Australia will meet India tonight in the men’s cricket World Cup Final.
The one-day match will be played in Ahmedabad, starting at 7:30pm AEDT.
India has looked unstoppable so far, but Australia has a history of performing in major tournaments.
Here’s your guide.
Cricket World Cup format
The Cricket World Cup is an international tournament of ‘one-day’ cricket. Each match lasts for about 10 hours, with 50 overs of batting per side.
The World Cup has been held every four years since 1975. It is cricket’s most prestigious trophy, but its prominence has diminished in recent years due to the rise of Twenty20 cricket (a shorter format).
Ten teams qualified for this year’s event, which began in early October.
India
India, the tournament hosts, have won all ten of their matches and have barely been challenged.
In early November, they beat Sri Lanka by 302 runs and South Africa by 243 runs in successive matches (that’s a lot).
Virat Kohli is the tournament’s leading run scorer and this week overtook Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar to score the most one-day hundreds of all time.
Bowler Mohammed Shami is the tournament’s leading wicket-taker.
Australia
Australia’s tournament started poorly with losses to India and South Africa.
Since then, it’s been eight wins in a row. The wins haven’t been as comfortable as India’s, but they have produced memorable highlights including 201 runs from an injured Glenn Maxwell against Afghanistan – arguably the best batting performance in the history of one-day cricket.
Australia defeated South Africa in a tight semi-final on Thursday, led by experienced fast bowlers Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood.
The match-up
India has a winning record against Australia in all formats of the game.
In tournaments, however, it has been a different story. India hasn’t won a trophy in any format for 12 years, falling agonisingly short several times.
Australia, by contrast, has a reputation for showing up when there’s a trophy to be won. Five out of 12 World Cups have been won by Australia, and the team has also claimed Twenty20 and test trophies in the last two years.
