Ahmedabad: India skipper Rohit Sharma played another blinder before Australia bounced back to reduce the hosts to 97 for three in 15 overs in the World Cup final here Sunday.
On expected lines, both teams did not make changes to their playing eleven.
On a slow and dry pitch, Australia put India into bat, something Rohit Sharma wanted to do in front of a packed Narendra Modi Stadium.
Like he has done throughout the tournament, Rohit (47 off 31) took it upon himself to take the attacking route in the powerplay.
He had not succeeded in doing that in India’s league game against Australia but on the big stage, Rohit made sure he did not hold back against the world-class pace duo of Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlwood.
His onslaught began when he stepped out and creamed Hazlewood through the cover before collecting a streakish boundary over mid-wicket. In all, he hit three sixes and four boundaries.
Shubman Gill (4 off 7) perished while playing a short arm jab and Virat Kohli joined Rohit in the middle. Kohli struck three consecutive fours off Starc to maintain the momentum generated by Rohit.
However, Rohit fell to a spectacular running catch from Travis Head and an over later Pat Cummins had Shreyas Iyer caught behind to put the pressure on the hosts.
PTI