A day before the final of the 2023 ICC ODI World Cup against India, Australia captain Pat Cummins had declared he would like to silence the partisan crowd that was expected to gather at the Narendra Modi Stadium for the title match.
On Sunday, Cummins walked the talk when he got rid of Shreyas Iyer and then Virat Kohli on 54 before his team outclassed the home team to win their record-extending sixth world title.
The crowd did go silent for prolonged period of time as Australia bossed over India in Ahmedabad. They first restricted India to 240 and then sauntered to the target with Travis Head hitting a memorable century.
Cummins was delighted that Australia were able to do reclaim the world title in front of Indian fans but also praised their passion for the game which he claimed is unrivalled.
“It was awesome, I was pretty happy that they (crowd) were silent for a lot of the bowling innings. Couple of times, they got loud and it was really loud. But fantastic, the passion in India is unrivalled around the world,” Cummins said during the post-match presentation.
“You look around and it is a pretty special moment, whatever the result happens, we are never going to forget a day like today,” he added.
Australia lost their first two matches of the competition and were languishing at the bottom of the pile before relaunching their bid with eight wins in a row to qualify for the final.
“You gotta go and win the World Cup, you can’t wait for it to happen. You got to be brave, you got to take the game on,” Cummins revealed how the team recovered from those two early defeats.
2023 has been a memorable year for the Australian men’s team. They won their first ever ICC World Test Championship title, also beating India and then retained the Ashes after a 2-2 draw in England with Cummins at the helm.
“This year will be remembered for a long, long time and we had a lot of success over the winter and this one peaks it all. At the top of the mountain,” said Cummins.
