IND vs AUS ICC World Cup 2023 final: Public cheer despite India losing toss

Australia’s Travis Head takes a catch to dismiss India skipper Rohit Sharma in Ahmedabad yesterday. Pic/PTI

The 1,30,000-plus crowd at the Narendra Modi Stadium roared as soon as India captain Rohit Sharma flipped the coin for the toss before the start of the World Cup final on Sunday, but fell dead silent as soon as Australia captain Pat Cummins stepped up for a chat with Ravi Shastri, indicating he had called correctly. A moment later though, there was a deafening sound again from the public after Cummins elected to field. The message was loud and clear - everyone, ironically Cummins included, wanted India to bat first. Cummins justified his call, saying the dew factor in the second innings would make it tougher to bowl. Rohit however, revealed that he too would have batted first had he won the toss. The public, though, were most happy with the outcome despite the loss of the toss.

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Head's catch was just like Kapil's in 1983 final

Travis Head's stunning backward-running catch to dismiss India's skipper and dangerous batsman Rohit Sharma instantly brought back memories of a similar catch taken by Kapil Dev to dismiss the dangerous Vivian Richards of the West Indies in the 1983 final at Lord's. Rohit was batting brilliantly on 47 off 31 balls (4x4, 3x6) and had already hit a six and a boundary in the same Glenn Maxwell over when he stepped out to loft one more towards the leg side only to get a leading edge and send the ball high and towards cover where Head ran back quickly and dived to pull off one of the best catches of the tournament. In the 1983 final, Richards was on a 28-ball 33 (7x4) when he pulled Madan Lal high and towards mid-wicket only for Kapil to run back and pull off a beauty.

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Half-time entertainment entirely misplaced

The decision to have an entertainment show bang in the middle of a tense World Cup final was totally misplaced, by the organisers. Even the crowd would not have been keen on the entertainment after India were bowled out for 240. And even if we leave India's batting performance aside, one cannot ignore the fact that the large troupe of dancers blocked almost the entire outfield, leaving very little space for the players to warmup ahead of the most important second innings of the tournament.