a little bit of bounce and we tried to exploit that. It felt pretty good to get Kohli out. Some amazing catching from our cordon, it's nice to have the confidence that if you get the nicks they're going to get taken."

Shailendra : "Build the man a statue!!!"

Abhishek: "Hope was the word we were looking for at the start of the day today. Hope to win, hope to survive, hope to at least fight. A meek surrender is what every fan gets in return. Serious questions needs to be asked and lots of restructuring is required in the glamorous Indian top order. Bowlers and lower order batsmen cannot save you every time."

Shah Zaib : "And with that Australia became the first team to win ICC WTC, ICC 50 Overs World Cup, ICC Champions Trophy, ICC T-20 World Cup "

Guru: "We shot ourselves in the foot by preparing and playing on sub-par pitches, clearly incapable to bat out a whole session or an entire day. BCCI needs to focus on making matches competitive and last more than 4 days. Forget out glitz "

Travis Head is Player of the match in the WTC final for his incredible 163 in the first innings. Head: "It's amazing. A lot of hard work over two years. [Positive approach] has been the approach for two years. I wanted to be proactive and score if the balls were there and then if they bowl in nice areas you try and be good enough to stay out there for long periods. I was tested through my innings. It was nice to be able to bat as well as we did with [Smith]. It was an amazing Test from him. I've always had the confidence. It's been about going out there and expressing that. It took me some time to find a blueprint in first-class cricket and Test cricket. I've always been open to change. Always been committed to knowing what I needed to do to step up. I've bedded down some what. I'm trying to be as consistent as I possibly can for the team."

12.37pm Australia avenge for their failure to make the final two years ago after being penalised for slow over-rates. A dominant performance in this final. Particularly this morning when India had breathed life into the game on the fourth day. Scott Boland started the rot with a magnificent spell claiming Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja in the same over. Starc then prized out Ajinkya Rahane and Lyon finished it off. The game was set up though on day one by the 285-run partnership between Travis Head and Steven Smith after Australia were sent in. That was the difference in the game.

63.3
W
Lyon to Siraj, OUT

reverse swept straight to backward point! Australia win the World Test Championship! Tossed up outside off, Siraj tries and ambitious reverse sweep and just scoops it straight to Boland. Australia celebrate their first WTC title

Mohammed Siraj c Boland b Lyon 1 (6b 0x4 0x6 9m) SR: 16.66
63.2
Lyon to Siraj, no run

tossed up outside off, he leans out to defend on the front foot

Two slips and a short leg

63.1
Lyon to Siraj, no run

87kph, good length on off, he defends on the front foot

Lunch has not been taken. Play extended

end of over 6310 runs
IND: 234/9CRR: 3.71 
Mohammed Siraj1 (3b)
Mohammed Shami13 (8b 3x4)
Mitchell Starc 14-1-77-2
Nathan Lyon 15-2-41-3
62.6
1
Starc to Siraj, 1 run

140kph, good length angled into middle, he clips this away nicely to deep square leg

Jeremy: "A disappointing end to a very good match which shows once again that even for the best players it's not easy to transition from white ball to red ball with little or no practise. Too much professional sport is played these days without thought for the players' welfare and it does impact the spectators' enjoyment."

62.5
Starc to Siraj, no run

142kph, very full and wide of off, he plays and misses

62.4
1
Starc to Shami, 1 run

back of a length on middle, he jumps back and gets a thick inside edge through square leg

62.3
Starc to Shami, no run

given caught behind down the leg side! Is this the end? Shami reviews. Was it hip or glove? It was hip off. Off the thigh! Not out. The decision is overturned. Another hip high short ball, he tried to pull again and Chris Gaffaney thought it came off glove through to a diving Carey but it was off the hip

62.2
4
Starc to Shami, FOUR runs

pulled fine! Short into the hip, he swivels and pulls and get it fine of fine leg who is quite wide

62.1
4
Starc to Shami, FOUR runs

thumping on drive! Full and angled into middle from around the wicket, he swings through the line with anchored feet and drills it flat and hard. He holds the pose!

end of over 62Wicket maiden
IND: 224/9CRR: 3.61 
Mohammed Siraj0 (1b)
Mohammed Shami4 (4b 1x4)
Nathan Lyon 15-2-41-3
Mitchell Starc 13-1-67-2
61.6
Lyon to Siraj, no run

91kph, good length on middle, he defends from the crease

Dave: "Who gets man of the match? Head is the best contender from the batters, the bowlers have shared the wickets so evenly that they could be awarded it as a pack, and Carey is a contender for outstanding keeping (6 great catches so far) plus 48 and 66* with the bat. " Head and Smith were the difference in the game. You'd have to think one of those two

61.5
W
Lyon to Bharat, OUT

And Bharat falls trying to hit Lyon out of the ground! Skied straight up. Tossed up high outside off, he tries to launch over long on against the angle, it skewed straight up and Lyon only had to take two steps to his left from his follow through to take an easy catch

Srikar Bharat c & b Lyon 23 (41b 2x4 0x6 77m) SR: 56.09

All the men on the fence come in

61.4
Lyon to Bharat, no run

drifting outside off again, he strides out to defend again

61.3
Lyon to Bharat, no run

91kph, tossed up on off, he reaches out and defend with big stride

61.2
Lyon to Bharat, no run

Is this a stumping? No. Sharp glovework. This was full and drifting nicely across Bharat, he was lured to drive but it went on with the angle past the edge, he did drag his back foot out briefly and Carey whipped off the bails but Bharat has just slid it back in time.

61.1
Lyon to Bharat, no run

89kph, drifting outside off, he leans out to defend

end of over 614 runs • 1 wicket
IND: 224/8CRR: 3.67 
Mohammed Shami4 (4b 1x4)
Srikar Bharat23 (36b 2x4)
Mitchell Starc 13-1-67-2
Nathan Lyon 14-1-41-2

Peter: "The talk about Starc bemuses me. He's a genuine wicket taker and of the 13 other Aussie fast bowlers with 200 test wickets, 7 of them had higher averages per wicket than him. He's got that X factor that allows him to bowl 3 bad balls then a ripping wicket taker. "

60.6
Starc to Shami, no run

sliced just past the giant wing span of Green and it runs to wide third man. Nothing is safe within two metres either side of Green and this was about 2.5m wide

60.5
Starc to Shami, no run

143kph, angled way down the leg side and Carey has a long way to go to his left

60.4
4
Starc to Shami, FOUR runs

upper cut over gully! 134kph, short and wide, he leans back and upper cuts very nicely to breathe life into the India supporters in the stands

Joshua: "Starc is a rhythm bowler, the more he plays the better he gets. Aus need Starc's pace and bounce"

60.3
Starc to Shami, no run

142kph, good length, angled into off, he jumps back to defend

60.2
W
Starc to Umesh Yadav, OUT

caught behind! Cracking catch from Carey! A brute of a bouncer! 137kph straight at Yadav's head, he just gets his gloves up infront of his face and gets a touch on it, Carey jumps up at full stretch and plucks it one handed in his right glove.

Umesh Yadav c †Carey b Starc 1 (12b 0x4 0x6 12m) SR: 8.33
60.1
Starc to Umesh Yadav, no run

139kph, good length, angled into off, he stays leg side and drives firmly to mid off

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ICC World Test Championship

TeamMWLDPTPCT
AUS19113515266.67
IND18105312758.80
SA1586110055.56
ENG22108412446.97
SL125616444.44
NZ134636038.46
PAK144646438.10
WI134725434.62
BAN1211011611.11