It’s another ICC tournament final. Once again, India are the clear favourites. They ended their ICC trophy drought at the T20 World Cup last year. At the same time, India haven’t won a global 50-over event since 2013. They were the odds-on favourites against Pakistan at The Oval in 2017 and against Australia in Ahmedabad six years later. On both occasions, they were left heartbroken. Don’t forget, New Zealand are a very good team, well-rounded enough to make Ravichandran Ashwin uneasy – as per his comment at RevSportz’s Trailblazers 3.0 Conclave.
India lose another toss – 15 on the spin now. Never mind, the Probability theory is for mathematicians. Rohit Sharma’s team are good enough to make the toss factor redundant in white-ball cricket, especially on slow and low Dubai pitches. But lo and behold, Rachin Ravindra has decided to cut loose right from the outset, targeting the seamers and making full use of the new ball that is coming nicely on to the bat. He is a superstar-in-the-making. At the moment, he is emboldened by a couple of reprieves. A feeling of déjà vu? That Fakhar Zaman foreboding all over again?
The game is only five overs old, but decision time. Rohit turns to Varun Chakravarthy. Far afield in Chennai, Ashwin is not very convinced. “Varun in early! Not ideal,” he writes on X (erstwhile Twitter). His first over goes for nine, including five wides.
In his second, Varun bowls a leg-break. The drift fools Will Young and he is caught plumb in front. New Zealand’s momentum is broken. Rohit brings Kuldeep Yadav into the attack. Why not Axar Patel, a safer option who will keep things tight? Forget it, the skipper knows what he is doing.
A wrong’un spins back from around a fourth-stump line and catches Rachin in no-man’s land, shape and position-wise. He is castled. Kuldeep is not done yet. He tosses one up in the air and Kane Williamson sets himself to play a flick. But the ball has dipped and Williamson has played it straight back to the bowler for an easy catch. The game turns on its head.
It is death by strangulation – if Varun doesn’t get you, Kuldeep, or Axar, or Ravindra Jadeja must. Has 50-over cricket ever seen such a potent four-pronged spin attack? Sri Lanka tried it in the late 1990s and at the turn of the century with Muttiah Muralitharan, Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Dharmasena and Ruwan Kalpage. Only Muralitharan was world-class. Good batsmen could milk the bowling from the other end unless the pitch was a minefield, al la Eden Gardens in the 1996 World Cup semi-final.
This Indian spin attack is relentless, with Varun and Kuldeep making early inroads, Jadeja controlling the middle overs and Axar chipping in as a floater – the role is not limited to his batting only. Because of early wickets, Jadeja is in charge of the middle overs, effecting a spin-choke and getting through his overs in a flash.
The trickle-down effect is allowing Kuldeep to make a serious impact at the death as well, offsetting Jasprit Bumrah’s absence. He did that against Pakistan. He is once again doing it against New Zealand in the final, playing a big role in restricting the Kiwis to 251/7 – about 30 runs below-par on a surface that is offering just a little bit of hold.
38-0-144-5 – those are the combined figures of the four Indian spinners in the final. Their combined tournament figures – a total of 26 wickets, and everyone conceding less than five runs per over. Varun has nine scalps from only three matches, with an average of 15.11 and an economy rate of 4.53. But he is still the second lead. The banner headline reads: India are giving ODIs a new template for certain conditions. Kudos to the team management and the selectors for pre-empting the conditions in Dubai to perfection and picking the squad accordingly, shutting out the outside noise.
India bat and Rohit grabs the game by the lapels. They are cruising, but Glenn Phillips, who else, defies the laws of physics and aerodynamics to pull off a stunner and dismiss Shubman Gill. Virat Kohli falls cheaply. Rohit is trying to roll back the years now, aiming to bat through. But he falls as well, after making 76 off 83 balls. Jittery nerves? Not quite.
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Shreyas Iyer and Axar are giving a masterclass in partnership batting. When they are out, KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya are there to see their side through. Personal milestones are out of this team’s system now. It’s about playing collective cricket and performing their respective roles to perfection. A run-a-ball 18 can be as important as scoring a century in a tight chase. Rohit’s Rockstars know that. They have done this from Game 1 in the Champions Trophy right up to the final.
It’s ‘Total Cricket’ at its best, to paraphrase the great Dutchman, Rinus Michels.
Game over, and Kohli hails the team effort. “I think to win titles, which has been missing in the past, the whole team must step up in different games,” he says via the ICC press release. “And if you look at this tournament, over the course of five matches, everyone has put their hand up somewhere or another.”
A post from BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla’s X handle pops up: “23 wins in the last 24 ICC tournament games. The game will remember the name forever – Rohit Sharma.
The best-ever Indian ODI side? Kapil’s Devils and Gavaskar’s Giants (the winners of the World Championship of Cricket in Australia in 1985) can lay claim to that as well. Different eras and a comparison would be unfair. For the moment, bin retirement talks. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Also Read: From Gavaskar’s giants to Rohit’s reign – India’s white-ball odyssey