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Australia’s Pat Cummins (C) lifts the ICC Test Championship Mace as he celebrates with teammates after victory in the ICC World Test Championship cricket final match between Australia and India at The Oval, in London on 11 June 2023 – AFP
LONDON, AFP: Scott Boland sparked a dramatic collapse as Australia hammered India by 209 runs to win the World Test Championship final at The Oval on Sunday.
India, set a record 444 to win, resumed on 164-3.
But they collapsed to 234 all out, losing seven wickets for 70 runs inside 24 overs before lunch on the fifth day.
Boland did the initial damage with two wickets in an over, including the prize scalp of Virat Kohli for 49, on his way to figures of 3-46 in 16 overs.
Off-spinner Nathan Lyon (4-41) then polished off the tail as Australia captured the one major men’s cricket title that had previously eluded them, with Pat Cummins’s side now heading into next week’s first Ashes Test against England in buoyant mood.
But this result left India, defeated by New Zealand in the inaugural 2021 WTC final in Southampton, still searching for the first piece of global silverware in a decade.
Australia were in charge of this final from early on with both player-of-the-match Travis Head (163) and star batsman Steve Smith (121) making hundreds in a first-innings total of 469 after India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss.
India were never on terms and they were left needing to make cricket history, with a target of 444 way in excess of the highest score made by any side to win in the fourth innings in 146 years of Test history – the West Indies’ 418-7 against Australia at St John’s in 2003.
“It was a tough one,” said India skipper Rohit Sharma at the presentation ceremony.
“We bowled pretty well in the first session. Then we let ourselves down a little bit with how he bowled.” Rohit, who lauded Smith and Head for their centuries, added: “In the second innings, we didn’t apply ourselves with the bat.”
India were also attempting to top a ground record stretching back more than a century, with the highest successful fourth-innings chase in a Test at the Oval the 263 posted by England in a one-wicket win over Australia back in 1902.
And yet thousands of their fans, as they had done during the first four days, still streamed into the ground hoping their side might pull off an extraordinary win, with chants of “Kohli, Kohli, Kohli” rang out round the ground as the former India captain and Ajinkya Rahane walked out to bat.
Kohli had added just five runs to his overnight score when, on 49, his edged drive off a wide ball from paceman Boland was brilliantly caught by Steve Smith, diving to his right at second slip. Two balls later, new batsman Ravindra Jadeja fell for a duck, caught behind after nicking a superb Boland delivery that seamed away against the angle.
India’s 212-6 was soon transformed into 213-7 when Shardul Thakur was lbw to Lyon and the end came when Mohammed Siraj was caught reverse-sweeping the spinner.
Brief scores
