“We Dug Our Own Grave”: Rajdeep Sardesai On India’s Defeat In World Cup Final (Image:Instagram/RajdeepSardesai)
India dug their own grave by preparing a dry pitch to frighten the Australian team, said prominent journalist Rajdeep Sardesai on Sunday. He was commenting on India’s unbearable defeat in the ICC Men’s World Cup 2023 Final against Australia, at a live show telecasted by India Today. The match was hosted by the Narendra Modi Stadium in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad and broke billion Indian fan hearts. The yellow army clinched their sixth historic World Cup, and the terrific performance by Australia’s Travis Head, who scored 137 runs, helped the Aussies overcome the powerful Indian bowling attack.
“We have played remarkably well right through this tournament and faulted at the very end”, said Rajdeep Sardesai. He was analysing India’s damaged performance, since the team was much anticipated to rose the glorious trophy considering their power-packed presentation in the past matches of the tournament. Mr Sardesai was asked about the pressure put on the Men In Blue and whether it resulted the defeat. He replied that it is not the pressure but the pitch!
According to him, the Indian cricket team experienced not much pressure on their final match day, comparing to what happened before. The major reason was the dry pitch. “You almost asked for it”, he said pointing that India could better decide about the pitch on which they are going to play for the crucial match.
‘We dug our own grave’: my take on @IndiaToday . May wish to listen https://t.co/tdxsMA0Q1X
— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) November 19, 2023
“The team had dug their own grave by preparing a dry pitch in the belief that the Australian’s would be spooked by it”. Mr Sardesai traced the game changing moment of the event happened as when Travis Head took a perfect catch on Glenn maxwell’s ball and earned the wicket of Indian captain Rohit Sharma. Mr Sharma returned pavilion with 47 in 31 balls. “…because then the Australians suddenly got the confidence with Rohit Sharma”, he added. Pat Cummins’ balling was also turned exceptional and favored the team in a huge level, “he read the conditions” very well. According to Mr Sardesai, the ‘pressure’ factor is just a build-up to the final match.
He then evaluated the conditions on which the Indian team decided to ball first. “Obviously yesterday they (Australia) saw the pitch, saw the conditions in the evening, and decided to ball first. Fortunately, they won the toss also”. It is the scoreboard pressure that always led India to choose batting first. Even Rohit Sharma said after the toss, that he would have batted first. The team Australia, in a better way analysed the conditions better than India, he said.
He compared the pitch in Mumbai’s Wankhade Stadium and stated that, there India took batting first and scored almost 400 runs. “You (India) go to a dry pitch; you struggled and don’t even score at least 250. You would have better played on a batting wicket”. ”You (India) actually played into the hands of Australians. And they (Australia) out-batted, out-balled, and out-fielded, he added.
As he said, India lost the match since the team over strategized the match rather than what they were doing all the time before in the tournament, “allowing yourself to be governed by the conditions and play on good batting wicket”. India entered into the finals with a self-confidence that “we could beat the Australians on a good cricket wicket. As it began, it was slow and the Australians exploited it brilliantly”, Mr Sardesai concluded.
