World Cup Final: A dream extinguished — India retreat into passivity at the biggest stage of them all

Night came early at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday. Literally and figuratively as the heaving sea of blue turned into sullen silence, amid the shades of sad empty orange in the stands. The fans in their India jerseys were leaving in droves, unable to watch a dream tournament end like this, worse than a nightmare.

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How did it come to this? Sure, wins and losses are part of the sport, cricket is a game of glorious uncertainty and all that but do form and track record have no bearing on anything anymore? In the end, Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head were making it into a canter. It wasn’t even close.

Where was the fight?

So how could this team, this very team who had dominated everything till this particular moment, always found an answer, rarely let oppositions even get a sniff of victory, be so utterly bereft of a fight? That stings the most – that this team went down without a fight when it mattered the most.

Take nothing away from their overall performance. This was undoubtedly India’s best campaign at an ODI World Cup. As their travelling cavalcade moved across the country, destroying different batting line-ups in different stadiums, they sparked joy, unity and togetherness in the festive season. A World Cup which started slowly became bigger and bigger as India went from strength to strength. It was a glorious celebration of colour, passion and festiveness – everything that the country and its cricket is known for.

And yet we again come back to: what happened in the final?

They lost it in the middle overs

India’s first innings had two parts – the first ten overs and the remaining forty. Twelve boundaries came in the first ten overs of India’s innings, seven of them just off Rohit Sharma’s bat. This had been the template of the team throughout the tournament, exemplified by the captain’s fearless hitting.

True to form, even in a big final under immense pressure, Rohit, to his credit, stayed true to the script that had worked so well. He attacked Australia’s bowlers right from the beginning. His 31-ball 47 gave India the perfect start and if Player of the Match Head didn’t pluck out that spectacular catch, the result may have gone differently.

An outrageous catch by Travis Head