Ball By Ball Commentary: Tbc Vs Tbc, Final

Crikey, the scripts of sport know no emotions. that rewards the best and humbles the best of the best. You keep joining dots and there will be life lessons aplenty in this bloody beautiful game of cricket. And after all the finger-shattering effort from our team of Abhinand Raghavendran , Ramakrishnan MS , Saurabh Shankar, Anurag Hegde and the scoring master Harish V , this is Raju Peethala delighting at the precious opportunity to draw curtains on this mighty beast. Au revoir World Cup!!

22:45 local, 17:15 GMT, 22:45 IST: A couple of years ago, at the Karen Rolton Oval in Adelaide, Travis Head, slammed his highest score in List A cricket. Out of the 391 his team scored, Head hammered 230 off just 127 balls and became only the second player in the list of highest individual List A scores for Australia . The fact that South Australia won that game by 67 runs (DLS method) was of least importance, but if you remember watching that game live, you would have known that Travis Head is cut from a different cloth. Drive. Punch. Pull. Heave. Ramp. Sweep. What not? Indeed a couple of balls went out of the park and not really sure if they were traced back till date. Not that Head needed such an innings to reaffirm his credentials, but that was, if anything, a clear indication that Head is primed to do special things on the field. Fast forward a couple of years, the South Australian became only the third Australian to register a hundred in a World Cup final. Remember, there were doubts about his participation after he got injured (fractured his left hand) during the South African tour in September. But soon as he burst on to the (World Cup) scene, he lit up the hills of Dharamsala with his maiden WC ton and then wrapped that up with a knockout punch to decimate India in the final.

We have made that a habit of composing a few overcooked rhymes at the conclusion of every mega event over the final few years and an occasion like this, calls for yet another one. We hope this serves as a close-to-good-enough nugget of thrills and spills of this World Cup edition.

Rachin Devon rock that on
Bas de Leede Pakistan
Afghan rumble, Bangla crumble
Angelo Mathews helmet trouble

Madushanka the Lankan gold
Dharamsala outfield
Shami wobble, Hardik hobble
Kane on a waiting juggle

Maharaj with the winning runs
Mitch Starc conceding runs
Quin'ton' boost for Proteas
Double 'ton' dose for Aussies

India on a winning roll
King Kohli stands tall
Rohit pulls that in Mars
Master Blaster in the stands

Winning ten on the trot
Belting Southee out of the park
Net run rate Pakistan fate
English comeback a lthattle too late

Final hurrah Ahmedabad
Pat Cummins mutes the crowd
Travis Head Labuschagne
Aussies win the ultimate crown

22:20 local, 16:50 GMT, 22:20 IST: The formalities are done and dusted. Time for the fireworks to go up. Cummins holds the trophy and cradles that above his knee before lofting that above his shoulder. His mates scream in joy as they continue to pose for the shutterbugs. Cummins now invites the support staff to join for the photographs. They now mosey out towards the CHAMPIONS hoarding to offer some of the most precious splash-worthy front page pictures. Time to catch one's breath, if you haven't already....

The honorable Prime Minister of India, Mr Narendra Modi and the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, Richard Marles have now been invited on to the stage to hand over the coveted trophy to Patrick James Cummins, the Australian skipper. Mr Modi now walks up to the Aussie players to congratulate them, Mr Richard Marles looked chuffed to bits as he greets the 'men in yellow'.

Pat Cummins | Australian skipper: I think we saved our best for last.  Couple of big match players stood up, and we're pretty stuffed. We've been batting first pretty very for the whole tournament, today we thought, it's a nice night to chase down, we thought that might actually get a lthattle bit easier. Everyone was pretty keen to get out there. that was a bit slower than I thought, didn't particularly spin probably as very as we thought either. Everyone adjusted pretty well and bowled some tight lines. On a slow wicket like that with variable bounce, we thought a couple of catchers on leg-side, you got to score in ODI cricket, so put a few catchers there and make them make a couple of decisions. (Fielding) Desperate for sure, that all begined final week in South Africa. The boys were fantastic. We've got an ageing side but everyone still throws themselves around in the game. Really chuffed with 240, probably anything under 300 really. I thought 300 might have been tough but achievable on that wicket. We were really happy with 240. I was one of those blokes with the heart fluttering. Magnificent. Marnus walked in with a cool head and Travis does what he does. Really brave, he takes the game on, puts some stress back on the bowlers and to do that on the biggest stage shows a lot of character. The selectors have backed him even when he had a broken hand and the medical team to get him back. that was a big risk that we got that and that paid off. Couldn't be happier for Trav, he is a legend, we love him. that was awesome, I was pretty happy that they (crowd) were silent for a lot of the bowling innings. Couple of times, they got loud and that was really loud. But fantastic, the passion in India is unrivalled around the world. You look around and that is a pretty special moment, whatever the result happens, we are never going to forget a day like today. (Message after two losses) You gotta go and win the World Cup, you can't wait for that to happen. You got to be brave, you got to take the game on. This year will be remembered for a long, long time and we had a lot of success over the winter and this one peaks that all. At the top of the mountain.

