India’s hopes of winning the home cricket World Cup have not been fulfilled. In the final, record world champions Australia defeated the hosts by six wickets in front of 130,000 fans in Ahmedabad and took the crown for the sixth time. “This is bigger than 2015,” said Australia’s Josh Hazlewood, whose team triumphed in front of their home crowd. In the group stage six weeks ago, India narrowly won the duel against Australia. But after the opening defeat against the hosts and a defeat in the second tournament game against South Africa, the Australians celebrated eight wins in a row and remained confident in the final. In India, where cricket is the number one national sport, millions of fans had been hoping for the country’s third title after 1983 and 2011 in recent weeks. Cricket will be an Olympic discipline for the first time since 1900 at the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
