• Home
  • Who Said What
  • One Of The Bravest Decisions Allan Border Lauds Cummins For Chasing In Wc Final

'One Of The Bravest Decisions..' - Allan Border Lauds Cummins For Chasing In WC Final

image-lp9bk78fCummins had opted to bowl first (Twitter)

Legendary Allan Border acknowledged the courage and clarity displayed by Australian captain Pat Cummins in opting to bowl first against the traditional advice and logic at the high-pressure final of the ICC World Cup 2023 versus India on Sunday (November 19).

Cummins went against the old adage of 'bat first in big finals' and put India in on a dry sluggish pitch in Ahmedabad that transformed into a batters' paradise once the dew settled in at the height of the Aussie run-chase.


The skipper judged the conditions to absolute perfection as the excessively dry surface emboldened the Aussie tactics of bowling the slow off-cutters off the good length region to curtail the Indian run-scoring to 240 all out before the visitors overcame initial strife to chase down the target inside 43 overs. 

Cummins walked the talk with a fiery old-ball spell in the afternoon, featuring the prized scalps of Shreyas Iyer and Virat Kohli to disrupt the Indian innings as he ended with spectacular figures of 2 for 34 off his 10 overs. 

Border Hails Cummins' 'Bowl First' Move in Ahmedabad 

Speaking to Fox Sports as an expert, Border, the 1987 World Cup-winning skipper, hailed the precision behind Cummins' decision after amusingly giving him the brickbats for opting to bowl first.

"Pat Cummins’ “bowl first’’ call in the World Cup final was one of the bravest decisions I have seen from a cricket captain. I must be honest, when I heard Pat say “we will bowl’’ I thought “oh no, Patrick, you have lost the plot, you blokes. When Rohit Sharma was going hard early, I thought “what are we doing?’ Those first half a dozen to 10 overs I was thinking, ‘Oh my god, The decision to bowl first has just backfired," Border said.

Border believes Cummins has really grown as a captain and a leader of men for Australia with his maiden World Cup stint as skipper. Like his team did, the experienced pacer stuttered along the league phase with just ten scalps in his nine outings but then peaked in the knock-outs stage by producing spells of 3/51 versus South Africa and 2/34 against India.

"He’s just grown as a captain and a leader. Tactically out on the field, he’s got some good senior men, which he goes to a fair bit and why not? There was a lot of people and I was one of them thinking loading up our No. 1 fast bowler with the captaincy might not be the right decision. But Patrick’s just grown into the job and he’s starting to really make the team his own," Border added. 

Cummins walked the talk with a fiery old-ball spell in the afternoon, featuring the prized scalps of Shreyas Iyer and Virat Kohli to disrupt the Indian innings as he ended with spectacular figures of 2 for 34 off his 10 overs.