Both teams found themselves in somewhat similar situation on Sunday at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Both India and Australia lost three quick wickets in their innings, although the hosts were in a slightly better position given Rohit Sharma's aggressive 47. Yet it was Australia who recovered better from their position, as explained by the India captain, with Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne doing what KL Rahul and Virat Kohli failed to produce, and that is where, he felt the Men in Blue lost the World Cup final.
Four deliveries after Glenn Maxwell got the better of Rohit in the final over of the powerplay, courtesy of a Kapil Dev-esque catch from Travis Head, India lost Shreyas Iyer as well to go 3 down for 81 in the 11th over. Rahul and Kohli then cautiously took on the disciplined Aussie attack, en route to which the former India captain got his fifth straight fifty-plus score, as India looked to revive on their 67-run stand.
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Kohli looked set for a fourth century in this World Cup as as the message was sent to them to to take the game deep and aim for a 280-run target, as revealed by Rohit after the match. But Pat Cummins silenced the Ahmedabad crowd with the dismissal of Kohli shortly after before the remainder of the line-up crumbled with little or nor impact on the scoreboard.
Against the chase of 241, Australia too got off to a horrid start, losing three wickets in a space of just 42 deliveries with Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami picking up the wickets. But that was it from the Indian attack as Head and Labuschagne took matters into their own hand thereafter. Like Kohli and Rahul, they took off cautiously against the 'best bowling line-up in the tournament', but changed gears as well. Head, who smashed a record 137 off 120, played the aggressor in the stand with Labuschagne holding one end of the crease. The 192-run stand was enough for Australia to chase it down with seven overs to spare.
{{/usCountry}}Against the chase of 241, Australia too got off to a horrid start, losing three wickets in a space of just 42 deliveries with Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami picking up the wickets. But that was it from the Indian attack as Head and Labuschagne took matters into their own hand thereafter. Like Kohli and Rahul, they took off cautiously against the 'best bowling line-up in the tournament', but changed gears as well. Head, who smashed a record 137 off 120, played the aggressor in the stand with Labuschagne holding one end of the crease. The 192-run stand was enough for Australia to chase it down with seven overs to spare.
{{/usCountry}}Rohit later explained that it was Australia's fourth-wicket partnership that stood as the difference between the two sides. He revealed that India were aiming for a target of 270-280 with their hopes pinned on Kohli and Rahul's partnership, but it eventually did not turn out to be as expected.
"I mean the result hasn't gone our way and we know that we were not good enough on the day. But proud of the team. It wasn't supposed to be. Honestly, 20-30 runs would've been good. We spoke around 25-30 overs when when KL and Virat were batting, they were stitching a good partnership there and they needed to bat as long as possible. We were looking at 270-280 at that point and we kept losing wickets. We couldn't stitch a big partnership there. That is exactly what Australia did, they stitched a big partnership after losing three wickets. With 240 on the board, we wanted early wickets but credit to Travis Head and Marnus. They put us completely out of the game and I thought the wicket got better to bat under lights. I mean we knew under lights, it would be better but don't want to give that as an excuse. We didn't bat well enough," he said.