The Australian team celebrate as captain Pat Cummins holds the winners trophy during the victory ceremony for the ICC World Test Championship Final. Photo / AP
The Australian team celebrate as captain Pat Cummins holds the winners trophy during the victory ceremony for the ICC World Test Championship Final. Photo / AP
Australia was primed for the Ashes series after winning the World Test Championship by crushing India by 209 runs on the fifth morning of the final at the Oval this morning.
Despite a never-reached target of 444, India started the last day with hope at 164-3 and linchpin Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane in the middle. But after Kohli was out to a great second-slip catch by Steve Smith, India lasted only 90 minutes longer and was all out for 234 by the scheduled lunch.
The first-time world test champion Australians dominated the final to win with two sessions to spare and uber-hype an Ashes series against test cricket’s most in-form side, England, which has won 12 of its last 17 tests and not lost a series over the past year.
The Australians potently answered the doubts about them before the final: Their readiness, David Warner, and the adaptability of Cameron Green and Scott Boland on their first test tours of the United Kingdom. Everyone hit the ground running, some after months out; Warner toughed out 43 in the first innings; and Green and Boland starred in a bowling unit which relentlessly hit the right lines and lengths to bustle out India twice.
“Everyone was switched on,” proud Australia captain Pat Cummins said. “At times we weren’t our slickest but for the most part we were in control.
“The last couple of months, our preparation has been for six test matches over here. We looked at India and knew we’ve got four or five days before we switch our attention across to England. We’ve seen it as one big tour with two huge titles to play for, and it’s good to tick the first one off.”
Boland tipped the last day from India hope to Australia inevitability in an eventful seventh over of the morning, finding life in the easing pitch.
Australia's Scott Boland celebrates taking the wicket of India's Virat Kohli caught by Australia's Steven Smith. Photo / AP
Kohli was on the cusp of a half-century. He was hustling towards the special innings demanded again from him, a test century he hasn’t scored overseas or in a fourth innings since 2018.
His edge was beaten by Boland and Cummins was persuaded to waste a review. Kohli was grinning and the overwhelmingly pro-India crowd returned to chanting “Kohli, Kohli.”
Two balls later, he was out for 49, driving at a Boland ball wide of off and edging to Smith, who dived to his right to snaffle it in both hands.
Silence fell on the Oval, and it deepened two balls later when Boland found Ravindra Jadeja’s outside edge. He left for a duck and the TV graphics changed from runs to win to wickets to win.
Boland almost bagged a third wicket in the over when Srikar Bharat edged over the slips and 1.7-meter (5-foot-6) Warner couldn’t leap high enough.
Rahane, fighting with an injured finger, reached 46 when he edged Mitchell Starc behind and India fell in a heap, the last five wickets going for 22 runs.
Boland and spinner Nathan Lyon, who finished off the India second innings with 4-41, took five wickets each in the match and Cummins, despite his no balls, Starc, despite his leakage, and Green contributed mightily to routing the Indians, who managed only two half-centuries. Kohli was kept to 14 and 49.
Wicketkeeper Alex Carey also was key with scores of 48 and 66 not out, and seven catches in the final in which Australia posted 469 and 270-8 declared.
Victory gave Cummins, Smith, Starc and Warner men’s world titles across cricket’s formats: Tests, one-day internationals, and Twenty20s. Choosing which one was more satisfying, Cummins said, was “like trying to pick your favorite kid.”
“We’ve played awesome cricket for the last two years and being there at the end holding the trophy feels really well deserved.”
India, however, has gone 10 years without winning a men’s global trophy, including the first world test final in 2021 against New Zealand in Southampton.
“You get dejected. There is no doubt about it,” India captain Rohit Sharma said. “To not see the result you want can be very disheartening. That is what everyone’s feeling right now. But sport is all about picking yourself up and getting ready for the next big event.”
India hosts the next big event, the Cricket World Cup in October.
India beat Australia 2-1 in their last four test series, two at home and two away, to regain the world No. 1 test ranking last month from the Australians. But in the first June test the Oval has ever staged, India chased the game after winning the toss and failed to exploit ideal bowling conditions and execute its plans, especially against Travis Head, whose counterpunching 163 beside Smith’s dogged 121 put the Australians in the driver’s seat.
“(Head and Smith) took us off guard and we knew it was hard to come back,” Sharma said. “We put up a good show, fought to the end but congratulations to Australia.”
Scott Robertson has resisted any temptation to rotate his side for the All Blacks’ year-ending test against Italy, naming as strong a side as possible for Sunday’s clash.
