A very, very, very long ODI World Cup comes to an end and an inspired Djokovic saves his best tennis until the very last match!
An Uninspiring Final for an Uninspiring World Cup
Okay – maybe uninspiring is a touch harsh, but I for one am unsure if I even enjoyed this World Cup. Moments of magic sprinkled on top of a steaming pile of forgone conclusion leaving the viewer clipping their nails instead of biting them. I’m sure the ardent cricket fan will disagree, but cricket needs new watchers, cue the Hundred, and this World Cup in my eyes was not a great advert for the game. Or maybe I’m just upset England played badly.
India looked untouchable going into the final, having thumped New Zealand in the semis by 70 runs with yet another imperious performance both with bat and ball. The other semi saw South Africa take on Australia in an attempt to break their unwanted tradition of underperforming in knock out games on the big stage. They could not. A stellar performance by the Aussies saw them advance to the final to face the home favourites.
The accolades in cricket are reserved predominantly for the two major disciplines: batting and bowling. Quite rightly some would argue, as this is essentially what the game boils down to, however a third discipline that often goes under the radar has arguably just won Australia a World Cup – Fielding. Most notably in the semi, but also in the final on the biggest stage of all, Australia’s work in the field in the early overs was formidable with Marnus Labuschagne and David Warner starring as the main protagonists. Their remarkable athleticism can be seen in the video below, with Labuschagne diving to his left to save a certain boundary off the bat of Rassie van der Dussen. This had a notable effect in the South Africa game, with the Proteas top order suffocated to only 10-2 off the first 8 overs, their first boundary of the innings coming after 52 balls. A mistimed swipe across the line from their star man Quinton De Kock epitomised South Africa’s woes – his evident frustration at a lack of runs (only scoring 3 off 14) a direct symptom of the pressure applied by the Australians.
In the final, the Australians won the toss and chose to bowl first, a decision that initially surprised many of the pundits. However, the wicket proved difficult for the Indian batsmen, with more excellent fielding from the Aussies along with outstanding control of line and length from their big quicks making it a challenge to find the boundary rope. Rohit Sharma started characteristically quickly but fell in the 40s yet again, and with the hopes of a nation on his shoulders Virat Kohli was dismissed shortly after reaching his 8th 50 of the tournament. Slower ball bouncers towards the end of the innings starved the Indian middle order of the pace they were desperate for – limiting the total to just 240. Whilst below par, the Indian bowling attack certainly had the weapons needed to defend it, and despite fireworks from Australia’s opening batsmen, India were well in the game after quick wickets left Australia 47-3 after 7 overs. Unfortunately for the c. 90,000 Indian supporters in the Narendra Modi Stadium, this was to be all she wrote as far as wickets were concerned until the final over of the innings. Travis Head frustrated the Indian bowlers throughout, handling the spin combination of Kuldeep and Jadeja expertly, and going on to raise his bat for his second century of the tournament to a wall of deafening silence. He becomes only the 7th batsmen to score a World Cup Final century and the 3rd Australian after Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist, both considered all time greats of the sport.
Despite a shaky start, the Australians finished the tournament strongly, rounding off an excellent 2023 which saw them win the World Test Championship as well as retain the Ashes away from home against an in form England side. These results affirm captain Pat Cummins’ decision to withdraw from this years IPL to avoid playing too much cricket – a huge statement considering the direction in which world cricket is destined to travel in the coming years. Credit to him.
Stats, Big Moments & Controversy
Final disappointment aside, Virat Kohli was awarded player of the tournament having broken the record for most runs in a single ODI World Cup (765) as well as notching his 50th ODI century, moving clear of cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar to stand alone at the top all time list.
Quinton De Kock moves joint second alongside Kumar Sangakkara on the list of most centuries in a world cup after scoring 4 this tournament, falling just behind Rohit Sharma who scored 5 in the 2019 tournament.
De Kock also becomes the first keeper to take 20 catches and score 500 runs in the same world cup. A great tournament for the South African legend who announced at the start of the tournament that this would be his last ever ODI cricket.
Sri Lanka’s top order only managed 2 runs in their demolition at the hands of India. 2 runs in the top 5 is the fewest scored by a top 5 in the history of ODI cricket.
In the contest between Afghanistan and the Netherlands, 4 of the top 5 batsmen were run out. Another first in the history of ODI cricket – click here to compare it to some of the matches with 3!
