The bat that Marnus Labuschagne used in the 2023 ODI World Cup final at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad last year will be retired.
In October and November of last year, India hosted the ODI World Cup entirely for the first time. The two-time champions India and the five-time champions Australia faced off in the final on November 19. When Australia was struggling,
Marnus Labuschagne walked out to bat.
Despite the situation, he played with tremendous poise and calmly struck an undefeated 58 off 110 balls, including four boundaries, to help the Men in Yellow win a record-tying sixth World Cup.
The hitter, who is right-handed, just posted a picture of the batter he used in the championship game. The bat was old and had wood chips on it. Labuschagne disclosed that he has decided to retire the bat.
Sharing an image of the World Cup final bat on Instagram, Labuschagne commented, “Think it’s finally time to retire the bat.”
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Pat Cummins chose to field first on a sticky surface after winning the toss in the championship game. Virat Kohli also scored a fantastic half-century, and Rohit Sharma got India off to a flying start. But it was hard for the other Indian batters to hit boundaries, much less rotate strikes. KL Rahul scored the most, 66 off 107 balls, but he only hit one boundary throughout his knock. With Mitchell Starc leading the way with a three-for, the hosts were ultimately bowled out for 240.
After losing Steve Smith, Mitchell Marsh, and David Warner in the first seven overs of their reply, the Australians found themselves in a vulnerable position at 47/3. Australia needed a partnership badly to calm the nerves, and Labuschagne and Travis Head delivered, with the latter smashing 137 off just 120 balls.
With 192 runs for Australia off 215 balls, the fourth-wicket combination put Cummins’ team in the driver’s seat. Australia needed a few more runs to win the match when Head was eventually removed in the 43rd over.
With seven overs remaining, Australia prevailed by six wickets thanks to Glenn Maxwell, who walked out to the middle and took just one ball to score the last few runs. Even though Head took centre stage, Labuschagne’s supporting performance was highly regarded.
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