Cometh the hour, cometh the man. India pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah knew that the hosts needed to get rid of Steve Smith early to have a real shot at defending their total of 240. And he delivered the goods, breaching the defence of the Aussie batting lynchpin to trap him in front and leave Australia reeling in the final of ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. (Match Blog | Streaming | Scorecard | Full Coverage)
Australia had gotten off to a flying start, wiping 41 runs off the target in just four overs. Mohammed Shami dismissed dangerman David Warner in the second over, but Mitchell Marsh kept the run rate soaring with some audacious hitting over the in-field. Bumrah first accounted for Marsh, then bamboozled Smith with a delightful slower off-cutter to bring India roaring back in the contest.
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Smith was looking to drop anchor and consolidate with a watchful approach. But Bumrah outfoxed him with his mastery of limited-overs bowling. The Gujarat seamer first bowled a series of seam-up pacy deliveries around the off stump to tuck him up, then bowled a slower off-cutter in the 120s to beat Smith's inside edge and smash his pads. You can watch the video of the fabulous delivery below.
Earlier, a disciplined effort in the field by Australia tied down the otherwise aggressive, free-flowing Indian batting and bowled them out for a below-par total of 240 on a sluggish surface.
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Veteran left-arm seamer Mitchell Starc exploited the conditions smartly and and found some reverse swing in the latter half to scalp three wickets, including that of the well-set KL Rahul. Australia captain Pat Cummins too led from the front, cutting off the run supply and prising out the crucial wickets of India's batting mainstay Virat Kohli and the in-form Shreyas Iyer to derail the hosts' consolidation efforts.
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Rahul top-scored for the home team with an utterly patient knock of 66, which took 107 balls but held together one end in a huge chunk of the middle overs. Kohli joined forces with Rahul and scored a half-century of his own (54 off 63 balls), but got out just when he was feeling in control of proceedings and eyeing a big one, perhaps even a 51st ODI century.
India's score could have been even lower, had it not been for captain Rohit Sharma's typically blazing knock at the start. Rohit smashed a 31-ball 47 and gave the home team a flying start before the ball got softer and batting got harder.
