Great expectations

India beat Australia by 6 wickets in Chennai. India beat Afghanistan by 8 wickets in New Delhi. India beat Pakistan by 7 wickets in Ahmedabad. India beat Bangladesh by 7 wickets in Pune. India beat New Zealand by 4 wickets in Dharamsala. India beat England by 100 runs in Lucknow. India beat Sri Lanka by 302 runs in Mumbai. India beat South Africa by 243 runs in Kolkata. India beat The Netherlands by 160 runs in Bengaluru. India beat New Zealand by 70 runs in the semi-final in Mumbai.

That’s how India’s unbeaten journey into the World Cup final has been.

Armed with a formidable batting unit and a strong bowling attack, India have stormed into their first World Cup final in 12 years after winning 10 games on the trot.

With lingering suspicions, the brilliant home team has proved that it doesn’t need doctored pitches to dominate.

Player for player, India have every piece of the puzzle covered from batting depth to pace and spin bowling, and the whole gamut was on display in the high-scoring semi-final win over New Zealand that was India’s 10th straight World Cup victory.

India have never dominated a World Cup, perhaps any tournament, in the manner in which they are doing now. Each element — the seamers, the spinners, the openers, the middle order — has performed with casual confidence and gusto. There have been centuries, seven-wicket hauls, excellent wicketkeeping, and some fabulous catches.

India’s greatest fast bowling team in a World Cup — Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj — is meshing well with its most effective spin duo, both left armers, one a finger spinner (Ravindra Jadeja) and the other a wrist spinner (Kuldeep Yadav). What more can you ask for in a World Cup played at home?

If maestro Sachin Tendulkar had set the bar, a ‘super human’ Virat Kohli came and raised it a little further with his 50th ODI century with the sporting world hailing in unison the record-breaking feat.

Tennis legend Novak Djokovic also sent a congratulatory message to Kohli on Instagram: “Congratulations Virat. Legendary.”

The premier Indian batter took three innings to first equal and then surpass his idol Tendulkar’s ODI century number 49 and also became the first batter to score 700 runs in a single World Cup edition.

All those who witnessed that should consider themselves fortunate enough to be present at the Wankhede — a moment to be etched in history in letters of gold!

As New Zealand captain Kane Williamson said: “If you play 50 games, some people would call that a great career, but to get 50 hundreds. There’s a lot of attention and that comes with a lot of his success, but actually, it was always about pushing his team forward. So he’s the best, isn’t he? And he seems to be getting better, which is a worry for opposition all around the world. It’s incredible really.”

Kohli notched up the 50th hundred off 105 balls, with a flick for two off Lockie Ferguson in the 42nd over of India’s innings against New Zealand in the first World Cup semi-final in Mumbai.

India posted a herculean 397/4 before bundling out New Zealand for 327 in 48.5 overs with Mohammed Shami returning with magnificent figures of 7/57.

On the other hand, down the shutters, save the citadel used to be the old-fashioned mantra of opening batters. Over the years, this dogma has been turned on its head with men like Sachin Tendulkar and Adam Gilchrist in the past and David Warner and Rohit Sharma in the present, not averse to clattering fours and sixes, especially in ODIs.

As India enters the World Cup final, the contribution of skipper Rohit cannot be underestimated. The captain has set a breathless pace in the first PowerPlay, allowing his partner Shubman Gill some leeway to settle down and also lay a base for the middle-order stars to thrive.

He has rained shots all over the park, pulling, lofting and flicking sixes at will. Pleasing on the eye, Rohit has blended power, aesthetics and timing.

Obsessed with setting a frenetic run-rate for his team, he has never slowed down on sighting an imminent milestone, be it a 50 or a 100. The approach has been the same and the innate risk does mean that he could get dismissed in his 40s and 80s. And it has happened that way as well. But how many hearts did he win with his newfound no-holds-barred attacking approach? Maybe a billion!

Having started with a blob against Australia in Chennai, the batter has subsequently been in his element right through and his scores of 131, 86, 48, 46, 87, 4, 40, 61 and 47, with an overall strike rate of 124.15, have helped India do well in both setting and chasing targets.

With a perfect balance between head and heart, Rohit has taken India into the tournament final.

The high-risk approach has cost him personal milestones but having put the team above himself, the ‘Hit-Man’ didn’t deviate from his game plan as he is on a mission to complete what he termed at the start as ‘unfinished business’.

He will be 36 years and 203 days old on November 19, a day which would possibly be his ‘last dance’ and effectively a last chance to win the coveted 50-over World Cup crown.

The next 50-over World Cup is too far away and for someone who oozes practicality from literally every bone of his body, it would be a long shot to think that at 40 he would be game to play 100-over per day matches in 2027.

Hence November 19, 2023, could be the ‘Red Letter Day’ in 16 and half years of Rohit’s chequered career.

He’s a captain who has walked the talk and harnessed a change of approach, often becoming the sacrificial lamb while pressing for quick runs, setting a massive example for his teammates in the process.

And who can forget Mohammed Shami? It wasn’t just because of his immaculate effort against New Zealand in the semi-finals but now Shami is a single-man force de frappe, even ahead of Jasprit Bumrah.

His numbers do back that position. Shami has taken 23 wickets from six matches, including three fifers, at a mind-boggling strike rate of 10.9, easily the best in this tournament on those two counts. But then the numbers don’t narrate the whole story.

Shami was not even part of the playing 11 in the first four matches because of India’s desire to field a batting all-rounder at No. 8, an additional security measure to counter any top-order dysfunction.

In line with that thought, R Ashwin was included in the match against Australia while Shardul Thakur played against Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

It required a force majeure Hardik Pandya’s injury against Bangladesh for the Indian management to shake away their obsession.

They needed to find a batsman and bowler in place of absent all-rounder Pandya for the match against New Zealand at Dharamsala.

Shami came into the picture then and made an instant impression against the Kiwis with a five-wicket haul.

It was also a huge credit to Shami’s mindset to come back from a frustrating time on the sidelines and perform against top-class opposition.

Shami chose the same opposition to make an impact on an even bigger occasion in Mumbai during the World Cup semi-finals.

There is another facet to Shami’s bowling, his effectiveness against left-handed batters. Out of his 23 victims, eight are of that type and are from the top draw to Conway, Ravindra, Latham, Ben Stokes and so on.

Hopefully, a Shami storm awaits us in Ahmedabad.

Ten wins from 10 so far for India at the World Cup but that will count for nothing unless they can make it 11 on the biggest stage.

The pressure of the occasion is one of the biggest obstacles in India’s way, particularly if it gets tight. India’s dominance has been such that they have not really been significantly tested at any stage in the tournament.

Australia’s task, therefore, is to silence the crowd and get some nerves jangling. The key battle will come at the top of the order — the likes of Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood must stop Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli getting off to a flyer.

It will be the eighth time that the Australians play their part in the showpiece event, having lifted the trophy on five occasions, and it has been a superb response from Pat Cummins’ side after losing their first two matches of the tournament.

As Williamson said: “They (India) are the best team in the world and they are all playing their best cricket, so that is tough. They have not missed a beat really.”

And hope Team India, carrying the burden of a billion dreams again, fits all the bits of the jigsaw in place in the final, paving the way for a successful tilt at the title on home ground.

Views expressed are personal