WTC Final Stats: Australia achieve a first with ninth ICC title

Team India’s hopes of salvaging a draw or pulling off an improbable victory at The Oval came crashing down on Sunday as Australia ran through their middle and lower order to bowl them out for 234 and win the 2023 ICC World Test Championship Final by a thumping 209-run margin.

India, thus, fell agonisingly short of glory in yet another ICC event, getting outplayed by the Pat Cummins-led Australian team in all departments.

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India began the day with Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane resuming from their overnight unbroken partnership of 71, needing to bat a majority of the day out in order to help their team avoid a defeat.

Scott Boland, however, inflicted a hammer blow to their hopes by removing Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja in one over. Rahane managed to get them past 200 with a 33-run partnership with Srikar Bharat, but his dismissal off Mitchell Starc’s bowling was the final nail in the coffin for the Indians, who got bowled out shortly after.

In Photos: Australia bundled India out for 234 to win WTC Final by 209 runs

With their clinical performance at The Oval over the course of the last five days, Australia not only added another trophy to their burgeoning cabinet, they also ended up achieving a first. We take a look at that along with other records achieved and milestones broken during the ICC World Test Championship Final:

— Australia became the first team to win all the major ICC trophies on offer. They have five ODI World Cup titles (1987, 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2015) along with two Champions Trophy wins (2006 and 2009) and a T20 World Cup victory in 2020, and have taken their trophy count to nine with the World Test Championship Final victory.

— With nine titles in global events, Australia have further cemented themselves as the most successful team in the history of men’s cricket. India and West Indies are second on this list with five titles each, while Pakistan, Sri Lanka and England have three each. New Zealand (2) and South Africa (1) are next in the list while Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Ireland and Afghanistan are the Test sides that are yet to win an ICC event.

— With their 209-run loss on Sunday, India ended up suffering their fourth defeat in the final of an ICC event since 2013. They had lost the finals of the 2014 World T20 and 2017 Champions Trophy against Sri Lanka and Pakistan respectively besides suffering an eight-wicket defeat at the hands of New Zealand in the final of the inaugural World Test Championship.

— India have now completed nearly a decade without an ICC title. They had defeated England in the final of the 2013 Champions Trophy on 23 June under MS Dhoni the last time they had won a tournament at a global level.

— In an interesting coincidence, India had been shot out for 234 while chasing a mammoth target the last time they met Australia in the final of an ICC event, which was back in the 2003 ODI World Cup in Johannesburg where the Men in Blue had been set a daunting 359 to win.

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