The 2023 Cricket World Cup final was defined by silence, the sinister sound vacuum created by nearly 100,000 Indian fans watching a dream die over seven-and-a-half hours.
Every great Australian achievement was greeted by all-encompassing silence. Both Travis Head’s diving catch to dismiss Rohit Sharma and his exceptional 137 from 120 balls. Pat Cummins’ short ball forcing Virat Kohli to chop onto his stumps. Every flawless ball of a faultless bowling innings, every stretch and spring and sprint to deny certain boundaries at every turn. Australia conceded just four fours in the final forty overs, before Head alone drilled 15 fours and four sixes.
An Australian win was both unfathomably unexpected and somehow inevitable. This had all been too easy, too smooth for India. We’d seen this film before. India believe destiny is on their side, destiny boots India in the nether regions. They had won 10 in a row so convincingly their final four batters had faced less than 150 balls throughout the tournament.
Australia knew they had to be perfect, and so they were. Moustachioed maestro Head will take the plaudits after becoming the third Australian male to score a Cricket World Cup final century, but this was Cummins’ victory. It was his decision to bowl first, his ball which dismissed tournament top run-scorer Kohli, his tactical vision which masterminded constant bowling changes to disrupt India and exploit match-ups.
KL Rahul attempted to salvage an Indian innings, but his 66 from 107 balls was like trying to build a house out of quicksand and hope. India’s long tail was docked with agonising ease as Mohammed Siraj faced his first balls of the tournament having played every game. They hadn’t been challenged up until this point and looked thoroughly underprepared when danger arose.
There will be two enduring images from this final. The first is Kohli lingering at the crease, almost prone, looking from split stumps to the strip to space, absorbed by his own inconceivable imperfection, wondering if the sheer force of his own personality might still save him.
Of all the overwhelming silences, this was the quietest, silence that hung on the shoulders like a cape. It was a silence India would not recover from.
The second image will be the lone Cummins on an empty stage, awkwardly grinning, holding the World Cup trophy having been abandoned by aggrieved Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.
Among 93,013 India fans in the supposedly sold-out 132,000-seat Narendra Modi stadium, in the Narendra Modi nation, Modi had come to witness the culmination of the Narendra Modi World Cup/ election preamble. Next to Modi was Amit Shah, home secretary and father of BCCI president Jay, also perched nearby like a grumpy raven. Far more than the 22 players in varying states of elation and devastation on the Ahmedabad turf, these are the faces of modern cricket. They were not impressed. This was not the plan.
This final also provided some cursory glimpses of where the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) hopes cricket is going. Every drinks break brought mini-concerts or light shows, as if 90,000 people might bore so desperately in 15 rest minutes they would just head home. This is sport packaged as an entertainment experience. This is their vision of the future.
Post-match, the BCCI had already paid for the drone show, so a gargantuan replica of the World Cup loomed over Ahmedabad, a dystopian reminder of India’s failings etched into the sky. Australia felt like the cuckoo at a tailor-made Indian celebration ceremony.
Once they were allowed to join Cummins, responsibility to shatter the silence was left to the Australian players. It was a privilege they deserved after one of their great wins, recovering from two early losses to win nine in a row, capped by a victory that felt genuinely weighted against them both on and off the field. Their sixth Cricket World Cup win was perhaps the first in which they’ve been underdogs. The silence only made it more satisfying.
