3 records that were broken during Day 1 of the ongoing WTC 2023 Final between India and Australia
Day 1 of the ongoing World Test Championship (WTC) Final belonged to Australia, as they were 327/3 at stumps. The high-octane match is currently being played at the Kennington Oval in London.
After putting Australia in to bat first under slightly overcast conditions, Team India started brilliantly. Both Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj troubled the Aussie batters and even dismissed the in-form Usman Khawaja for a duck.
However, David Warner did the hard yards by seeing off the new ball. He scored 43 off 60 before an innocuous delivery by Shardul Thakur led to his downfall.
Just after lunch, Shami took the big wicket of Marnus Labuschagne as India started to make inroads, with Australia at a precarious position of 76/3.
Stumps on Day 1! 🏏
Complete domination by Australia on Day 1 thanks to Travis Head (146*) and Steve Smith (95*)
#WTC23 #AUSvIND #CricketTwitter https://t.co/D0TqM5LCX5
However, Steve Smith and Travis Head then joined forces to trouble the Indian attack. As the day progressed, conditions became easier for batting and some loose bowling from India's seamers didn't help either.
Head took the game on and batted aggressively. Smith, meanwhile, decided to play cautiously in the early part of his innings and tired out the Indian bowlers.
Both added 97 runs in the second session before taking the attack to the Indians in the third session. Across 34 overs of the last session, both Smith and Head added as many as 157 more runs for Australia and put their side in the driving seat.
The Indian bowling attack will look to learn from their mistakes and hope to bundle out Australia as early as possible.
With Australia's score currently reading 327/3, Smith and Head are unbeaten at 95 and 146, respectively.
Day 1 of the WTC Final also saw some records getting broken. Here are the top three records that were shattered during the course of the day.
#1 Rohit Sharma is now the oldest player to captain India in a major ICC tournament final
Despite India getting battered on Day 1, Rohit Sharma will be hopeful of bringing his country a major ICC trophy after a long gap of 10 years. With the bat, he will look to lead from the front in what is his first final as a skipper for India in any ICC tournament.
Moreover, at the age of 36 years and 38 days old, Rohit has also become the oldest player to captain India in any major ICC tournament final.
Previously, Mithali Raj held the record when she skippered India in the ICC Women's World Cup 2017 final at the age of 34 years and 232 days.
#2 Travis Head - First-ever centurion in a WTC final
Travis Head produced a batting masterclass on Wednesday when he put the Indian bowlers to the sword. The left-hander pounced on every delivery that was there to be hit and mustered runs rather easily.
Australia has always won when Travis Head scored a hundred. 🏏🇦🇺💯
#TravisHead #WTCFinal2023 #Australia https://t.co/g91Rix6KrW
In the 65th over of the day, he completed his century, off 106 balls, thus becoming the first-ever player to hit a ton in a WTC final. The previous highest score in a WTC final belonged to Devon Conway (54 vs India in 2021).
The 29-year-old will resume his innings on Thursday. He is currently batting on 146* runs off 156 balls with the help of 22 boundaries and a six.
#1 Steve Smith and Travis Head's 251*-run partnership (so far) is the highest in a major ICC tournament final
The unbeaten partnership of 251 runs for the fourth wicket between Steve Smith and Travis Head completely blew away India. They had a tough task of batting in testing times after Australia lost two quick wickets. However, the two have batted admirably well.
Their partnership of 251* runs is now the highest-ever partnership in any major ICC tournament final. The previous record was also held by two Australians in Ricky Ponting and Damien Martyn. The two right-handers added 234 runs against India at the ICC 2003 World Cup final in Johannesburg.