Pat Cummins, the 2023 Men’s ODI World Cup winning captain for Australia, said the moment of silence in the Narendra Modi Stadium when he dismissed Virat Kohli in the title clash is something which he will be savouring for a long time to come.
In the final at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on November 19, Kohli was trying to get India out of trouble with his knock of 54. But he chopped on to his stumps on a short ball from Cummins, who did not concede a boundary in his spell of 2-34 in ten overs.
India eventually made 240, which was chased down by Australia in 43 overs to get their sixth World Cup title. On the eve of the title clash, Cummins quipped that his team would be aiming to silence the Indian fans in the stadium, saying nothing more satisfying than hearing a big crowd go silent, which did happen with Kohli’s dismissal.
“I was obviously very pumped. And then we’re in the huddle after that wicket, and Steve Smith says, “Boys, listen to the crowd for a second.” And we just took a moment of pause, and it was as quiet as a library; 100,000 Indians there, and it was so quiet. I’ll savour that moment for a long time,” said Cummins to The Sydney Morning Herald.
Cummins was also lauded for his bold decision to bowl first in the final and putting innovative fields as well as using six bowlers in as many overs to not let India run away with the game.“Talking with the coaches over different ways to – especially in the middle overs of the ODI – create something from nothing. We’ve got plenty of all-rounders in the side, so why not have a lot of one-over spells and keep trying different ways to break up their rhythm? And yeah, it seemed to work pretty well,” he added.
It has been a remarkable year for Cummins, where Australia retained the Ashes, won its first-ever World Test Championship mace and Men’s ODI World Cup title under his leadership. His ascension to Australia leadership role came in November 2021, after Tim Paine stepped down in a surprise turn of off-field events.
Cummins admitted that he was initially intimidated by taking up the role of being Australia’s captain. “I was, for sure. Especially to see two really good mates having their tenures end the way they did. It felt like I was walking straight into it, a little bit.”
“I love putting everything to bowling and I wasn’t sure how the added dimension of captaincy, which I hadn’t really done before, was going to affect it. But since I was a kid, learning all about the history of cricket, you know the Australian captaincy is a big thing, so I felt a real sense of responsibility.”
“But everyone supported me and understood that while I was pretty green in the role I was going to have a lot of good people around me. And I felt that every other time in my life where I’ve had to step up into something unknown, I managed to find my feet pretty quickly. So I would give myself a little pep talk on that.”