It was a close one but the Aussies are through to the Cricket World Cup final now following their three wicket win last night v South Africa. They might have lost the toss where Australia were asked to bowl/field first, having fired off with four early wickets. Then the David Miller show has turned things around for South Africa off the back of his hundred before Australia bowled all out for 212, which sets up a 213 run chase to win. Now the strong starts are there as seen with Opener Travis Head’s quickfire 48 ball-62 before Australia were in real trouble by a thread as the game goes on. However, they never gave up by keeping it simple & that was enough to see them leapfrog South Africa at the finish line when Captain Pat Cummins provided them the winning runs like he did in the 1st Ashes Test v England at Edgbaston earlier in June this year. Now they will be up against the host nation Indian side at Narendra Modi Stadium this Sunday in Ahmedabad, who still has been unstoppable all along so far including their 70 run win the other day (Wednesday) during semi-final 1 v New Zealand. It’s going be one hell of a game to finish off the 2023 Cricket World Cup as it’s better for the Aussies to win the toss by batting first or they will have a hard time against the Indian batters who will score big before being able to win another World Championship on home soil since 2011 when India were the previous World Cup hosts alongside Sri Lanka & Bangladesh.
Unlucky from South Africa when their Opening and top order batting attack didn’t work well as expected with the exception both middle-order batters in Heinrich Klassen & David Miller. Yes, the bowling wasn’t bad with Gerald Coetzee & Tabraiz Shamsi on fire but then just not enough to stop the Aussies under pressure, especially when it’s a low scoring game. If their Top 4 batters did so well, then the final could’ve been easily been theirs as SA is one of the few teams who have still yet to play in a CWC final. Meanwhile, it’s the eighth time now that the Aussies are in the main event since its inception in 1979. Hats off to Captain Cummins and Mitchell Starc who can both do a bit of everything where they were not just good off their fast bowling but also with the bat as well. Plus, Travis Head has been amazing since his recent return from injury where he will try to stay there as long as he can with the hope of a big hundred looming v a top Indian team. Now it’s up to the rest of the XI to stop this unbeatable opposition at their own backyard. Let’s hope so as they’re still the most successful team in the history of the Cricket World Cup with five trophies before hoping to finish off this weekend with title No.6, having last won back in 2015.
