Aussies to take on Kiwis in WC final as India go down under

Rohit Mahajan in Sydney

India are world champions no more. The teary eyes of the fans at the ground, in India and across the world told silently the tale of India’s downfall. Their defence came unstuck in the semifinals against a powerful Australian team that seemed unconquerable in home conditions. The support of the crowd at the packed Sydney Cricket Ground, with more Indian than Australian supporters, proved irrelevant.

Australia will play New Zealand in Sunday’s final, while the Indians will fly home tomorrow.

Australia won the toss and batted first — this, essentially, halved India’s chances of winning the game. Australia racked up a huge total of 328, and this sort of a total is almost unchaseable in a World Cup knockout match.

But India had a good start, Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma adding 76 for the first wicket in 12.5 overs. Dhawan’s fall, against the run of play, turned the tide. India lost Virat Kohli 12 runs later, after Josh Hazlewood stifled him with a maiden over. This maiden over, the 15th of the innings, left him at 1 run from 12 balls. This probably hurt his sense of self-esteem, and he cracked. He attempted a six off the first ball he faced after that, from Mitchell Johnson, and edged it high into the night sky and Brad Haddin took the catch. Rohit Sharma fell in Johnson’s next over, edging one on to his stumps. The end of the last match’s centurion hit India hard. The Australian supporters, comprising around 40% of the crowd, sang “Come on Australia, come on!” But the team didn’t require any prompting as the Indian batsmen lost their heads, one by one.

Suresh Raina joined Rahane and the two tried to hang on, but Australia put them under pressure by choking the flow of runs; 11 runs came from the next four overs, and the required run rate went over eight an over. Raina was struggling, and he too tried to hit out and edged Faulkner to Haddin. India were now 108/4 in 23 overs, needing 221 from 27, and this was crisis. Dhoni, probably playing his last WC innings, ran his singles hard and hit the occasional boundary and kept India’s hopes alive. The hopes ended when Rahane was out caught by Haddin.

Dhoni later said: “The title doesn’t belong to anyone, we didn’t play well enough and we’ve lost it. Simple.”