London [UK], June 11 : Former Australian batter Matthew Hayden summed up India's struggle in the World Test Championship 2023 final after Australia inflicted a crushing 209-run defeat on them at the Oval, London on Sunday.
Scott Boland and Nathan Lyon orchestrated India's defeat with their heroics with the ball. Hayden praised the Australian team for their triumphant performance while pointing out India's struggle in the tournament.
"Outplayed by New Zealand in the last cycle and now Australia," Hayden said as quoted by ICC.com.
"This is now the ninth time that Australia has taken an ICC Championship of some sort. It really is impressive stuff from a country of 26 million people," he added.
"A bold community of athletes and sporting heroes who combined here on this world stage against [a country of] 1.4 billion. It's impressive stuff," Hayden signed off saying.
The former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting reflected on Australia's hard work for the past two years and completely outplaying the Indian team.
"Look at what it means to this group of players. Two long and hard years of work, competing and winning Test matches all around the world has gone into this today," Ricky Ponting said as quoted by ICC.com.
"Disappointment for India but they've been completely outplayed here at The Oval by a very good Australian cricket team," Ponting added.
India started day five at 164/3, with Virat Kohli (44*) and Ajinkya Rahane (20*) unbeaten at the crease.
However, a game-changing over by Scott Boland, which saw him trap Virat for 49 and Ravindra Jadeja for a duck, started India's downfall. Rahane was dismissed by Mitchell Starc for 46 while Srikar Bharat (23) was dismissed by Nathan Lyon.
The Indian batting line-up failed to put up a fight, bundling out for 234 runs in 63.3 overs to hand Australia their first-ever WTC title.
Lyon was the pick of the bowlers for Australia, taking 4/41. Boland took 3/46 while Starc got two wickets. Skipper Pat Cummins got one wicket.
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