Why The Aussies Dominate The World Cup

Australia thwarted the Indian juggernaut led by Rohit Sharma at the biggest stage to clinch their sixth ODI World Cup title, and we can't help but begrudgingly revel in the absurd superiority of the Australian cricket

- Ravi Raj

When the Austrian poet and novelist Rainer Maria Rilke wrote 'no feelings are final', he must not have considered the perennial feeling of cricket fans across the world sinking in eternal despair, after their team gets upstaged by Australia in the ODI World Cup finals. There have been 13 ODI World Cups so far, and Australia have emerged triumphant in six of them - and the sixth that came in Ahmedabad was perhaps the most staggering, the most confounding, yet the most predictable outcome you could conjure.

If you were asked to name one team that could stop the awe-inspiring juggernaut of Indian cricket, Australia would have been the first name for the most. That the statement is made in retrospect doesn't really devalue its legitimacy. It's a muscle memory, borne out of years of trauma they have inflicted on their adversaries. The scars of the 2003 World Cup final are still engraved on the sleeves of Indian cricket fans, and they have added another now.

What makes the defeat in Ahmedabad more agonising, more long-lasting than the one they suffered in Johannesburg twenty years ago is the sheer dominance, the shade of invincibility that the Indian team under Rohit Sharma exuded leading up to the final. They were 10-0 going into the World Cup, and it's not just about the unbeaten streak but the manner in which they outclassed every opponent. Only once did this team look seriously under the pump, in the opening clash against Australia when they lost three wickets in no time, and even then the team found a way to overcome the Australian challenge. The rest of the campaign was almost flawless; then the final happened.