A couple of years ago, at the Karen Rolton Oval in Adelaide, Travis Head, slammed his highest score in List A cricket. Out of the 391 his team scored, Head hammered 230 off just 127 balls and became only the second player in the list of highest individual List A scores for Australia. The fact that South Australia won that game by 67 runs (DLS method) was of least importance,
but if you remember watching that game live, you would have known that Travis Head is cut from a different cloth. Drive. Punch. Pull. Heave. Ramp. Sweep. What not? Indeed a couple of balls went out of the park and not really sure if they were traced back till date. Not that Head needed such an innings to reaffirm his credentials, but it was, if anything, a clear indication that Head is primed to do special things on the field. Fast forward a couple of years, the South Australian became only the third Australian to register a hundred in a World Cup final. Remember, there were doubts about his participation after he got injured (fractured his left hand) during the South African tour in September. But soon as he burst on to the (World Cup) scene, he lit up the hills of Dharamsala with his maiden WC ton and then wrapped it up with a knockout punch to decimate India in the final.
Pat Cummins | Australian skipper: I think we saved our best for last. Couple of big match players stood up, and we’re pretty stuffed. We’ve been batting first pretty much for the whole tournament, today we thought, it’s a good night to chase down, we thought it might actually get a little bit easier. Everyone was pretty keen to get out there. It was a bit slower than I thought, didn’t particularly spin probably as much as we thought either. Everyone adjusted pretty well and bowled some tight lines. On a slow wicket like that with variable bounce, we thought a couple of catchers on leg-side, you got to score in ODI cricket, so put a few catchers there and make them make a couple of decisions. (Fielding) Desperate for sure, it all started last week in South Africa. The boys were fantastic. We’ve got an ageing side but everyone still throws themselves around in the game. Really chuffed with 240, probably anything under 300 really. I thought 300 might have been tough but achievable on that wicket. We were really happy with 240. I was one of those blokes with the heart fluttering. Magnificent. Marnus walked in with a cool head and Travis does what he does. Really brave, he takes the game on, puts some pressure back on the bowlers and to do it on the biggest stage shows a lot of character. The selectors have backed him even when he had a broken hand and the medical team to get him back. It was a big risk that we took and it paid off. Couldn’t be happier for Trav, he is a legend, we love him. 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. You look around and it is a pretty special moment, whatever the result happens, we are never going to forget a day like today. (Message after two losses) 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. 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.
Now it is the turn of the champions, Australia, to accept their WINNERS medals from ICC chairman Greg Barclay…
Rohit Sharma | Indian skipper: The result has not gone our way. We were not good enough today. We tried everything but it wasn’t supposed to be. 20–30 runs more would have been good, KL and Kohli were stitching a good partnership and we were looking at 270–280 but we kept losing wickets. When you have 240 on the board, you want to take wickets but credit to Head and Labuschagne who stitched together a big partnership and put us completely out of the game. 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. With the seamers upfront, we took those 3 wickets and another wicket there, we could open up the game. Credit to those two guys in the middle for stitching an outstanding partnership.
Travis Head | Player of the Match — 137(120): Never expected this, not in a million years, truly an exceptional day. Lot better than sitting on the couch at home. Really glad to contribute, the first twenty balls I played gave me a lot of confidence and yea I was able to carry through. The way Mitch Marsh came out and took the game on, he set the tone. That was the energy we wanted and we knew the wicket may get tough. It was a great decision to bowl first after winning the toss. I felt the wicket got better as the day went on. It took a little bit of spin, it paid dividends. Nice to be a part of it, nice to play a role in all of that. He’s (Rohit Sharma) probably the unluckiest man in the world. Again, it’s (fielding) something that I worked hard on. I couldn’t imagine getting a hundred, couldn’t probably imagine holding onto that one. Was great to hold on to that catch. Important to look after your team-mates, to be able to do that on the big stage in front of a full house is a nice thing. (On joining the list of centurions in WC finals — Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and Head) Definitely third on that list, it’s a nice one to join, nice to be here and nice to contribute. I’ll just tell the boys that I’m looking forward to the reunion.
