Follow UsWhen both the captains looked at the strip on day one at Kennington Oval, they had ‘bowl first’ on their minds. It wasn’t any different when Rohit Sharma won the toss, as he opted to bowl first in order to take advantage of the overcast conditions on offer here in London. But after a fruitful first session, where Indian bowlers beat both the inside and outside edge of the Australian batters, things went haywire.
Starting with the partnership between Marnus Labuschagne and David Warner, India started losing the plot, and eventually, a thunderous knock from Travis Head (163 off 174) dug the grave for the Men in Blue, as Australia scored 469 in the first innings of the World Test Championship (WTC) final.
In the post-match presentation, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma rightfully pointed out at the bowling that the team let themselves down with how they bowled. However, the Indian skipper quickly praised the 285-run partnership between Steve Smith and Head, which changed the complexion of the final.
“I thought we started well with winning the toss, putting them to bat in those conditions. We bowled well in the first session and then we let ourselves down with how we bowled. Got to give credit to the Australian batters. Head came in and played really well along with Steven Smith. That just took us off guard a little bit,” Rohit spoke at the post-match presentation.
While stating all of that, Rohit clearly reckoned that it is a ‘good achievement’ for India to play two WTC finals in two editions and added that they would like to go a ‘mile’ ahead in the near future. Rohit also applauded the efforts of Ajinkya Rahane (89) and Shardul Thakur (51), who took India from 152/6 to 261/7.
“I thought it was a great fightback from Rahane and Shardul after being five down for 150. They stood up and put up a good partnership there and kept us in the game. We bowled pretty well in the second innings. Again we didn't apply ourselves with the bat. It was a good pitch to bat on. All five days the pitch behaved pretty well and we didn't capitalize. We've worked really hard for four years to make two finals,” Rohit added.
On a parting note, the Indian skipper applauded the efforts of the Indian fans, who were at their vocal best every day to uplift the mood at the venue.
“Great effort from the entire unit. Unfortunate that we couldn't go on and win the final but we'll keep our heads high and fight. (Crowd support) It's been brilliant. They've gotten behind the time. I'd like to thank each one of them. They were cheering for every run and every wicket.