Image Credit- ICC
In order to turn the World Cup final into a more
competitive match than the eventual six-wicket loss to Australia in Ahmedabad
on Sunday, Rohit Sharma would have preferred his batting lineup to have scored
between twenty and thirty more runs while batting, a stronger partnership
between KL Rahul and Virat Kohli, and ideally a score of 270–280.
After being put in to bat, India scored a respectable
240 thanks to half-centuries from Kohli and Rahul, following another brilliant
start from Rohit. However, the hosts were restrained by the outstanding bowling
of Australia’s bowlers on a slow surface. With 42 balls remaining, the hosts’
batters chased it down, led by Travis Head, who was named Player of the Match,
with a match-winning 137.
“Honestly, the result hasn’t gone our way,”
Rohit said at the post-match presentation, “And we know that we were not
good enough today. But I’m really proud of the team, how we played from game
one. It wasn’t our day, we tried everything we could from our side but it
wasn’t supposed to be.
“Honestly, 20-30 [runs] more would’ve been good.
We spoke around 25-30 overs when KL and Virat were batting. I thought when they
were batting they were stitching a good partnership there and then we 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 big partnership there,
and that’s exactly what Australia did to win the game. They stitched a big
partnership after that three [early] wickets.”