“We tried everything…” These were the rueful words echoed by a visibly dismayed Rohit Sharma following India’s crushing defeat by six wickets to a resilient Australian side in the much-anticipated World Cup final showdown.
Instantly somber in the aftermath of the match while addressing the press, the skipper conceded, “We were not good enough today.” Yet, amidst the disappointment, he didn’t conceal his pride for the team’s overall performance throughout the tournament, emphasizing, “I’m really proud of the team, how we played from game one. It just wasn’t our day.”
The Indian team’s otherwise spectacular journey, marked by a clean sweep in their nine league games and a commanding semi-final victory in Mumbai, met an untimely end in Ahmedabad. Tasked with setting a potentially winning score, they stumbled, hampered by a surface that offered little assistance; sluggish and parched, it anchored India’s innings to a modest 240 off the final ball.
Reflecting on how the game could have taken a different course, Rohit remarked, “I mean 20-30 more [runs] would have been good.” During a phase when KL Rahul and Virat Kohli were steady at the crease, constructing what appeared to be a solid partnership, aspirations were high. “We were looking at 270-280 at that point, but then we kept losing wickets,” he lamented, acknowledging the inability to forge significant partnerships as the tipping point. In stark contrast, the Australian side demonstrated the efficacy of such partnerships, with Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne adding 192 pivotal runs after similarly losing three early wickets.
Rohit didn’t mince words about the necessity of early wickets to defend a modest total, commending the early breakthroughs by his bowlers. But, the craft of Travis and Marnus was such that they “stitched up a big partnership and put us completely out of the game,” he conveyed, tipping his hat to their match-defining stand.
The pitch, initially deceptive in its slowness, seemed to even out as dew set in, favoring the team batting under the floodlights. Still, Rohit refrained from laying blame on these conditions. Pre-match, he had revealed that India, too, had intended to make first use of the pitch with aspirations of a commanding scoreboard presence. “We don’t want to give that as an excuse,” he stated firmly. He acknowledged that their batting lineup simply did not rise to the occasion.
And thus, despite taking early wickets and lighting a flicker of hope for a twist in the narrative, the Australian partnership extinguished any such possibilities. Rohit concluded with a sentiment echoing the stoicism of the sport: “We tried everything we could… But yeah, it wasn’t supposed to be.”
While fans and commentators will analyze and dissect every play, every decision in the aftermath of this World Cup final, Rohit’s words stand as a testament to the unpredictability of cricket. Some days, despite the best-laid plans, despite the unwavering grit and determination, the game writes its own ending, leaving even the most formidable of teams to simply wonder, “What if?”