World Test Championship final: Australia win World Test Championship
Australia have claimed the World Test Championship, overcoming any potential day five nerves to destroy India on Sunday night and wrap up the Test before lunch.
Scott Boland ripped the heart out of India’s batting line-up on Sunday to drive Australia to a maiden World Test Championship title.
Pursuing 444 for what would have been the highest successful fourth innings chase in Test history, the Indians were bowled out for 234 moments after the scheduled lunch at The Oval as the Aussies secured a thumping 209-run win.
Australian great Allan Border had predicted pre-tour that Boland could be this year’s version of Terry Alderman, whose swing and seam helped him run amok in England on the Ashes tours of 1981 and 1989.
Border had quipped that Boland looked like he had been born to bowl in England, and the Victorian’s performance on the fifth morning at Kennington did nothing to dispel that theory.
India had started the day on 3-164, with experienced pair Ajinkya Rahane and Virat Kohli in the middle and providing their side hope of an extraordinary victory.
They advanced to 3-179 before Boland struck a telling double-blow to suck the life out of another packed pro-India crowd in south London.
Australia blew a DRS challenge with Kohli on 49 when Boland beat Kohli’s outside edge, with Aussie skipper Pat Cummins having been coaxed into a review by Marnus Labuschagne.
But the wait for the wicket of India’s icon lasted just two more balls, as Kohli nicked the Victorian, attempting to drive. Steve Smith grasped a beauty diving to his right at second slip, plunging The Oval into near-silence.
If that wasn’t the killer blow, then it came only a couple of deliveries later when star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja tickled a mildly seaming Boland delivery to wicketkeeper Alex Carey. Jadeja was gone for a second-ball duck, Boland claiming his third wicket for the innings and fifth for the match.
From there it appeared only a matter of time before Cummins was holding the trophy aloft. Rahane, banged-up after wearing blows to a finger, fell for 46 after loosely slashing Mitchell Starc to be taken by Carey.
Nathan Lyon trapped Shardul Thakur for one, before Starc took his second as Umesh Yadav edged one to fall for a duck as the crowd started thinning out slightly.
Gloveman KS Bharat tried to slog Lyon only minutes before lunch to be caught and bowled for 23.
India was granted a brief reprieve when replays showed Mohammed Shami had not got any bat to a leg-side take from Carey off Starc’s bowling, but Lyon finished it off as Boland took a catch at backward point to dismiss Mohammed Siraj.
That both Boland and Starc took second-innings wickets makes the task for selectors even tougher ahead of the first Ashes Test, beginning at Edgbaston on Friday.
Having narrowly missed qualifying for the inaugural WTC prize two years ago, this was a particularly sweet and redemptive victory for a seasoned Australian side, of whom several members are now world title winners across all three formats following victories in the 2015 one-day World Cup in Australia and the 2021 Twenty20 World Cup in the UAE.
India, despite all its power in cricket, has gone a decade since a senior men’s ICC title, the last of which came in the 2013 Champions Trophy, heaping pressure on the side ahead of a one-day World Cup on home soil later this year.
FOLLOW ALL THE ACTION AS IT HAPPENED LIVE
9:30: AUSTRALIA ARE WORLD TEST CHAMPIONS!
The Indian resistance proved futile on day five, as Australia quickly wrapped up victory to claim the World Test Championship for the first time.
Mitch Starc and Nathan Lyon expertly clean up the Indian tail, giving Australia a 209 run win over India.
The group embrace in the middle of the pitch, and after a two year cycle, Australia are officially the world’s best Test team.
9:00PM: STARC AND LYON GET INDIAN BACKBREAKERS
A false shot from the usually reliable Ajinkya Rahane brings about his downfall as Mitch Starc claims the sixth wicket of the innings in half an hour out from lunch.
Starc, coming from around the wicket bowled a full ball that the Indian flashed at, edging to Carey behind the stumps.
It seems as if the Indian resistance has come to an end.
Starc draws a loose shot from Rahane and India are six down #WTC23pic.twitter.com/gzCq4XLsBe
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) June 11, 2023
Good things come in twos for the Aussies this morning as Nathan Lyon claims the wicket of first innings nemesis Thakur in the very next over.
Australia only need three wickets to claim the World Test Championship.
