The Australian player Travis Head was named the Player of the Match after his impressive knock of 134 runs during the finals of the World Cup 2023.
Travis Head on winning the WC finals
India is scheduled to play World Cup 2023 finals against Australia at Ahmedabad. The most expected match of the tournament started with Australia winning the toss and chose to bowl.
Indian skipper Rohit Sharma had an incredible start as he scored 47 runs with four fours and three sixes while Mitchell Starc dismissed Shubman Gill for 4 runs in the fifth over of the innings. Virat Kohli came to bat after Gill where he awaited a fifth consecutive half-century or more. He surpassed the records of Sachin Tendulkar with his 50 ODI tons in the tournament.
However, the skipper was sent out during the 10th over of the match as he ended up miscuing a shot off Glenn Maxwell where the ball went to Head who was fielding at cover point.
The Australian fielder covered a lot of ground while running to catch the shot from Rohit Sharma which he eventually succeeded in to give a major breakthrough for his side.
He scored his fifty in the match, but Cummins disrupted Kohli’s plan dismissing him in the 29th over. KL Rahul joined with Kohli and increased the runs in the scoreboard. He tried to keep up the innings after the dismissal of Kohli but with the dismissal of Ravindra Jadeja, and Suryakumar Yadav in the 36th over, India had lost 5 wickets on scoring 178 runs.
KL Rahul has been dismissed by Starc for 66 runs in the 42nd over. With only Suryakumar Yadav is the only hope of the side as he was the last specialist batter who could turn the tables.
With the dismissal of Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Shami for 9 and 6 runs, Adam Zampa dismissed Bumrah for 1 run. Later Suryakumar Yadav was dismissed by Hazlewood for 18 runs in the 48th over scoring 226 runs.
Mitchell Starc dismissed three wickets while Hazlewood and Cummins dismissed two wickets each. With Australia collapsing the Indian batting order to avoid setting up a high target, the match rests in the hands of the Indian bowling department. India scored 240 runs losing all 10 wickets by the end of 50 overs
With a target of 241, David Warner and Travis Head opened the innings where Warner was sent out with 7 runs by Shami. On the other hand, Travis Head had an incredible start and helped the side on the scoreboard. Australia struggled a bit during the opening as they lost 3 wickets for 47 runs in the seventh over. Marnus joined a partnership with Head and scored an individual 58 runs and helped the side for the victory.
Head had a stunning knock as he scored 137 runs on 120 deliveries including 15 fours and 4 sixes. By the end of 43 overs, Australia scored 241 runs and won the match with 6 wickets in hand.
Travis Head was named as the Player of the Match. While speaking in the Post-match conference he said, “Never expected this, not in a million years, truly an exceptional day. A lot better than sitting on the couch at home.
Really glad to contribute, the first twenty balls I played gave me a lot of confidence and yeah I was able to carry through. The way Mitch Marsh came out and took the game on, he set the tone.
That was the energy we wanted and we knew the wicket may get tough. It was a great decision to bowl first after winning the toss. I felt the wicket got better as the day went on. It took a little bit of spin, it paid dividends.
Nice to be a part of it, nice to play a role in all of that. He’s (Rohit Sharma) probably the unluckiest man in the world. Again, it’s (fielding) something that I worked hard on. I couldn’t imagine getting a hundred, couldn’t probably imagine holding onto that one. Was great to hold on to that catch.
Important to look after your teammates, to be able to do that on the big stage in front of a full house is a nice thing. (On joining the list of centurions in WC finals – Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and Head) Definitely third on that list, it’s a nice one to join, nice to be here, and nice to contribute. I’ll just tell the boys that I’m looking forward to the reunion,” he concluded.
Australia will be playing their 5-match T20I series against India starting their first T20I on November 23 at ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium.
