watch live cricket match | india vs australia | final world cup

Several players that stepped down the 80-odd stairs from the dressing rooms nestled high up beyond the sightscreen and onto the sprawling oval of the Narendra Modi Stadium took a couple of fleeting extra seconds to take in their surroundings before proceeding with their check up sessions. Perhaps, it was that inescapable passing contemplated a World Cup final and how everything they've done work now - picking up a bat or a ball, that first boundary, that first appeal, the sweat, the tears and the sweet delight of that imaginary six hit to win the World Cup - will all be telescoped into these following couple of hours. Or on the other hand maybe, all they were looking at was the new paraphernalia that had sprung up at the mega structure readying itself for a glitzy curtain call.

For neither side is stranger to this stage. Certainly not Australia, who are doing this for the eighth time. They have gotten World Cups like how some #wanderlusts gather souvenir ice chest magnets on their journeys: in Kolkata, London, Johannesburg, Barbados and Melbourne. For so many teams, playing a World Cup final is an occasion. For Australia, it's a way of life. And still, their excursion to this point was filled with uncertainty.

They lost their first two games, nearly lost after scoring 388, nearly lost after being 91/7 in a chase of 291 and nearly lost after reducing their opponent to 24/4 inside the first hour of the semi final. However they are right here, nearly champions. In a year that has already seen them retain the Ashes in England and win the World Test Championship, who can truly count against them to finish a three-year run of world titles in each format of the game?

Indeed, even with such family, Pat Cummins and Co. will concede that it is their opponents that perhaps start as favorites on Sunday, and not just because they are riding a blue wave at home. Indeed, even those who usually barrack against Indian teams will appreciate the precision and panache with which this particular version has operated, similar as those absolutely dominant, unbeaten campaigns set up by Australia at the turn of the thousand years. And it is the thread of Rohit Sharma-Rahul Dravid here that is an interesting one to pull at. This captain-coach pair has made no attempts to conceal just how important an attacking brand of play is and marrying that with obvious roles and outstanding individual talent has loaned India an aura of invincibility.

Be that as it may, Dravid and Rohit come from a show-and-tell country. Chasing greatness may be preached in Bollywood movies, however success is still measured in certificates and silverware, unfortunate as it may sound. For posterity to think back on this team to have been the most dominant ODI side assembled by this country, for Rohit to be bracketed alongside Kapil Dev and MS Dhoni, scorecards and statistics alone may not cut it. Anecdotes won't either. Stories of the captain's remarkable take-down of New Zealand in the semifinal, Shami's first-ball strikes, Kohli's 100s, his almost 100s, and Bumrah's magic will be recalled all the more fondly around a fireplace on the off chance that the prize sits on the mantelpiece. India certainly don't possess any divine right to success and the captain and coach will agree that they can only pave the path for change, which they have done and how. The best way of now scripting the perfect ending is play like there are no endings at all.

This World Cup didn't quite get running until these two heavyweights made their bows in Chennai. It won't end until these two have had their final say. The feats of the one returning with nothing from Motera will be tinged in disappointment. A 11-kilo mass of gold and silver plating will offer the ultimate reflection for those of the other.

At the point when: India vs Australia, World Cup Final, November 19, 14:00 IST

Where: Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad

What to anticipate: A theater befitting the occasion. More than 1 lakh individuals, including the Head of the state of India, will be at the biggest cricket stadium to watch sporting history being made. In the event that the contest wasn't a sufficient draw, there's a pre-match air show, a concert and a light show at the two drinks break respectively and another concert in the interval between the two innings.

Meanwhile, Size will be a factor into the team's tactical plans as well with the distances to the boundaries from the focal point of the pitch set to be close to 10 meters longer than at the semifinal venues of Mumbai and Kolkata. As for pitch No.5, also used in the India-Pakistan game, it sported a darkish shade, a characteristic of a black soil surface. That could mean lower bob and some slow turn. Chasing teams have won three of the four games at this ground in this World Cup and dew has been a factor, here more than other venues. The average first innings score here in this tournament is 251.