In the semi final, Shami took his 3rd 5-wicket hall of the world cup – the most by any bowler in one world cup – despite missing the first 4 matches. This is his 4th world cup 5-wicket hall, again the most by any bowler. After this tournament, his bowling figures in World Cups are just ridiculous:
| Span | Mat | Inns | Ovrs | Mdns | Rns | Wkts | BBI | Avg | Econ | SR | 4W | 5W |
| 2015-2023 | 18 | 18 | 145.0 | 13 | 744 | 55 | 7/57 | 13.52 | 5.13 | 15.8 | 4 | 4 |
At 21 years old, Ibrahim Zadran scored Afghanistan’s first ever World Cup Century, the cherry on the icing on the cake of what was a wonderful tournament for this underrated nation.
Glenn Maxwell hit an astounding double century against Afghanistan in a comeback for the ages after Australia were reduced to 91-7. This match featured the most runs hit after the fall of the 7th wicket in ODI history (202) as well as the largest 8th wicket partnership (also 202). Maxwell’s first century came off 76 balls. His second (whilst essentially immobile) came off just 52 balls which would be the joint 17th fastest ODI century of all time in its own right. Absolutely remarkable.
The most controversial moment of the World Cup has to be awarded to the Timed Out dismissal if Angelo Matthew’s. The laws of the game state:
40.1 Out Timed out
40.1.1 After the fall of a wicket or the retirement of a batter, the incoming batter must, unless Time has been called, be ready to receive the ball, or for the other batter to be ready to receive the next ball within 3 minutes of the dismissal or retirement. If this requirement is not met, the incoming batter will be out, Timed out.
On the face of it, this seems like a sensible rule to avoid time wasting and to keep the game moving forward after the natural break due to the fall of a wicket. However context, as it usually is, is crucial. Matthews was at his crease and ready to play in plenty of time when an equipment malfunction led him to request a new helmet. The debacle that followed saw Shakib Al Hasan in deep conversation with the umpire during the long wait for a replacement helmet. After a period of around 6 minutes, Angelo Matthews was given out by timed out, the umpires forced to uphold the laws of the game after an appeal was made by the Bangladesh side. Despite Bangladesh going on to win the game, Matthews would get personal revenge by taking the wicket of the Bangladesh captain and celebrating in iconic fashion.
Djokovic is the GOAT
Last week saw the culmination of the ATP season with the Nitto ATP Finals held in Turin. The Italian crowd had a clear favourite going into the tournament, Jannik Sinner (ITA), and they made this favouritism evident in just about every encounter. Sinner rode the wave of support and became the first Italian to make the final 4 after winning all three of his group stage matches including a 3 set thriller against world number 1 Novak Djokovic. In the other group, Alcaraz started slowly, losing to Alexander Zverev, but 2 wins out of three proved enough to qualify for the semi finals where he faced Djokovic in a repeat of the Wimbledon Final this season.
STAT: For only the 9th time in 43 years, the ATP finals had the world ranked 1-4 in the semi finals.
The boisterous Italian crowd cheered their compatriot Sinner to a victory over the ever present Daniil Medvedev whilst Djokovic eased past Alcaraz in straight sets conceding just 5 games – a sign of things to come. Novak Djokovic cemented his status as the greatest of all time winning his 7th ATP Finals title, moving clear of Federer at the top of the list of most victories in this event. The ATP tour have developed a new way of rating a players’ performances based on a number of metrics including but limited to shot quality, return quality, serving accuracy and point steals. After the ATP Finals they released the top 5 performances of the season, with Djokovic’s semi final and final performances ranking as 4th and 1st respectively, laying down a marker to the new generation by brushing aside the best it has to offer. He is playing as well as ever and looking ominous going into 2024.
When asked in an interview after the final what it is that still motivates him, Novak responded saying “Well you can win four Slams and Olympic Gold”. Need I remind you that the Olympics is next year and is set to be played on the Rolland Garros courts, a venue where Novak has only lost to Nadal since 2019. With the Spaniard still struggling with injury, could this finally be Djokovic’s year to clinch the only accolade that has evaded him so far?
Did you miss me?
Thanks for reading – a busy few weeks caused a small pause on my end but a natural conclusion to two tournaments covering a couple of my favourite sports was an opportunity I couldn’t afford to miss.
Ciao!
