Australia lifted their sixth ICC Cricket World Cup title after beating India at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday.
Rohit Sharma and Co failed to avenge the 2003 final defeat as Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne's resilient 192-run partnership shattered Indian hopes, securing a six-wicket victory for Australia.
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Skipper Rohit Sharma gave a good start to the team scoring 47 off 31 balls. Later, Virat Kohli (54) and KL Rahul (66) scored a half-century each. However, Rahul was extremely cautious in his approach and took 107 balls to score the 66 runs.
Pakistan's former pacer, Mohammad Amir, feels that his snail-paced innings built pressure on Kohli at the other end to score more quickly which ultimately led the former skipper to throw away his wicket. Amir believes that his approach hurt Indian interests which ultimately restricted the Men in Blue to a modest total of 240 runs.
MORE: Indian superstar Virat Kohli earns Player of the Tournament honours
What did Mohammad Amir say?
"Kohli came to the crease and after facing a few balls hit three boundaries on the trot. Sharma was also hitting freely at the other end. It was a difficult wicket for a new batter coming in. The ball was not coming onto the bat nicely. Kohli was playing with a good strike until Rahul came. But I don't know, for whatever reason, Rahul played a very slow innings. He built the pressure on Kohli. He (Rahul) is not a player who plays slowly. He plays with a good strike. I feel that destroyed the Indian innings," Amir said.
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Rohit Sharma points out the turning point of the final match
Sharma revealed that India were aiming for a 270-target and were hoping for Kohli and Rahul to churn out a partnership in the middle overs. However, after Kohli was sent back to the pavilion, Rahul failed to emerge as the messiah and instead succumbed to the pressure and the conditions.
"I mean the result hasn't gone our way and we know that we were not good enough on the day. But proud of the team. It wasn't supposed to be. Honestly, 20-30 runs would've been good. We spoke around 25-30 overs when KL and Virat were batting, they were stitching a good partnership there and they needed to bat as long as possible. We were looking at 270-280 at that point and we kept losing wickets. We couldn't stitch a big partnership there.
"That is exactly what Australia did, they stitched a big partnership after losing three wickets. With 240 on the board, we wanted early wickets but credit to Travis Head and Marnus. They put us completely out of the game and I thought the wicket got better to bat under lights. I mean we knew under lights, it would be better but don't want to give that as an excuse. We didn't bat well enough," he said.
What next for India and Australia?
Australia will now turn their attention to a T20 series against India, before the home Test summer will see the championship-winning outfit take on Pakistan and West Indies.
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