Ice-cool Aussies show character
The Australian cricket team's uncanny ability to turn up at their very best when the stakes are the highest was on full display in the final of the ICC World Cup against India on Sunday.
Bowling first, Pat Cummins and his team looked unfazed by the sea of blue at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, as they chipped away at the star-studded Indian batting line-up and eventually restricted them to 240.
But the innings that ended so favourably for the Aussies had begun in a starkly different manner.
In fact, nine overs into the innings, it was India who were looking on their way to posting a big total, mainly thanks to their captain Rohit Sharma.
But a moment of magic from Travis Head flipped the momentum of the innings and eventually the outcome of the final as Australia won the contest by six wickets to clinch their sixth World Cup title.
Rohit was batting on 37 off 27 balls as India were well placed on 66-1 when part-time spinner Glenn Maxwell came into bowl the final over of the first Powerplay.
Rohit, presumably trying to maximise the final over of field restrictions, decided to target the off-spinner.
He charged down the track and slammed a huge six and then followed it up with a four.
Had the swashbuckling opener decided that 10 runs from boundaries were enough in that over, the rest of the innings could've panned out very differently.
But Rohit sought to hit another boundary, took a few steps forward, and tried to heave the ball over the in-field but mistimed his shot.
Right as the ball left the bat, Head, positioned at cover point, started running back while always keeping his eyes on the ball. He then put in a full-stretch dive to grab the ball safely.
This wicket silenced the 132,000 fans in the stands and put a stop to a promising partnership between Virat Kohli and Rohit.
Just four balls later, Shreyas Iyer departed, and slowly but surely Australia took the wind out of India's innings.
Head's brilliant catch wasn't an aberration but the norm in the final as the Australian players were on their toes throughout the innings.
The fielders inside the 30-yard circle didn't let go of easy singles and the ones on the boundaries hardly let the ball hit the boundary cushions.
The Aussie ground fielding was so clinical that India could only hit four boundaries from overs 11-50.
Just as Head's moment of brilliance sparked the change of momentum, his commanding 137 off 120 balls sealed the fate of the final.
Perhaps for the first time in their history, Australia came into a final of the World Cup as the underdogs.
But the Cummins-led team came into the final with quiet confidence, which was apparent from their smiling faces from the moment they stepped on the field for the national anthems before the match.
On the eve of the final, Aussie captain Cummins, with a calm demeanor, said that nothing would be better than silencing a packed Indian crowd in the biggest cricket stadium in the world.
Australia, inspired by Head's impactful contributions and Cummins' ice-cool leadership, did exactly that.