World Cup Final: How Australia Managed To Dominate In-Form Indian Batters

Australia's grizzly-haired veterans brought all their big-game experience to the fore, restricting a hitherto rollicking India to 240 all out in the World Cup final at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Sunday. Their dominance over the hosts had multiple focal points to it, while India made a couple of moments of their own through fifties by Virat Kohli and KL Rahul. Here's a closer look at important moments in the match.

Rohit lives by sword

From the beginning of the tournament, Rohit batted only in one gear, evidenced by his strike-rate of 126. On this day, the Mumbaikar made runs at 151. His strategy was clear, blunt the Aussie new ball bowlers and the skipper blasted two sixes off pacer Josh Hazlewood to give early momentum to his side.

But Rohit's innings did not bloom into something bigger. His effort to hoist off-spinner Glenn Maxwell over the ring ended when Travis Head took a lovely running-diving catch towards sweeper cover. Australia snapped India's march too for that moment.

Australia's fielding

The Antipodeans have always been a very good fielding side, and they raised the bar one notch up in the summit clash. Travis Head took that brilliant running catch to dismiss Rohit Sharma and David Warner made more than one diving saves near the ropes to save the boundaries, leaving Indian batters a bit frustrated.

It also forced them to change their gung-ho approach that they followed so far in the tournament. Cummins also made some really good field placements.

When Kohli and Rahul were batting, the Aussies skipper opened the cover region with a sweeper in place and closed ranks around the square-leg and mid-on areas. It was a clear ploy to force the Indian batters to take more risks to make quick runs, or contend