Australia win a record sixth World Cup, bringing India to its knees

AHMEDABAD – Australia defeated India by six wickets in a lopsided match that decided the ICC World Cup 2023 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday.

With at least four more victories than West Indies and India, who each have two World Cup championships under their belts, the formidable Australians secured an unprecedented sixth World Cup victory.

After losing three early wickets, left-handed batsman Travis Head stood up for Australia and scored an incredible century.

Head showed no compassion for his opponents and destroyed the Indian bowling attack, scoring 137 runs off 120 balls with 15 fours and 4 sixes.

Collectively, the two batsmen, Head and Labuschagne, put together a strong 192-run partnership that helped Australia win another title.

On India's batting side, star batter Virat Kohli slammed half ton (54), whereas KL Rahul remained top scorer with 66 (107), helping the hosts cruise to 240. The entire Indian team was bowled out by the last ball of the 50th over. 

India dominated the ICC event with 300-plus scores in every match but in the final showdown the team was bowled out at 240 as Kangaroos contained them after the first power play.

Skipper Rohit Sharma failed to score big and played quick 47 runs knock. Shubman Gill and Sherayas Iyer returned early as the duo contributed only 8 runs.

Mitchell Starc was on fire as he picked top batters. He picked 3 wickets for 55 runs, followed by skipper Cummins who got 2 scalps. Hazlewood also got two wickets.

Australia won the toss and elected to bowl first in the final clash of the ICC World Cup 2023 against India.

In the World Test Championship earlier this year in England, Australia defeated India to set up their Ashes visit, which they won by drawing the series.

With this victory versus India, Australia recorded an incredible hat-trick. 

India cruised through the group stage, finishing top on a maximum 18 points having won all nine of their matches. India's net run rate of 2.570 was far and away the best in the group stage.

On the other hand, Australia bounced back from defeats to India and South Africa in their opening matches, and sitting in last place on the table, before going on to win the remaining seven matches, and qualify with 14 points.

Meanwhile, ICC announced Richard Illingworth and Richard Kettleborough, both from England, were the on-field umpires for the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 final.

The English duo took charge of the on-field duties during the all-important World Cup clash. 

The Squads

India: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishan Kishan, Prasidh Krishna, Suryakumar Yadav.

Australia: Pat Cummins (c), Steve Smith, Alex Carey, Josh Inglis, Sean Abbott, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitch Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa, Mitchell Starc.