In the post-match press conference, Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc shared his thoughts about facing Rohit Sharma in the powerplay of the finals. Starc said, “India has been the best team in the World Cup, and we both are meeting them in the finals. This is what big tournaments are about. You take on the best.”
“Both the teams have played finals in different formats and it will be equally important to manage the pressure and both the skill and the ability to handle the pressure would make the difference in the game,” Starc added.
Starc found the pitch for their semi-final game a bit surprising, knowing that the turn could be expected since it was a used pitch. On asked about the low-scoring game and a difficult wicket to bat on, he said, “Training here the last few days, the practice wicket certainly turned a lot. From all reports, I think the wicket we played on has been used a few times so no surprise that it did turn. Probably a little surprising that it did seam around a little bit whilst I said before it was a pretty inconsistent pace, I think average first inning scores here have been sort of around 300 mark or a little bit higher.”
Australia dominated the game against South Africa by pushing them on the backfoot from the very first over. By the end of the powerplay, South Africa could manage only 18 runs at the loss of two wickets. However, a fight-back effort from David Miller with the bat kept South Africa’s hopes alive on a difficult wicket.
Australia dominated the first ten overs, with the courtesy of Travis Head’s quickfire 62 off 48 balls. Slowing down the proceedings for Australia in the middle overs brought South Africa back in the game, but the total was never sufficient to pull it off from Australia.