Australia defeated India in the World Test Championship final at The Oval in June 2023. India, who were eyeing their first ICC trophy in a decade, got edged past by the mighty Australians by 209 runs. However, the road victory was not easy one for Australia as star India batter Virat Kohli was standing in their way. Pat Cummins and co gave a target of 444, where India got reduced to 164/3 at Stumps on Day 4. On the final day of the match, India needed 280 with Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane standing unbeaten at the crease.
Despite Australia being on driver’s seat, it was not a one-sided contest as everyone had hopes from Kohli. However, the Aussie bowlers bounced back and bundled out India for 234 and denied them another ICC trophy.
Speaking on the third season of ‘The Test’, a popular cricket documentary series on Amazon Prime Video, some Australian cricketers opened up about the Day 5 of the WTC final.
Steve Smith: “If you look at people chasing the total, Virat Kohli is up there with the best, if not the best.”
Justin Langer: “He’s been a killer against Australia.”
Nathan Lyon: “He is super competitive and doesn’t give you an inch. No one comes close to him.”
Scott Boland: “Going into that last day, we still thought that if they got on a roll, Kohli could still pull off that chase.”
In the WTC final, Australia batter Travis Head scored 163 in the first innings and ended up winning the Player of the Match award. Apart from this, he also guided Australia to the ODI World Cup 2023 title with a century in the summit clash against India.
The performance that Head has delivered over the past few months, he believes that the seeds of it were sown early in 2023 when he came with the Test team, a hard-fought series that Australia lost 1-2.
“I think a lot of of that has come from the Test tour last year, spending time here and working on things and also being a bit older, understanding my game and its blueprint and how you want to go about it and being content and my family being around, all those things,” said Head.
(With PTI Inputs)
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