India vs Australia, World Cup Final: Why the two opening powerplays could potentially decide the winner
India vs Australia, World Cup Final: Why the two opening powerplays could potentially decide the winner
Barring a couple of individuals who have had a taste of the ultimate success in cricket, members of the Indian team will be gearing up for what will surely be the biggest match of their careers so far. India usually are counted among the title favourites across all major events, and the same had been true of the 13th edition of the ICC World Cup. However, simply describing India’s 2023 World Cup campaign as superb wouldn’t be enough; the Rohit Sharma-led side have been ruthless in the manner in which they’ve swatted their opponents aside en route to registering 10 wins in as many outings.
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All that stands between them and their dream of lifting the glittering trophy in front of 132,000 screaming fans at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday is a side for whom winning is a habit. Not just in recent years but across decades, with five ICC World Cups to boast of among others.
Read | Have prepared for this day ever since I became the captain, says Rohit
Unlike their opponents on Sunday, Australia had started their campaign with consecutive defeats, which included a six-wicket loss against the Men in Blue in their tournament opener in Chennai. The Pat Cummins-led side had allowed the match to slip out of their grasp after reducing the Indians to 2/3 in their chase of 200 and would get thoroughly outplayed by South Africa in the next match to take their losing streak across World Cups to four matches.
The Australian team that India face on Sunday, however, couldn’t be more different from the one that they have battled against in two different bilateral ODI series this year as well as at Chepauk on 8 October. India aren’t the only team on a roll at the moment, with Australia also full of belief after winning their last eight encounters, including a thrilling semi-final against South Africa, and are starting to play like the mighty Aussies of the old.
Read | Forget 2003, this is India’s chance to reignite the spirit of 2011
With two sides in such red-hot form, Sunday’s showdown — which will be a rematch of the 2003 final — promises to be a tensely fought contest. One where the margin for error will be very slim indeed.
One look at how the two sides have performed in the tournament so far, especially in recent matches, and it would be fair to assume that the contest might just get decided in the powerplays.
Why the two powerplays will be crucial?
One wouldn’t have to look too far back in the group stage to understand why the first 10 overs of the innings could potentially decide the winner of this year’s ICC World Cup. The events of the two semi-finals are evidence enough.
The battle between India skipper Rohit Sharma and New Zealand’s new-ball attack of Trent Boult and Tim Southee was being viewed as a key match-up heading into Wednesday’s semi-final at the Wankhede.
Though Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer would end up hogging the limelight later for scoring tons, the foundation of India’s winning total of 397 was laid in Rohit’s domination of the Kiwi quicks in the powerplay. The India captain would end up smashing 47 off just 29 deliveries as the Men in Blue raced to 84/1 at the end of 10 overs.
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New Zealand, in contrast, collected a little over half as many runs while losing both of their openers during the same phase, and would have been shot out a lot more quickly had it not been for Kane Williamson and Daryl Mitchell’s brilliant fightback.
The contrast was even more pronounced in the Australia-South Africa semi-final, and one would say that it was Australia’s complete domination of the two opening powerplays with ball and bat respectively that allowed them to sneak into the semi-finals despite a spirited fightback from South Africa. The Aussie new-ball pair of Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood collected a wicket each to reduce the Proteas to 18/2 after 10 under overcast conditions at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens. They would both strike again soon after to leave South Africa reeling at 24/4.
Australia openers Travis Head and David Warner would then blast off in the chase of 213 by collecting just 60 runs in the first six overs, and the contest was nearly dead and buried at that point. A superb fightback from David Miller and Heinrich Klaasen in the first innings and from the spin department and Gerald Coetzee in the second helped take the game deep.
It certainly isn’t the first time in the ongoing tournament that Starc and Hazlewood have been this ruthless at the start of the innings. They had India gasping for breath by reducing India to 2/3 after Australia suffered a middle-order collapse of their own to get bowled out for 199 before Kohli and KL Rahul came to India’s rescue with a match-winning 165-run stand.
It’s a similar story as far as the Indian pace attack vs Head and Warner is concerned. The trio of Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj has been nothing short of sensational in this World Cup campaign, with Shami surging ahead of Adam Zampa with his 7/57 on Wednesday to become the leading wicket-taker despite having made a late entry.
Read | Sensational Shami has single-handedly solved India’s lack of flexibility
They were especially ruthless in the matches against England, Sri Lanka and South Africa, reducing them to 40/4, 14/6 and 35/3 respectively at the end of the 10-over mark which resulted in the teams getting shot out soon after.
They will be up against an opening pair that had flattened the famed Proteas new-ball pair of Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen at the Eden Gardens on Thursday and had smashed 118 runs in 10 overs against the Black Caps in Dharamsala. Warner had similarly smashed Pakistani pacers Shaheen Afridi, Hasan Ali and Haris Rauf all over Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium to power Australia to 82/0 during the same stage with Mitchell Marsh, who had opened before Head made his long-awaited comeback.
There are, of course, other departments that will no doubt also play a role in shaping Sunday’s contest. Kohli’s having a dream run with the bat and finds himself at the top of the run-scorers list and he will be expected to renew his rivalry with leg-spinner Zampa, who had collected 3/21 in Australia’s victory over England at this very venue earlier.
Then there’s the little battle that the Indian spin pair of Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja is expected to have with the Aussie middle-order, especially against a certain Glenn Maxwell who had taken on Afghanistan’s red-hot spin department in Mumbai to produce one of the greatest knocks in the history of the sport and pull off one of the most remarkable chases of all time.
None, however, will have a greater impact on the game than what unfolds in Powerplay 1.
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