Three finals, two titles: India in World Cup finals

IND vs AUS ICC World Cup 2023 final The mood of the entire country will be nostalgic filled with plenty of excitement and driven by a feeling of revenge as India locks horns with Australia in the IND vs AUS ICC World Cup 2023 final at Ahmedabads Narendra Modi Stadium twenty years after fivetime champions beat Men in Blue by 125 runs in the finalOver the years Cricket World Cups and ICC events in general have given India a lot of heartbreak and sorrow It has been a common occurrence to see India dominate the entire tournament but fumble big time in knockout stagesfinals But this time India went undefeated for ten games straight and reached the finals In this memorable run so far Men in Blue have ticked every single box be it in batting bowling or fielding An occasional dip in one department has been compensated for by top performance in the other departmentBefore the title clash let us have a look at Indias performances in previous World Cup finals1983 Cricket World Cup final against West Indies Lords LondonAfter two extremely poor World Cup campaigns in 1975 and 1979 India reaching the finals of the 1983 edition of the tournament in England was a shocker for the entire cricketing fraternity At the other side it was the invincible West Indies aiming for a hattrick of WC titles Though India had beaten West Indies in the league stage the occasion was much bigger and India was ruled out by manyIn a lowscoring affair at the Home of Cricket India was bundled out for just 183 in 544 overs with Andy Roberts Michael Holding Joel Garner and Malcolm Marshall dominating the Indian lineup Kris Srikanth 38 Mohinder Amarnath 26 and Sandeep Patil 27 posted important knocksBut the Indians replied back with a spirited bowling performance Madan Lal and Mohinders threewicket hauls led the attack from the front and the twotime champions folded for 140 runsIndia won their firstever WC title and the win went on to change the power landscape of the sport2003 Cricket World Cup final against Australia Johannesburg20 years after the famous win at Lords India got another chance at lifting the gold against mighty undefeated Australians In the final at a packed Johannesburg Australians did not offer a minute of respite after being put to bat first Adam Gilchrist 57 and Matthew Hayden 37 laid the foundation for a big score with their century stand After getting them both India was hit by a barrage of fours and sixes by skipper Ricky Ponting 140 in 121 balls with four boundaries and eight sixes and Damien Martyn 88 in 84 balls with seven fours and a six Australia scored 3592 in 50 oversAlso ReadIndias need for speed Sensational Shami or buoyant BumrahIn chase of 360 the Aussies got the big wicket of Sachin Tendulkar for just four runs With Sachins wicket dimmed the hopes of millions of Indians Except for Virender Sehwag 82 and skipper Sourav Ganguly 47 all the big guns failed and Men in Blue was bundled out for 234 losing by 125 runs2011 Cricket World Cup final against Sri Lanka MumbaiEight years after a heartbreaking loss to Australia that had been a topic of discussions and rants every time India played an ICC event or Australia India got a chance to redeem themselves at home At the iconic Wankhede Stadium of Mumbai the Lankan Lions chose to bat first and put 2746 in 50 overs thanks to a century by Mahela Jayawardene 103 in 88 balls with 13 foursIn the chase of 275 India lost Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag early leaving Men in Blue at 312 A partnership of 83 runs between Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli 35 revived Indias chances Gambhir went on to make 97 in 122 balls with nine fours before being dismissed But skipper MS Dhoni who promoted themselves up the order scored a magnificent 91 in 79 balls with eight fours and two sixes He finished off things in style as commentator Ravi Shastri called it during the live broadcast with a massive six that is immortalised through a memorial inside the stadium India lifted the trophy after 28 yearsAlso ReadFort Motera ready for cricketrsquos biggest battleWhether India can clinch the World Cup for the third time only time will tellPredicted squadsIndia Rohit Sharma c Shubman Gill Virat Kohli Shreyas Iyer KL Rahul Ravindra Jadeja Shardul Thakur Jasprit Bumrah Mohammed Siraj Kuldeep Yadav Mohammed Shami Ravichandran Ashwin Ishan Kishan Prasidh Krishna Suryakumar YadavAustralia Pat Cummins c Steve Smith Alex Carey Josh Inglis Sean Abbott Cameron Green Josh Hazlewood Travis Head Marnus Labuschagne Mitch Marsh Glenn Maxwell Marcus Stoinis David Warner Adam Zampa Mitchell StarcWith agency inputs