Travis Head struck a magnificent, match-winning hundred as Australia claimed a record-extending sixth men’s Cricket World Cup title, breaking Indian hearts with a six-wicket win over the tournament hosts in the final in Ahmedabad.
Head’s superb 137, off 120 deliveries, helped rescue Australia from 47-3 early on in their chase of 241 to win as he became only the sixth player to score a century in a men’s World Cup final, following in the footsteps of Sir Clive Lloyd (1975), Sir Viv Richards (1979), Aravinda de Silva (1996), Ricky Ponting (2003), Adam Gilchrist (2007) and Mahela Jayawardene (2011).
Mohammed Shami (1-47) had picked up David Warner (7) with his first ball, while Mitchell Marsh (15) and Steve Smith (4) both departed in the face of a superb opening spell from Jasprit Bumrah (2-43).
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Travis Head scores a century to all but crown Australia champions in the ICC Cricket World Cup final in Ahmedabad.
But Head and the uber-watchful Marnus Labuschagne (58no off 110 balls) saw off the danger and, with batting becoming progressively easier under lights as the game wore on, they shared in a 192-run stand as Australia cruised to victory, Glenn Maxwell smashing the winning runs with his first ball after Head perished two shy of the winning line.
India falter with bat after blistering Rohit start
Earlier, KL Rahul (66 off 107) top-scored for India, while Virat Kohli (54 off 63) chipped in with a half century but the innings lost its way after a blistering, boundary-laden 31-ball cameo from skipper Rohit Sharma (47) at the top of the order.
Rohit cracked three sixes to go with four boundaries as 80 runs were reaped from the opening 10-over powerplay after India were put into bat by Australia – Kohli too contributing four fours in that period.
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Travis Head produced an incredible catch over his shoulder to remove India captain Rohit Sharma in the Cricket World Cup final.
But Rohit departed to the fourth ball of the 10th over, Head claiming a terrific catch running back from cover, and Shreyas Iyer (4) was gone to the second ball of the 11th. The scoring dried up massively thereafter, with only four boundaries scored over the remaining 40 overs of the innings!
Kohli and Rahul rebuilt, adding 67 for the fourth wicket, but slowly, and the Narendra Modi Stadium was silenced when the former was bowled by Pat Cummins (2-34), chopping onto his stumps, deceived by the lack of pace in the surface.
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Virat Kohli dragged Pat Cummins onto his stumps to fall for 54 and stun the pro-India crowd in the Cricket World Cup final.
With Kohli’s dismissal coming in the 29th over of the innings, and given India’s lack of all-round options in their lower order, Ravindra Jadeja and Suryakumar Yadav, along with Rahul, were forced to bat cautiously.
As they looked to build a platform from which to launch later, Rahul reaching his half century in the process, Australia’s seamers managed to find some helpful reverse-swing. Josh Hazlewood (2-60) exploited it perfectly to pick up Jadeja (9), while Mitchell Starc (3-55) claimed the key scalp of Rahul with one that straightened from round the wicket and found the edge.
India’s total had only just edged past 200 and they still had more than eight overs to bat, with just a collection of their bowlers left to join Suryakumar at the crease to try and scramble to a match-winning score.
In the end, the tail offered precious little and Suryakumar would glove Hazlewood behind in the 48th as India were eventually bowled out for 240 off the final ball of their 50-over allocation.
Bumrah has Australia rattled before Head hundred heroics
Early in Australia’s reply, Bumrah’s double-wicket opening burst, along with Shami’s first-ball dismissal of Warner, appeared to swing the game firmly back in India’s favour.
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Mohammed Shami takes David Warner out early with his second ball in the final.
Each breakthrough was greeted by deafening celebrations inside the stadium, but all had an element of good fortune about them. Shami and Bumrah, who each beat the edge with regularity in supremely skilful spells of fast bowling, actually claimed the wickets of Warner and Marsh, respectively, to a couple of short, wide long-hops.
As for Smith, he’ll have been hugely frustrated with himself for failing to review his lbw decision in the eighth over, with the ball shown on replay to have struck him outside the line.
In the end, it mattered not. Head, who struggled against the seamers early on, just about survived the opening bursts of Bumrah and Shami, then got his eye in against the ineffective spinners – Kuldeep Yadav (0-56) and Jadeja (0-43) both held wicketless – and cruised to a magnificent fifth ODI century.
Shortly after smashing the returning Bumrah back out of the attack with three boundaries in an over, Head’s magic moment arrived in the 34th over, while he celebrated by smacking Jadeja into the stands in the next for the second of his four maximums (and 15 boundaries) in the innings.
Labuschagne brought up a richly-deserved half century of his own off 99 balls, to end the 40th over, before Maxwell struck the winning runs with seven overs to spare after Head perished late on, holing out in the deep off Mohammed Siraj (1-45).