Year-End Review: Australia Men's Cricket Team's Performance In 2023
Australia had a tremendous 2023 as they completed a treble of The Ashes, World Test Championship, and ODI World Cup.
Australia had a productive and a memorable 2023 as they completed a treble in cricket by retaining The Ashes, and winning the World Test Championship and ODI World Cup. The Pat Cummins-led side dismantled oppositions in its way and won comprehensively against India in the final of the World Test Championship in June 2023, at the Kennington Oval, and won the ODI World Cup final against the same opposition at their home, in November 2023, at The Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad.
The Aussies made a rough start to the calendar year by losing the Test series against India in India, when the Rohit Sharma-led side defeated the Aussies 2-1. A wavered Australia wasn't looking at their best and swap of captaincies also caused a stir related to leadership skills of Pat Cummins.
However, fortunes took a big turn during the World Test Championship Final in June 2023 as Australia decimated India by 209 runs, riding on first innings centuries from Steve Smith and Travis Head. Travis Head was declared Man of the Match for his exceptional ton as Australia became the first nation ever to complete the grand slam of every major trophy of International Cricket Council (ICC).
Later on, Australia stayed in England as they took on them for The Ashes at their home soil. Australia made a terrific start to The Ashes as they won the first two Test matches in entertaining fashion and nail-biting finish. However, a resurgent England pulled a comeback by winning the third Test and almost pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in the history of Ashes but rain acted as a spoiler as Australia were saved off from their blemishes as the fourth Test ended up in a draw and though England won the final Test at The Kennington Oval because of Chris Woakes' heroics, they couldn't retain the Ashes as the series was drawn 2-2, but Australia ended up retaining the Ashes.
Australia looked formidable and invincle as they toured South Africa and dismantled the Proteas in the T20I series by completing a clean sweep of 3-0. It looked like Aussies will repeat the same fate when they won the first two ODI's but the Proteas completed a miraculous comeback by winning the remaining three ODI's and winning the series 3-2.
Australia came into the World Cup as one of the favourites and with a chance of scripting history by becoming the first nation ever to win two major ICC tournaments within the same calendar year. However, luck wasn't on their side as they made a shaky start to their World Cup proceedings by losing the first match to hosts India at the Chepaux, Chennai. Australia were bowled out for a measly 199 but looked like winning a famous match when they got India reeling at 2/3 and the match was almost tilted in their favour but fortune favoured the brave as Mitchell Marsh dropped a sitter off Virat Kohli when India were 20/3. The drop proved costly as Virat Kohli and KL Rahul formed a partnership and saw off the challenge from Aussies as India won the match by 6 wickets. Australia added more woes to their campaign when they lost to South Africa by 134 runs in Lucknow. After Matchday 2, Australia sat in the bottom 3 and looked like having a miserable campaign.
Australia have historically been a side that can never be ruled out until mathematically possible, and so was the case as many experts ruled them out of contention for the knockout stages, let alone winning the World Cup. Australia, under pressure, turned the tables and were back to being what they have been historically, a dominant side looking to win it all. They decimated Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Netherlands before playing one of the most entertaining and nail-biting matches in World Cup history against New Zealand in Dharamshala, which they won by just 5 runs after scoring 388. Australia saw off England without much difficulty but the match against Afghanistan at Wankhede changed everything.
The match against Afghanistan changed the landscape of their campaign as Afghanistan, after scoring 291, scrambled Aussies to 91/7 and it looked like Afghanistan are on the verge of the biggest upset ever in the World Cup history. Then came arguably the most iconic and greatest innings in the history of cricket from Glenn Maxwell as he scored an unbeaten 201 off 128 and recorded the highest ever 8th wicket stand in ODI history with Pat Cummins. Out of the unbeaten 202 partnership, Maxwell scored 179 and captain Pat Cummins played a supportive role by scoring 12 off 68 as Australia shocked the world and gained a massive psychological advantage for the latter stages.
Australia ended their group stage with a comprehensive win over Bangladesh and played an entertaining semi-final against South Africa at the iconic Eden Gardens, by handing the Proteas a staggering defeat and won the match by 3 wickets. They played India in the final of the World Cup and India were the hot favourites as they were having a perfect tournament by winning every match they played. However, Australia silenced a crowd of 100,000+ by winning the final comprehensively and giving Indian fans one of their biggest heartbreaks ever as they not only won the final against India, but also winning against them at their home soil, and with the victory, Australia became 6-time ODI World Cup winners and thereby, completed a historic treble.
Australia will close their year with a Boxing Day Test match against Pakistan and will remeber 2023 as one of their fondest years as they scripted history by being the first ever treble-winning nation in the history of cricket.
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