Travis Head leads Australia over India for 6th Cricket World Cup title

His diving catch to remove Rohit Sharma quietened the heavily pro-Indian crowd.

His match-winning knock of 137 silenced them completely.

Sunday's Cricket World Cup final belonged to Travis Head, the modest, moustache-wearing Australian who started the tournament sidelined by a broken left hand and ended it getting hugged and slapped on the back by jubilant teammates as he walked off the field soaked in sweat following his player-of-the-match display in the 132,000-capacity Narendra Modi Stadium.

"To be able to do that on the biggest stage, in front of a full house, under all that pressure," Head said, "is something I'll be able to look back on later in my life."

He's compiling quite the list of star performances. Just in the last five months, he has been player of the match in the World Test Championship final (also against India), a World Cup semifinal and now in the final itself.

Sunday was the best of the lot, becoming only the third Australian — after Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist — to score a century in a 50-over World Cup final with a brave innings that started with two boundaries in the first over off Jasprit Bumrah and continued as the team felt the heat on 47-3, chasing 241 on a tough pitch.

He bided his time but never took a step back, picking his moment to seize the momentum. Like when he smashed Mohammed Shami for four on the pacer's first ball after his return to the attack; when he hit Bumrah for two fours at the start of his second spell; when he got down on one knee and slog-swept Kuldeep Yadav for six when runs were proving hard to come by.

There was some desperation when Head reached his century — he opted to take a single and could easily have been run out — but then he accelerated after getting to