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It appeared as though Rohit Sharma was fighting back
tears. Mohammed Siraj was unable to. He was comforted by Jasprit Bumrah, who
doesn’t allow failures affect his feelings. Rahul KL fell to his knees. Virat
Kohli’s headgear concealed his face. Mohammed Shami retreated in despair.
It aches. More pain will be inflicted upon those who
choose not to compete in another World Cup. It will get worse in the morning.
Having their families around them is a positive thing. Life is more than just a
World Cup. When there is no training to attend on Monday morning, they will
need that reaffirmed. Those without family members will require their teammates
to provide them with reinforcement.
Just as the seats emptied by people who had moved on
to more practical things like avoiding traffic jams well before the last ball
had been bowled, so too will all those runs and wickets feel empty. A hollow
hum replaced the joy and noise they had been surrounded by for the past month
and a half. In a single tournament, Rohit scored more runs than any other
skipper in history. No hitter has ever scored as many as Kohli has. Despite
missing four matches, Shami had the greatest wicket-taking percentage. For them
right now, none of these facts matter.
However, in a cricket world with so much
professionalism, with the top-three sides having equal access to knowledge,
facilities, technology and talent, it is still rare that you can beat the
conditions. In the league match against Australia, India were on the right side
of the conditions. In the final, they lost to the conditions.
India anticipated that the pitch will continue to slow
down and provide more turn, like it did in the semi-final in Kolkata. They were
hoping to take advantage of Australia’s weak pursuit.
Australia followed the latest fashions. Batting in
Ahmedabad under the lights has constantly gotten easier during this World Cup.
They anticipated a drier-than-usual pitch to be at its most challenging in the
afternoon, and they bet on the pattern holding. On sluggish wickets, they hoped
to take advantage of India’s relative vulnerability.
India’s early plans with the ball were right on. Shami
was chosen to open the bowling because of his better than average performance
against left-handed hitters. The assistance Bumrah and Shami received would
have happily astonished them, but that zip and that movement had a price. In
the evening, the ground had accelerated and the ball gripped much less, as was
most evident for New Zealand versus England in the tournament opener.
Naturally, the staff will review the material. Rahul
might have shown more bravery throughout the middle overs. With his current
form, Kohli can score at a strike rate of 80 to 90 without needing to cross any
boundaries. On that slow pitch, Kohli was hit with a delivery that rose and
went large. The inside edge might have passed the leg stump on a different day.
In this final, no.
They’ll reflect on the nine boundary attempts in 180
legal balls during the middle overs and question whether it was enough. With
just four boundaries struck after the opening powerplay, India’s total for an
ODI since 2005 was tied for lowest. Bowlers do have more leeway to make
mistakes on a slower surface, but only India can respond if they weren’t able
to make a more concerted effort to drive the bowlers off their lengths.
Looking back, you could argue that the spinners should
have gone slower in the air to try to get the ball to turn because the pitch
had some movement in it a little earlier, and the fast bowlers in India could
have bowled more cuts. They might have given Suryakumar Yadav more credit and
refrained from pushing Ravindra Jadeja to take on a weak opposition from spin,
which would have prevented the lack of intent from being shown in overs 30 to
36.
These are minor problems, though. They may have
succeeded if Rahul had taken more chances, but we also understand the potential
consequences. The largest deciding factor—which the players will not admit—was
the change in conditions from afternoon to evening. It doesn’t make them weaker
people, less brave, or mentally unstable. They realise they just need to roll
with it since they have played cricket for so long.
Nevertheless, it will be the hardest thing for them to
accomplish. Although they have had this emotion before, it never gets any
better. And for the first time since 2011., they were closer this time. You
have to take the worst pain in order to fight for the biggest joy.