India suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Australia in the final of the ODI World Cup 2023 in Ahmedabad. The pain is still fresh in the hearts and minds of Indian fans. India was sensational in the ODI World Cup 2023. They won all the matches until the final, with a dominant margin. It was undoubtedly the most dominant India seen in World Cups due to the sheer level of performances. They were scoring big runs and dismissing the opposition team for cheap. They were even chasing runs for fun. However, they suffered a huge heartbreak when they lost the only match in the tournament in the final.
Pat Cummins won the toss and elected to bowl first on the Ahmedabad wicket. And that was it. The Australian bowlers bowled superbly and used the pitch to their benefit. They restricted the Indian batters to 240 runs in 50 overs. The Indian batters could not get going due to the wicket being slow. However, during the Australian chase, the dew set in, and batting became very easy. Travis Head scored a century and knocked India out of the game. There were starc differences in the conditions in both innings. India received a harsh reality.
Mohammed Kaif Accuses Rohit Sharma And Rahul Dravid For Pitch Doctoring In World Cup Final
There was a clear perception that the slowness of the pitch had resulted in India’s faltering. There were even reported rumours that Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma wanted the pitch to be like this, and that backfired for the Indian team when they lost the toss. Former Indian cricketer, Mohammed Kaif talked about the dreaded night.
“I was there for three days, did a lot of shows. Rohit Sharma came in the evening with Dravid, went to the pitch, stood there for an hour and went back. They came again on the second day, and did the same thing. This went on for three days, and I saw the colour of that pitch change. I wore a blue shirt today, it would look yellow three days later… that was the extent of that change,” Kaif revealed on Guest in the Newsroom on TheLallanTop.
“No watering, no grass. It became a very slow pitch. This is the truth. There were Cummins and Starc, they bowled quick, and the thought was to give them a slow pitch, and they did make a mistake there. People say ‘curator did his job, we didn’t say anything’. Sab bakvaas hai (It’s all rubbish). You were roaming there, you are talking to him 100. ‘Ghaas kam karo, paani kam daalna,” do line hi toh bolni hain (Don’t use too much grass, don’t water it. You just have to say two lines). And there’s nothing wrong in that, you are the home team, take advantage. But we didn’t use it properly,” he added.
