Australia's Pat Cummins Silences the Crowd to Lead Team to World Cup Victory

In an atmosphere akin to a colosseum, stillness may sometimes be just as intimidating as a shout. That's exactly how it happened on Sunday at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad as Australia stormed to victory, defeating India by six wickets to win their sixth ODI World Cup.

However, quiet had fallen long before Australia hit the 241-run objective.

been falling on the more over 90,000 spectators who attended the final.

Australia's skipper Pat Cummins excelled with the ball as well, making almost all of his bowling variations and field placements perfect. First, he instigated a nick off the bat of

the very skilled Shreyas Iyer and then using an ungainly bounce to unseat a confident Virat Kohli.

One of the hardest things for a bowler to accomplish is dismiss Kohli after he has reached fifty, but Cummins could be able to. Instead, he felt compelled to do so because he knew he had to defend his squad in the crucial match.

It makes sense why the crowd was so silent after Cummins delivered those two strikes. Since then, Cummins and his associates have made the majority of the decisions, so the partisan crowd has mostly been unable to voice their opinions.

The Australians' run chase was obviously made simpler by Travis Head's outstanding counterattacking 137, which he achieved while under duress, and Marnus Labuschagne's outstanding assist (58 not out). Above all, however, was Cummins's leadership.

Cummins and his leadership came under fire earlier in the year when Australia lost their 2-1 Test series to India after they crushed them on those rank turners in Nagpur and New Delhi. However, he has continued to pull himself up ever since.

He made a deliberate choice that ultimately turned out to be the correct one to forego this year's IPL in favor of the World Test Championship final at The Oval in June, a taxing Ashes series in England, and the ODI World Cup. Cummins did not sustain any injuries throughout the Ashes, which Australia won 2-2, and the World Cup, and his workload never became an issue that required attention.

Speaking about his on-field performance, his wise use of Scott Boland in the Test Championship final harmed India, and in the Ashes series opener in Birmingham, his unbeaten 44 in the uninterrupted 55-run ninth-wicket partnership with Nathan Lyon was crucial to Australia's victory.

In the recently ended Cup, Cummins' stats (15 wickets and 128 runs) haven't exactly been spectacular. However, he bowled a 10-over stint in the crucial final, taking two crucial wickets without giving up a single boundary, which also proved to be a formula for Australia's victory.

But even more impressive was his undefeated 68-ball 12 not out against Afghanistan earlier in the match, which was crucial in backing up a rampaging but hobbling Glenn Maxwell, whose 201 not out gave Australia a much-needed victory.

Maxwell's incredible effort could not have been enough without Cummins' unwavering will and Australia's strong defense, and who knows? Australia's prospects of making the semifinals might have been destroyed.

Aside from this, Cummins shown that he was smart enough to support Head for the World Cup. Even after Head had suffered a left-hand injury just one month before the Cup, he, head coach Andrew McDonald, and selector George Bailey accepted the chance.

"The selectors, Andrew McDonald and George Bailey, deserve a great deal of credit for taking a chance. Although Head (his hand) was broken throughout the whole of the competition, it was a big gamble to retain him on the team. Naturally, the medical staff went above and above to bring him to a position where he could perform.

On Sunday night, Cummins said, "I think we could have been made to look really silly if that didn't pay off, but you got to take those risks to win a tournament."

Matthew Wade will captain Australia in the next Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) against India, which start in Visakhapatnam on Thursday. Cummins will not be present. However, there's a good chance he'll make a comeback in the IPL 2024, given that some teams could place high bids for Cummins in the auction the following month.

Pat pained

Melbourne: Following their successful World Cup campaign in India, Australia's former Test captain Tim Paine has hailed Pat Cummins for his outstanding leadership and ball-handling skills.

"I think Pat Cummins surprised everyone a little bit with the call to bowl first when we won the toss," Paine said on SEN Radio. The message on that ground is that the dew comes in and it is really difficult to bowl in the second innings, and I believe we witnessed that, he said. "They obviously had some terrific mail — and they all have a lot of IPL experience and have been there."

"I don't believe Pat Cummins made a mistake anywhere. He deserves a great deal of recognition for his exceptional performance. For that, Andrew McDonald and his coaching team should be greatly commended.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Press Time staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.