Pakistanis made fun of Team India with “sorry brother” posts on X after Rohit Sharma and his men were beaten by Australia in the Cricket World final in Ahmedabad.

 

After Australian skipper Pat Cummins won the toss and chose to field first, the Indian team got off to a flier, thanks to Rohit Sharma's ultra-aggressive approach at the top of the order.

As the 36-year-old has done throughout the World Cup, Rohit Sharma smoked sixes and boundaries at will against Australia, taking the likes of Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc apart during his short but impressive knock of 47 off 31 balls.

At 1/76 and Rohit Sharma firing on all cylinders, the crowd inside the Narendra Modi Stadium was excited as India looked in complete command of the proceedings on the field.

As the Indians were running away with the match on the back of Rohit Sharma's explosive batting, a moment of brilliance turned the tide in Australia's favor.

The head-turning moment came in the 10th over, bowled by Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell. After Rohit Sharma took him on, smashing a six and a four off Glenn Maxwell, the India captain tried to hit another maximum.

But on this occasion, Rohit Sharma could only get an outside edge of the bat on the ball before Travis Head grabbed a brilliant catch, getting rid of Rohit Sharma for 47.

Once Rohit Sharma perished, Australian bowlers tightened the screws on a dry Ahmedabad pitch, choking the flow of runs for the Indians.

Except for Virat Kohli, who made 54 off 63 balls, no other Indian batter got going with boundaries becoming a rare commodity.

KL Rahul did try to stem the tide in India's favor but continued to struggle throughout his knock of 66 off 107 balls, perhaps contributing to the home team's eventual score of 240 in their allocated 50 overs.

Chasing a paltry 240 to claim a record-extending sixth World Cup title, the Australians found themselves in a deep hole at 47/3 with Steve Smith, David Warner, and Mitch Marsh back in the hut.

However, then came the match-winning 192-run partnership between Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne, with the former proving extremely dangerous as he took the match away from India's reach with a sensational 137 off 120 balls.

Subsequently, Glenn Maxwell hit the World Cup-winning runs for Australia as the Kangaroos secured another victory in an ICC event, leaving India captain Rohit Sharma in tears and their millions of fans in a sea of sadness.

“Honestly, the result hasn't gone our way,” Rohit Sharma stated in the post-match presentation ceremony. “And we know that we were not good enough today. But I'm really proud of the team, how we played from game one. It wasn't our day, we tried everything we could from our side but it wasn't supposed to be.”

“Honestly, 20-30 [runs] more would've been good. We spoke around 25-30 overs when KL and Virat were batting. I thought when they were batting they were stitching a good partnership there and then we just needed to bat as long as possible. We were looking at 270-280 at that point, but then we kept losing wickets. We couldn't stitch a big partnership there, and that's exactly what Australia did to win the game. They stitched a big partnership after that three [early] wickets,” he added.

“When you have 240 on the board, you want to take wickets as early as possible, and we did that,” Rohit Sharma elaborated. “But then credit to Head and Marnus, they stitched a big partnership and put us completely out of the game. But again, we tried everything we could but I thought the wicket got slightly better to bat on under the lights.”

“We knew under the lights it would be slightly better. I don't want to give that as an excuse, we didn't bat well enough to put enough runs on the board. And then up-front we got those three wickets and we thought another wicket there we can open up the game but again credit to those two guys in the middle for stitching that big partnership,” he explained.

Meanwhile, the legendary Sunil Gavaskar ripped into Rohit Sharma after his “greedy” mistake cost India dearly, eventually leading to their defeat against Australia in the Cricket World Cup final in Ahmedabad.

With India's loss “hurting” everyone, including Sunil Gavaskar, the 1983 World Cup winner criticized Rohit Sharma for not curbing his aggressive instinct.

“Travis Head's superlative turning and running back catch dashed India's hopes of getting a 300-plus score. That catch dismissed Rohit Sharma, who once again stormed his way to another quickfire 40-plus. That wicket fell in the final over of the first Powerplay where there are only two fielders allowed outside the 30-metre circle. He had already hit a six and a four in the over and was obviously trying to capitalise on the few deliveries left before the Powerplay finished. Was he being too greedy? Could he not have curbed himself since Shubman Gill had already been dismissed?”, Sunil Gavaskar wrote in his Sportstar column.

“The fifth bowler's quota for Australia was always a bit of a lottery, and this time, it worked as it not only got the crucial wicket of the Indian captain but also made the other India batters play the non-regular bowlers even more carefully, and thereby lose out on perhaps 30 runs at least. Whether those runs would have made the difference is debatable,” the ex-India captain noted.

“The Australians didn't give anything away on the field, and that ‘Head catch' typified the Aussie attitude that day. Head then batted with a great mix of watchfulness and calculated assault to take Australia home in the company of the calm, unruffled Marnus Labuschagne,” Sunil Gavaskar concluded.