Former England captain Michael Vaughan has expressed his disappointment at India’s final act at the post-match ceremony of the World Cup final.
Australia finished the match with an upset six-wicket victory, shocking the team and its fans at home.
However, after collecting their runner-up medals, Vaughan wasn’t happy to see India not stay around as Australia lifted the World Cup trophy.
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“Didn’t like not seeing the Indian side stay out on the pitch to see the Aussies lift the trophy,” he posted on X.
After going through the tournament undefeated, India were favourites to win their third ODI World Cup.
However, Pat Cummins winning the toss and bowling first proved to be a masterstroke with India bowled out for 240.
Opener Travis Head then led Australia to a six-wicket victory with his 137.
Post-game, India captain Rohit Sharma spoke of his disappointment at the surprise result.
“We were not good enough today, but I’m really proud of the team, how we played from game one,” he said.
“It just wasn’t our day, we tried everything we could but it wasn’t supposed to be.”
Being bowled out in the final was the first time it’d happened for India throughout the World Cup, with Sharma ruing a lack of runs to defend when his side went out and bowled.
“20-30 more (runs) would’ve been good, we spoke around 25-30 overs when KL (Rahul) and Virat were bowling,” he said.
“When they were batting they had a good partnership there and then just needed to bat as long as possible. We were looking at 270-280 at that point but then we kept losing wickets. We couldn’t stitch a good partnership there, and that’s exactly what Australia did to win the game, they stitched up a big partnership after three wickets.”
While it was a disappointing match for India, they weren’t without their chances after Australia were 3-47 inside seven overs.
https://twitter.com/VVSLaxman281/status/1726272307964920317?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Head then took control, and combined for a 192-run partnership with Marnus Labuschagne, the highest ever in a run chase in a World Cup.
Sharma explained the strategy was to ensure they ripped through Australia’s top to middle order as quick as possible.
“Obviously that was the plan, when you have 240 on the board you want to take wickets as early as possible and we did that but again credit to those two guys in the middle, Travis Head and Marnus, they stitched a big partnership and put us completely out of the game,” he said.
“We tried everything we could but I thought the wicket was slightly better to bat under the lights.
“Obviously we knew under the lights it would be slightly better but I don’t want to use that as an excuse, we didn’t bat well enough to put enough runs on the board and then with the seamers up front we got those three wickets where we thought another wicket there we can open up the game but credit to those two guys in the middle for stitching that big partnership.”