OTD | Australia won their first World Test Championship Final, beating India by 209 runs in 2023

On this day, just a year ago, the Australia cricket team were the World Test Championship winners as they went on to outclass Rohit Sharma and Co. by 209 runs at The Oval in London. Notably, Indian players played this Test match just after the IPL, which was the losing cause, while most of the Aussies missed the IPL in order to set their eyes on winning the marquee event.

Speaking about the match, it was Indian captain Rohit Sharma who won the toss and invited Australia to bat first in the game. Notably, after being sent to bat first, Pat Cummins led Australia to post 469 runs before being bowled out in the game. They didn’t have a great start as Usman Khawaja departed for a duck while David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne could only manage to get 43 and 26 runs, respectively. However, it was star cricketer Travis Head who made 163 runs from 174 balls, featuring 25 fours and a six and stitched the stand with Steve Smith, who also made 121 runs to help Australia post the great total.

However, during the chase, Ajinkya Rahane made 89 runs from 129 balls, featuring 11 fours and a six, which was also the highest-run scorer in the WTC Final from India’s camp. In addition, Shardul Thakur and Ravindra Jadeja hammered 51 and 48 runs, respectively, which helped them avoid the follow-on as well as score 296 runs before being all out in the game.

Meanwhile, Australia failed to score much during the later innings as Alex Carey was unbelievably strong for 66 runs while Mitchell Starc made 41 runs, which helped them post 270/9 before declaring their innings. However, Indian batters once again failed to stitch the partnership in the second inning. Skipper Rohit Sharma made just 43 runs while Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane got 49 and 46 runs, which allowed the Men in Blue to pile up 234 runs before being all out in the game and making them lose the match by 209 runs.

Also read: Saqlain Mushtaq picked up a World Cup hat trick in 1999