Cricket World Cup: Australia ready to crash India’s party in final showdown

After a rocky start to their World Cup the Australian squad appears to be peaking just in time for Sunday’s final, writes DANIEL CHERNY.

Josh Inglis could see the funny side of what he was saying.

Australia had wedged itself out of early trouble against Sri Lanka to finally get on the board at the World Cup, and things were looking a tiny bit rosier, but the freshest addition to the Aussie XI knew that the situation was still precarious.

After all, Australia had started October 16 on the bottom of the World Cup standings, behind even the Netherlands and had begun that day in Lucknow having lost seven of its last eight one-day internationals.

As he stood with a small group of Aussie reporters in a foyer at the Ekana International Stadium, Inglis acknowledged the importance of playing the long game but wasn’t daft enough to suggest his side could afford to look particularly far ahead.

“You’re never sort of out of these tournaments until the back end. It’s pretty cliche but you don’t want to be peaking too early,” Inglis said.

Then he started chuckling before finishing the thought.

“It’s easy to say that, you don’t want to be 0-5 but you want to be playing your best cricket at the back end of the tournament. So hopefully now we can take the momentum from tonight.”

Pat Cummins (R) celebrates with Marnus Labuschagne after taking the catch to dismiss South Africa's Quinton de Kock. Picture: AFP

Three days later, speaking in Bangalore on the eve of Australia’s next match against Pakistan, Pat Cummins was again asked about the idea of the Aussies building towards a peak.

With a self-deprecating smile, Cummins quipped: “We’ve probably given up the right to peak the right time by losing the first couple.”

Cummins was right at the time. A loss to Pakistan would have also handed two points to a fellow semi-final challenger and left Australia with practically zero margin for error.

And yet having seemingly ceded the chance to build steadily into the tournament, the Aussies have ended up doing just that, winning eight straight matches to qualify for the final.

Whether through good management, good luck or more likely a mixture of both, Australia hits the final against India with a full squad of 15 players from which to choose, and key men having found form when most needed.

There is no clearer case than Mitchell Starc. Just like his harshest critic Shane Warne did 24 years earlier, Starc had battled indifferent form through the preliminary stages only to summon his best in a semi-final against South Africa.

Mitchell Starc took three wickets and conceded just 34 runs from his 10 overs. Picture: Gallo Images

In tandem with Josh Hazlewood, Starc bowled an opening spell for the ages and then backed it up at the death. His greatness with the white ball had only been dormant, not departed.

Travis Head, after three straight failures, ate the lion’s share of a tricky run chase with the type of cavalier stroke play that could just sink the hosts on Sunday. That it had followed a momentum-halting spell reinforced the wisdom of Australia’s decision to stick with the South Australian though injured through the first half of the tournament.

Paradoxically, Australia could also take satisfaction that its standout players from the league stage were largely subdued on Thursday at Eden Gardens. Adam Zampa, Australia’s best bowler by some distance to this point of the tournament, was targeted by a South African middle order that keeps troubling him.

Of the side’s three standout batters to this point of the tournament, Mitch Marsh and Glenn Maxwell both failed with the bat, while David Warner started brightly before falling for 29.

Instead, the load had to be shared widely, as evidenced by the crucial contributions in the chase of Inglis, Starc and Cummins.

Adam Zampa was pasted for 55 runs from seven wicketless overs. Picture: AFP

The upshot is that Australia is through to its eighth 50-over World Cup final, but this time in the unfamiliar guise of clear underdogs against a barnstorming India that should it win on Sunday in Ahmedabad will match Australia’s effort from 2007 in winning 11 straight matches to claim the title.

There is more than a hint of Australia’s 1999 50-over and 2021 Twenty20 crowns in the way this campaign has unfolded for the Aussies.

And yet winning on Sunday – to accompany a World Test Championship crown captured against India in June – may surpass the achievements of previous world titles given the sense that Australia will not only be confronting India but in Indian conditions at a tournament which has felt at times like it is being played primarily as a pageant for the home nation.

Originally published as Cricket World Cup: Australia ready to crash India’s party in final showdown