Australia crowned as World Cup 2023 champions after overcoming Indian challenge

An excellent run from Team India in the 2023 World Cup finally met a tragic end as Australia emerged as the world champions for the sixth time at the expense of the crestfallen hosts. On a day where it mattered the most, the Men in Blue somehow got stuck in a mesh and could barely break free despite rare glimpses of hope.

Winning the toss, Australia put India into bat and the start seemed off-colour straightaway after Mitchell Starc got the better of Shubman Gill (4). Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma did what they did best throughout the tournament with the Indian captain going for an all-out assault while the former knocked the cherry around.

Things looked well-placed for the hosts until Glenn Maxwell got the better of the Indian captain as he departed for 47. Shreyas Iyer failed to get going either as Pat Cummins got him to knick a ball to Josh Inglis and depart for 4. Kohli and KL Rahul started the rebuild again but on a pitch that was getting slower and with the ball gripping onto the surface, batting started turning nightmarish.

Kohli and Rahul navigated the crosscurrents of a mercurial surface well enough to put on 67 runs for the fourth wicket before the former chopped on a ball from Cummins onto his stumps for a well-orchestrated 54. With barely any help from the other side, Rahul started fighting a lonely war that came to an end after a 66-run knock as Mitchell Starc induced the edge to take out the brightest star in an otherwise dimly lit Indian sky.

India managed to crawl their way to 240 with isolated bursts of brilliance with Starc spearheading the Aussie bowling unit with figures of 3/55. Cummins and Josh Hazlewood shared four wickets between them to leave India scarred.

Australia had an early fall as Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami dealt three early blows to get the better of David Warner (7), Mitchell Marsh (15) and Steve Smith (4) as India started sniffing a turnaround. Much to the woes of the Indian cricket fans though, Travis Head roared back to life, fending off the early invasion while Marnus Labuschagne knitted together a marathon knock to see Australia home.

Head smashed 137 from just 120 balls before Mohammed Siraj got the better of him while Marnus stayed unbeaten for 58 from 110 balls and had Glenn Maxwell for company at the end as Australia were crowned as the world champions for the sixth time.