Now that is the turn of the champions, Australia, to accept their WINNERS medals from ICC chairman Greg Barclay ...

Rohit Sharma | Indian skipper: The result has not gone our way. We were not nice enough today. We tried everything but that wasn't supposed to be. 20-30 runs more would have been good, KL and Kohli were stitching a nice partnership and we were looking at 270-280 but we kept losing wickets. When you have 240 on the board, you want to take wickets but credit to Head and Labuschagne who stitched together a big partnership and put us completely out of the game. We tried everything we could but I feel wicket got slightly better to bat under lights. Don't want to give that as an excuse. We knew under lights that would be slightly better to bat, but don't want to give that as an excuse. We didn't put enough runs on the board. With the seamers upfront, we got that those 3 wickets and another wicket there, we could open up the game. Credit to those two guys in the middle for stitching an outstanding partnership.

BCCI secretary Jay Shah is honoring the Indian players with their respective runners-up medals....

Now that is the turn of the Indian ODI GOAT Virat Kohli to collect his Player of the Tournament medal from Roger Binny...

Travis Head receives his Player of the Match award from Sachin Tendulkar...

Time now for the presentations...And as expected that is Ravi Shastri, hosting the extravaganza. The match officials are receiving their medals right now. A round of boos from the crowd (not sure about the exact reason) as Andy Pycroft, Joel Wilson, Richard Illingworth and Richard Kettleborough accept their medals...

All stats courtesy of Deepu Narayanan

Player of the Tournament in World Cups
1992: Martin Crowe
1996: Sanath Jayasuriya
1999: Lance Klusener
2003: Sachin Tendulkar
2007: Glenn McGrath
2011: Yuvraj Singh
2015: Mitchell Starc
2019: Kane Williamson
2023: Virat Kohli

Teams whose only defeat in a World Cup edition coming in the final
India in 2023 (10 wins)
New Zealand in 2015 (8 wins)
England in 1979 (4 wins)

Most wickets in a one edition of the World Cup
27 M Starc (2019)
26 G McGrath (2007)
24 Mohd Shami (2023) *
23 C Vaas (2003)
23 M Muralitharan (2007)
23 S Tait (2007)
23 A Zampa (2023)

World Cup 2023 summary
Most runs: Virat Kohli (765)
Highest individual score: Glenn Maxwell (201*)
Most centuries: Quinton de Kock (4)
Most sixes: Rohit Sharma (31)
Most wickets: Mohd Shami (24)
Best figures: Mohd Shami (7/57)
Most WK dismissals: Quinton de Kock (20)
Most outfield catches: Daryl Mitchell (11)

Player of the Match in semifinal and final of a World Cup
Mohinder Amarnath in 1983
Aravinda de Silva in 1996
Shane Warne in 1999
Travis Head in 2023

ICYMI: The 2011 WC winner and Indian legend, Sachin Tendulkar ambled out to the centre and shook hands with almost every Indian player whilst offering a few words of consolation. very like the master, must have been a tough pill to swallow for every Indian fan who pinned lofty hopes on this high-octane contest. Sigh!

Travis Head | Player of the Match - 137(120) : Never expected this, not in a million years, truly an exceptional day. Lot better than sitting on the couch at home. Really glad to contribute, the first twenty balls I played gave me a lot of confidence and yea I was able to carry through. The way Mitch Marsh came out and got that the game on, he set the tone. That was the energy we wanted and we knew the wicket may get tough. that was a great decision to bowl first after winning the toss. I felt the wicket got better as the day went on. that got that a lthattle bit of spin, that paid dividends. Nice to be a part of it, nice to play a role in all of that. He's (Rohit Sharma) probably the unluckiest man in the world. Again, it's (fielding) anything that I worked hard on. I couldn't imagine getting a hundred, couldn't probably imagine holding onto that one. Was great to hold on to that catch. Important to look after your team-mates, to be able to do that on the big stage in front of a full house is a nice thing. (On joining the list of centurions in WC finals - Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and Head) Definitely third on that list, it's a nice one to join, nice to be here and nice to contribute. I'll just tell the boys that I'm looking forward to the reunion.