Former England cricket captain Nasser Hussain has lauded Australia’s incredible victory over India in the World Cup, describing it as one of the greatest wins of all time.
The Australian cricket team, led by Pat Cummins, put an end to the host nation’s 10-match winning streak in the tournament, triumphing by six wickets in a packed Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
Australia’s journey to the World Cup victory wasn’t an easy one.
They lost their first two matches against India and South Africa but then went on to win nine consecutive games to claim the 50-over World Cup for a record-extending sixth time.
The player of the match was Travis Head, who scored an impressive 137 off 120 balls, reviving Australia from a precarious 47-3 in a chase of 241.
However, Hussain also praised Cummins’ decision to bowl after winning the toss, which set the tone for the rest of the match.
According to Hussain, “Australia always finds a way and this has to go down as one of the great World Cup wins – for anyone given the context of the tournament. India were undefeated and playing the best cricket, all their players were in form, and 120,000 fans were expecting India to win, so this was some performance. It was a brave decision from Cummins to bowl first. A weak captain makes a decision that if it goes wrong and you lose it makes you look less bad. But he made a brave and right decision. He absolutely nailed it. He nailed everything. Field placements, bowling changes. Everything was spot on.”
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Cummins was a standout performer as Australia dismissed India for 240 in exactly 50 overs, taking 2-34, including the key scalp of Virat Kohli for 54, and continually rotating his bowlers, often for one-over spells to not let the home batters settle.
Cummins admitted to feeling nervous after David Warner (7), Mitchell Marsh (15) and Steve Smith (4) fell within seven overs of Australia’s reply, but he hailed “legend” Head for his match-winning knock.
He added, “We’ve had a lot of success and this pips it all. Top of the mountain. We saved our best for last. The players stood up and were pretty chuffed.”
Cummins also highlighted a new-found aggressive mindset that helped Australia turn their fortunes around in the tournament.
He said, “You have to win a World Cup. You can’t wait for it to happen. You have to be brave and take the game on. There was a big shift after the first two games. The openers, in particular, went really aggressive and didn’t waver. There was total buy-in and it worked. This is a year we will remember for a long, long time.”
