World Cup Final: A dream extinguished — India retreat into passivity at the biggest stage of them all

Night came early at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday. Literally and figuratively as the heaving sea of blue turned into sullen silence, amid the shades of sad empty orange in the stands. The fans in their India jerseys were leaving in droves, unable to watch a dream tournament end like this, worse than a nightmare. World Cup 2023:  News |  Schedule |  Results |  Points table How did it come to this? Sure, wins and losses are part of the sport, cricket is a game of glorious uncertainty and all that but do form and track record have no bearing on anything anymore? In the end, Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head were making it into a canter. It wasn’t even close. Where was the fight? So how could this team, this very team who had dominated everything till this particular moment, always found an answer, rarely let oppositions even get a sniff of victory, be so utterly bereft of a fight? That stings the most - that this team went down without a fight when it mattered the most. Take nothing away from their overall performance. This was undoubtedly India’s best campaign at an ODI World Cup. As their travelling cavalcade moved across the country, destroying different batting line-ups in different stadiums, they sparked joy, unity and togetherness in the festive season. A World Cup which started slowly became bigger and bigger as India went from strength to strength. It was a glorious celebration of colour, passion and festiveness - everything that the country and its cricket is known for.

And yet we again come back to: what happened in the final? They lost it in the middle overs India’s first innings had two parts - the first ten overs and the remaining forty. Twelve boundaries came in the first ten overs of India’s innings, seven of them just off Rohit Sharma’s bat. This had been the template of the team throughout the tournament, exemplified by the captain’s fearless hitting. True to form, even in a big final under immense pressure, Rohit, to his credit, stayed true to the script that had worked so well. He attacked Australia’s bowlers right from the beginning. His 31-ball 47 gave India the perfect start and if Player of the Match Head didn’t pluck out that spectacular catch, the result may have gone differently.

An outrageous catch by Travis Head 🤯#INDvsAUSfinal #CWC2023Final pic.twitter.com/er9N8bTtII

— 👾 (@l0l_world) November 19, 2023

Unfortunately for the captain, the batters after him failed to follow his fearless lead. At the first sign of pressure, they retreated into an all-too-familiar comfortable cocoon of tentativeness which they had supposedly broken out of. It is this tentativeness that has been the Indian cricket team’s bane in the last decade, especially in ICC tournaments. Under pressure, they shed their dynamism and revert, almost by default, to a safety-first approach. The great hope that arose from India’s campaign was that this tentativeness, this nervousness had finally been exorcised under Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid. But old habits die hard. After Shreyas Iyer was dismissed in the second ball of the tenth over, India hit only two boundaries till the end of the 42nd over. When Iyer was dismissed, the score read 81/3 in 10.2 overs, a run rate almost touching eight. At the end of the 42nd over, the score was 207/6 - 126 runs put on in 190 balls and the run rate had slunk down to just over four. Head’s counter-attack deflates India Compare it with Australia’s approach. Even after staring down the barrel at 47/3, Head never went into his shell. Two overs later, he shellacked Mohammed Shami for two boundaries in two balls. Labuschagne’s strike rate was low but he didn’t’ allow any pressure to build, taking singles in almost every over, the two batters making sure they didn’t give India even a glimmer of hope with a maiden over after the ninth. Head hadn’t had an easy start; Jasprit Bumrah was toying with him in the first spell but when he was brought back into the attack for his second spell, the batter threw caution to the winds and hammered him for three boundaries, effectively killing the contest. There will be a lot of talk about difficult batting conditions in the first half, of dew, and of playing on a tacky surface. But Rohit Sharma will know they are just excuses. For a team of India’s calibre, none of it should have been insurmountable. Even if the pitch was slow, this team had the experience to inject some urgency into proceedings, put Australia’s bowlers off their lengths and make them bowl to a Plan B or Plan C. Their response was to be meek and submissive, letting Pat Cummins and Co execute their plans perfectly. As the dust settles, no doubt, there will be pain and recrimination. It could have all been very different. The difference in mentality shines through. To be fearless is easier said than done. Fear of failure has a different pressure. But if that fear is not banished, India will continue to struggle to cross the finishing line in big tournaments.