Labuschagne credits Cummins magic, McDonald influence for helping win World Cup final

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Brisbane: Australia batsman Marnus Labuschagne has praised captain Pat Cummins for his spell of 2-34 and the impact of head coach Andrew McDonald to lead the team to a six-wicket win against India in the 2023 Men’s ODI World Cup.

Cummins did not concede a single four in the final and finished with figures of 2-34, dismissing Shreyas Iyer and Virat Kohli to restrict India to 240 runs. In reply, Travis Head scored a brilliant 137 to chase down the total in 43 overs in Ahmedabad on Sunday.

“I think it was definitely Pat’s best day with the ball,” Labuschagne told SEN Radio. I think I’ve never seen anyone bowl in the order that he did, bowling the right balls at the right time, as he did. I haven’t seen a middle overs bowler like this for a long time, especially a fast bowler. A lot of credit should go to him.”

Australia were also very tactically prepared to keep India in a tight grip by getting their field placements and line plus length right after deciding to bowl first.

Labuschagne, who scored an unbeaten 58 in the final, also explained how McDonald, who will take over the full-time coaching reins from Justin Langer in 2022, got things right with Cummins to lead Australia to their sixth ODI World Cup title.

Since McDonald took over, Australia have not lost a single Test on home soil, have also retained the Ashes, won the second cycle of the World Test Championship and have now won the ODI World Cup title.

“Strategically, Andrew McDonald and our analyst really got it right with the first toss and then navigated different scenarios and put pressure on the Indian batsmen to get early wickets.”

“The idea then was to reduce them to five wickets at 30 (overs) and that is what they did. The bowlers did a great job and Pat led from the front. I mean, his coaching record speaks for itself.”

Labuschagne concluded, “He never doubted us, I think he’s created such a good environment, he and Pat work really well together. From a team perspective, we obviously rate him very high.” He values ​​and respects him a lot, his ability as a player and a coach and I think it’s the icing on the cake for someone like him.”

–IANS

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