By BD Naraayannkar
Ahmedabad, Nov 17 (UNI) The winning team of ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 will take home US$4 million while the runners-up team will get US$2 million. Already, teams have collected US$40,000 for every group stage win. Both India and Australia will vie for the winning purse at the Narendra Modi Stadium in the tournament final.
The two teams met at the same venue in the group stages in which India cruised through, finishing top on a maximum 18 points having won all nine of their matches. India’s net run rate of 2.570 was far and away the best in the group stage.
Australia had prevailed over the hosts in the 2003 finals at Johannesburg by defeating them by 125 runs.
On November 19, one lakh plus fans are expected to turn out to witness the historic match in the world’s largest stadium, having a capacity of 132,000. The stadium was completed in 2021 and hosted a day-night Test between India and England, as well as the last two IPL finals.
The stadium also hosted the tournament opener on October 5, and India-Pakistan match on October 14, which the hosts won.
Tournament hosts India are eyeing a first major ICC global tournament win in 12 years, and will have the crowd on their side on home soil, as they did in 2011.
Australia are the most successful nation in the history of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup and would make it six wins should they triumph in India.
A reserve day can be taken should a result not be reached due to weather.
India has been on a rampage this tournament as they have won all their 9 matches in the group stage, the only team to achieve this laurels.
In the semifinal against New Zealand, Rohit Sharma led a blazing start with the bat, rocketing with fellow opener Shubman Gill, before Virat Kohli cruised to his 50th ODI century, surpassing Sachin Tendulkar and becoming the first batsman in the world to achieve this feat.
Posting an imperious 397, New Zealand showed some respite largely through a century from Daryl Mitchell, only to fall 70 runs short.
Australia bounced back from defeats to India and South Africa in their opening matches, and sat in last place on the table, before going on to win the remaining seven matches, and qualify with 14 points.
Pat Cummins’ side were slight underdogs in their re-match with South Africa come semifinal time, though the Aussies made an emphatic start, holding South Africa to 24/4.
David Miller’s century gave the Proteas hope, though it was Cummins and Mitchell Starc who would wield their bats aloft in victory, holding on in a tense three-wicket win.
The Squads
India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishan Kishan, Prasidh Krishna, Suryakumar Yadav.
Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Steve Smith, Alex Carey, Josh Inglis, Sean Abbott, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitch Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa, Mitchell Starc.
