New Delhi: “That was an over that was tinged with tragedy for India, and sadness,” exclaimed acclaimed commentator Harsha Bhogle after Australian batsman Travis Head took Jasprit Bumrah, the leader of India’s pace attack, to the cleaners in the 28th over of the run chase in the ICC World Cup cricket final.
A bit over the top, the remark was both appropriate for the immediate developments he called on and also for the wider ramifications of that over.
Left with only 78 runs to defend, Rohit Sharma threw the roll of the dice to stem Head, who was ensuring that there was no tomorrow for the rival team and its fans present both inside and outside the Ahmedabad stadium.
Head plundered 14 runs and finished the match for the Men in Blue and their fans, way before Glenn Maxwell hit the match-winning runs.
It was a moment of sadness for the Indian fans as their team, which played a bold and brave cricket up until the final, did not actually turn up on the biggest stage. It was a tragedy as well. Often used as a hyperbole in sports, the word summed up the state of mind, especially for the legion of fans who came expecting a famous win only to see the team wilt under pressure in the all-important finale.
The home team had a dream run in the tournament winning not only all 10 matches before the final, but also the manner in which they played and executed tactics. It was not exactly an easy ride to the final, as Rohit and his men had to dig deep on occasions like in the matches against England in Lucknow and Australia in Chennai but they had responded with clarity in thought process and calmness under pressure. Not on Sunday.
The team’s failure to rise at the big stage yet again has reopened old wounds of the 2003 loss against the same opponent in Johannesburg. It can be argued that Bhogle’s remarks came more from a fan’s perspective than a commentator’s.
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Abandoned safety first approach
A lot of criticism India faced in the recent years since Rahul Dravid took over as the head coach was about lack of “intent” from the top order to take the game ahead and put the opposition under pressure. After the first round exit from the 2021 T20 World Cup, India changed their approach in the T20 World Cup last year but the team could not execute it.
Rohit Sharma led from the front, batting with supreme confidence and clobbering the opposition bowlers with utter disdain to take the matches out of equation. Neither did the sluggish pitch at Lucknow could not slow him, nor did the pace and bounce at Eden Gardens.
He had the highest strike rate (133.1) among batsmen who batted in powerplay and his template was adopted effortlessly by his opening partner Shubman Gill, who came fourth with a strike rate of 107.48.
Rohit had scored 354 runs in the first 10 games in the first power play at a strike rate of over 133.1 which is significantly higher than his career strike rate of 91.97. The strike rate is runs scored by a batter every 100 balls.
An analysis of ESPNcricinfo suggested that Rohit was batting with this template since the start of 2022 when he took over the ODI leadership. He was only three among 35 batters who scored 300 or more runs in the first powerplay, but the other two — Travis Head and England’s Phil Salt — could not outscore the Indian captain.
In this World Cup, he single-handedly finished the games against Pakistan and Afghanistan, while the tricky surfaces in the matches against New Zealand and England could not stop his blitzkrieg.
He was ably assisted by Virat Kohli, who built the base for the team to go big. Kohli amassed 765 runs from 11 innings in the tournament, the highest in a single edition of the World Cup. The former skipper scored six 50s and three 100s to provide India a rock solid stability.
The likes of Shreyas Iyer batted with exuberance and belligerence for which he was backed by the team management despite injuries. Brutal in the middle phase of the matches, he never allowed the opposition spinners to settle.
In the semi-final against New Zealand, while the world was hooked on Kohli’s 50th ODI century, Iyer did not let New Zealand recover from the initial onslaught of Rohit and Gill to power India to 397. The Black Caps failed to reach the target despite batting-friendly conditions and a century from Daryl Mitchell.
Enforced bowling attack
India started their campaign with Ravichandran Ashwin against Australia on a sluggish surface at Chepauk and replaced him with Shardul Thakur in the second game, as they moved to better batting surfaces. Shardul along with Hardik Pandya formed the fifth and sixth bowling option to complete India’s quota of 50 overs.
Pandya gave the team depth in both batting and bowling, while Shardul was played as a bowler who could bat a bit.
However, Shardul was needed for only 17 overs across three games and Pandya hurt his ankle in the third game against Bangladesh.
From thereon, the team management brought in Mohammad Shami as they could not afford to compromise depth in bowling by relying on Shardul in a five-men bowling attack. Shami ripped through the batting order of New Zealand, England, South Africa and Sri Lanka.
He began with a five-wicket haul to derail New Zealand’s innings at Dharamshala and followed that up with a four-wicket haul to dismantle England in Lucknow. In the semi-final against New Zealand, who had shocked Indians in 2019, he started by picking up a wicket on his first ball of the game.
The right-arm pacer also got the better of Rachin Ravindra, and ended with a haul of 7/57 at Wankhede Stadium to take India to the final.
Jasprit Bumrah was used sparingly by Rohit Sharma as his trump card. And he rightly paid back with special deliveries. His off cutter to Mohammad Rizwan in Ahmedabad and reverse-swing outswinger to Shadab Khan will remain etched in the minds of cricket lovers.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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