For Australia to win the World Cup, all it took was 'One Day'

What Shah Rukh Khan had said in the official ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023 film three months ago was "The difference between making history and creating history… One Day". The wider narrative that the film entailed, pretty much meant that anything could happen at any given time - be it unbridled joy or tragic misery or the euphoria of conquering the world on a single given day.

The other concept they integrated as a wider theme for the world was the integration of 'Navarasa' - the nine emotions evoked in an audience during their experience of performance art.

The theory is that cricket is not just a sport in India. To many, it's their first love, to most, it's an emotion.

"They call the nine emotions we experience in the theatre of life the Navarasas," is what Harsha Bhogle explained in another CWC campaign advertisement. With its silhouetting mix of heritage, diversity, expression and energy, India aimed at evoking the same emotions - joy, glory, power, respect, pride, bravery, anguish, passion and wonder - within all and sundry throughout the tournament.

As fate would have it, the 19th of November was Australia's 'One Day' where they and their fans went through all the emotions and so did India and their Blue Army, but in a very contrasting fashion.

As sports fans, we look for and try to enforce storylines in the narrative of a single encounter. We did the same for the final although it must be said that as a one-off match, the game was pretty disappointing and one-sided. 

It started with Australia captain Pat Cummins' bravery- asking arguably the best batting lineup to bat first in a World Cup final. In cricket, the myth of 'bat first and put runs on the board' has existed since time immemorial. The Indian captain himself wanted to set the target.

However, on that 'One Day,' Cummins decided to play the pitch, conditions and match at hand and not the age-old theories which may have been the safer way to go about their business.

The four times India batted first in the tournament, they scored 400-ish twice and in the ones they scored under 350, they won by a hundred or more. However, they were never bowled out once; apart from that 'One Day', in the final at Ahmedabad.

 For wonder, one didn't need to look any further than the Narendra Modi Stadium itself. Basked in a sea of blue which counted over 1,30,000 in the stands, the final was being played in front of the highest recorded audience ever in a cricket game. When the entire stadium sang India's 'Jana Gana Mana,' one of the most beautiful national anthems out there in unison, passion was evident amongst all.

When it comes to power, one needs to look no further than the innings Travis Head played, which was one for the ages. Becoming the third Aussie to score a century in the World Cup final, it wouldn't have mattered even if India kept on taking wickets from the other end because Head's innings was all about raw power. His 137 came from 120 balls which included four 6s and 15 boundaries. 

Respect and admiration even came from Head's counterparts as player of the tournament and arguably the world's best batter Virat Kohli was seen clapping in admiration as the centurion walked off after holing out in the deep. KL Rahul showed some glove-love as the left-handed batter started walking off and the Indian captain also walked up to him and shook his hands in appreciation. It was poetic as it was Rohit's power batting which always gave India the starts they were looking for.

Pride was seen in Mitchell Marsh's eyes as he had the guts to offer a wink at an Indian player even after he lost his wicket and India were staging a comeback. He had returned home to Australia in the middle of the tournament. He told his teammates, "I am going home for now but I will be back to win the World Cup." He did.

As the Aussies basked in joy and glory after achieving their much cherished 'Hexa,' all the Indian players could portray on their faces was the anguish of coming so close to winning the cup, but failing. Fast bowler Mohammad Siraj was seen trying to hide his tearful eyes but failing.

After six weeks of constant cheer and loud celebrations from the Indian fans, it took only a few moments of cricketing brilliance from Australia which ended up silencing the 130,000 at Ahmedabad. One team started off the tournament with two losses and the other went into the final with ten straight wins. At the end of the day, it took 'One Day' to silence them. It took 'One Day' to change the narrative and put arguably the best white-ball side on the planet in second position.