8:00PM DOUBLE DOSE OF BOLAND: CULT HERO STARTS DAY FIVE OFF PERFECTLY
The Aussies were once again subject to a poor DRS review, as Marnus Labuschagne’s pleas from cover bringing about no success for Australia.
Their disappointment was short-lived however, with a screamer from Steve Smith dismissing Virat Kohli and silencing the pro-India crowd at The Oval.
HUGE!!
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) June 11, 2023
What a grab by Steve Smith 🔥 #WTC23pic.twitter.com/yXfVpvFbNE
The fun did not stop there, with the Victorian dismissing Ravindra Jadeja for a duck in the same over.
The Aussies are now in complete command at The Oval, with thunderstorms on the radar appearing to be their only roadblock to winning this Test Championship final.
Bolo indicating he has two big wickets in the over on @7Cricket 👠#BoloBoulevardOfBreakthroughs#AusvIndpic.twitter.com/twQTjuSjqR
— Damien Fleming (@bowlologist) June 11, 2023
WILL ‘SCARS’ OF BRISBANE PAST HAUNT AUSSIES AGAIN?
Much was made of Pat Cummins’ timing of his declaration on day four against India, including an interesting insight from the team’s former coach.
Justin Langer, who’s fallout with the team became its own story, gave his take on why the Aussies waited so long to declare, with Cummins choosing to bring himself out to bat in the second innings.
“There are some scars in this Australian cricket team from India in the last two series in Australia,” Langer said.
India have won the past two series’ in Australia, the last coming after a famous final-day chase led by Rishabh Pant to win at Australia’s fortress the Gabba.
Victory in that Test seemed almost as unlikely for India then as it does now, yet with Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane set at the crease, they are far from without a chance.
To win on this occasion, however, India will have to create Test match history.
Their target of 444, is 26 more than the record of 414, set by the West Indies against Australia in 2003.
Australia also conceded the second-highest chase ever, giving up a total of 414 to South Africa in 2008.
Perhaps that is why fast bowler Mohamed Shami spoke with such confidence after yesterday’s play.
“One hundred per cent, everyone believes that tomorrow we will win the match,” Shami said.
The stats may scream that Australia are in command, but it appears to not be that simple.
ALL CASH, NO CUPS: AWKWARD STAT DRIVING INDIA’S TEST FINAL MISSION
—Robert Craddock
Zero trophies in 10 years – this is the shocking statistic that provides both the carrot and stick for an Indian cricket side facing a Mt Everest climb against Australia at The Oval tonight.
Though India has become the financial powerhouse of world cricket, the game’s most influential nation by far and an almost unbeatable Test match force at home, there is one conspicuous gap in its resume, or should we say, its trophy cabinet.
It is simply that since a decade ago this month (June, 2013), when it won the ICC Champions Trophy in England, India it has failed to win a global cricket title in T20, 50-over or Test cricket.
India’s last World Cup success was the 2011 50-over World Cup, which it hosted (as it will again later this year).
That’s one of the reasons why India, which will resume on day five at The Oval needing 280 runs from their last seven wickets for victory in the World Test Championship against Australia, need a victory tonight.
Otherwise that nation will be 0-10 since its last ICC title, a cringe-worthy statistic for a country ruling the world in so many ways.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan did not mince words when reviewing India’s effort last year after it bowed out of the T20 World Cup in Australia in the semi-finals.
“Since winning the 50-over World Cup, what have they done? Nothing.’’ Vaughan wrote in The London Telegraph.
“India are playing a white-ball game that is dated and have done for years. India are the most underperforming white-ball team in history. Every player in the world who goes to the Indian Premier League says how it improves their game, but what have India ever delivered?“
For all of the IPL razzle and dazzle and dollar dominance, it is simply extraordinary that since India won the first World T20 title in 2007 it has failed to do so again despite the fact that Pakistan (2009), England (2010 and 2022), West Indies (2012 and 2016), Sri Lanka (2014) and Australia (2021) have claimed the crown.
It’s not as if India has performed poorly in bilateral tournaments for it has beaten Australia at its past two Test match series in Australia well as being nigh unbeatable at home.
The reasons why it not dominated global tournaments are not clear.
Among the suggestions have been that the Indians play so much they lack the razor sharpness for specific challenges, that they are more interested in the Indian Premier League than winning global titles, and that since MS Dhoni quit the captaincy they have lacked a truly unifying leader.
But the bottom line is they should be doing better, which adds an extra layer of pressure to the final day at The Oval.
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