Out-thought, out-fought

That cricket is a cruel game has been said over the ages and it is so true The Indian team experienced this on Sunday After having bossed the entire tournament they were outthought and outfought by Australia when it mattered the most I have privately maintained that Pat Cummins is not such a great captain I take that back I eat my words on thisPat Cummins has a shrewd cricketing head behind that smiling face His decision to bowl first was what won Australia the game Itrsquos as simple as that This will probably go down as one of the shrewdest moves by a captain ever It did not come across as a great move when India started to bat as Rohit Sharma got right into the Aussies and continued the courageous approach that we all loveGill dismissed earlyShubman Gill got out early but the captain and Virat Kohli stitched together a partnership before an injudicious shot from Rohit saw Travis Head running back and diving to complete one of the best catches I have seen Cummins then got Shreyas Iyer caught behind and India went into sleep mode for 30 overs True the wicket was not great to bat on but India could have scored at least 40 to 50 runs more in these oversSuryakumar Yadav after being dismissed for 18 on Sunday PicGetty ImagesThe Australians bowled superbly and Adam Zampa was particularly good The ball was scuffed up and there was reverse swing on offer that Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood used optimally Batting was tough and this attack made it exponentially tougher But the Australian fielding was even better From the second ball of Indiarsquos innings when Head miraculously stopped a boundary the Aussies were on fire David Warner Marnus Labuschagne Head Cumminsmdashall were gold standardDefending 240 India started nervously Surprisingly they gave Mohammed Shami the new ball which turned out well to start with but the occasion got the better of Shami He was running in hard trying to take a wicket off each ball and this impacted his usual style He had a fantastic tournament right though Overall there was a sense of nervous desperation from India from the start that did not augur well Low totals are always tough to defend and composure is keyAlso Read How to win a World Cup finalAustralia too looked nervous in front of a packed Narendra Modi Stadium and there was a slam bang start which resulted in Warner and Mitchell Marsh slashing a couple to be caught Steven Smith did not review his dismissal and Australia were 47 for 3 It sure looked like this was going to be Indiarsquos night but Head played the innings of the tournament starting off aggressively but then quickly settling down into an anchor manrsquos role Along with Labuschagne he absorbed the pressure and gambled patiently for the dew to form and the pitch to get easier to bat on Head has been a revelation and the stand out point was the way he was maneuvering the ball the situation the ebb and flow of a tricky chase A masterclass on chasing we witnessedIndiarsquos surprising tacticsA few things surprised me First Ravindra Jadeja not bowling over the wicket to Head especially after having seen how Keshav Maharaj had got him out in the semifinal at Kolkata He only went over the wicket when the match had slipped away This was something that the bowling coach and analyst should have picked up right away or planned beforehand Secondly India did not attack enough Jadeja bowled to Head with a long off through out and at least 10 to 15 runs were comfortably got Thirdly Shami could have come off after a couple of overs at the start and Mohammed Siraj should have been brought into the game earlier When he did come on he too looked nervous and not at his bestAustralia played superbly and many congratulations to them India had an unbelievable tournament and it has to be asked why finals are not a best of three affair to provide a fairer formatJatin Paranjape the exIndia and Mumbai batsman is a former national selector too He tweets jats72