‘Memories still hurt but…’: India fans distressed as a year back Rohit Sharma and Co faced World Cup final defeat

Indian cricket fans experienced deep emotional distress on Tuesday as it marked the one-year anniversary of Rohit Sharma and his team's heartbreaking loss in the 2023 ODI World Cup final to Australia. Despite their stellar performance in the league stage and semi-finals, India faltered in the crucial match, delivering a lackluster batting performance and ultimately succumbing to a 6-wicket defeat, largely due to Travis Head's remarkable century under pressure.

It wasn't just India's day at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, as Pat Cummins kept his promise of silencing a lakh-plus crowd. Indian skipper Rohit Sharma didn't read the pitch right and was willing to bat first, but Cummins chose to bowl after assessing the slow nature of the surface.

Things started falling down for India after the wicket of Rohit, who Head caught on Glenn Maxwell's delivery in an attempt to hit a big shot despite hitting a six and a four on the last two deliveries. Virat Kohli, the tournament's leading run-getter, tried hard to put India back on track with a gritty 54-run knock, but Pat Cummins stunned him and the Indians fans. After his departure, KL Rahul went into a shell and scored 66 runs off 107 balls, which backfired miserably, while Suryakumar Yadav also dismissed cheaply on 18 as India were bundled out for 240.

In reply, the bowlers did try to put up a fightback with three early wickets of 47 - David Warner, Mitchell Marsh and Steve Smith. However, Head held his nerves in a tense situation and put the team back on track with a 137-run knock, and Marnus Labuschagne supported him well with a 58-run knock.

The Indian cricket fans are still not over from the heartbreaking defeat which snatched their chance of celebrating the ODI WC triumph for the third time.

Skipper Rohit was dejected after the loss and admitted that they didn't post enough runs on the scoreboard.

“We tried everything we could but I feel wicket got slightly better to bat under lights. Don't want to give that as an excuse. We knew under lights it would be slightly better to bat, but don't want to give that as an excuse. We didn't put enough runs on the board,” Rohit said in the post-match presentation.