“This is huge, I think this is the pinnacle of international cricket, to win the One-Day World Cup,” said Cummins, an hour or so after Glenn Maxwell had smashed the winning runs to seal a crushing six-wicket victory in Ahmedabad.
“Especially here in India, in front of a crowd like that. Yes, this is huge. Yes, it’s been a big year for everyone, but our cricket team has been here in India, the Ashes, the World Test Championship and on top of that with this being huge, these are the moments That you will remember for the rest of your life.
“It’s just a matter of every international team coming together. You only get a chance to play this game every four years. Even if you have a ten-year career, you might only get a couple of chances at it. And yeah, it’s just a pause in the whole world of cricket.” “This is the World Cup, so things won’t get any better.”
Cummins was, by his own admission, nervous as he waited for the match to start this morning, as the Sea Blue scored on their way to the ground as his side made their way there. But he was nervous when the match started, first when he decided to bowl first against the tournament’s most feared players, and then with the ball himself.
“Yes, we took a second in the huddle just to acknowledge the silence that surrounded the crowd,” he said. “I felt like it was one of those days when everything was ready for him to score another hundred like he usually does, yeah that was satisfying.”
“We wanted to be very brave in this World Cup, we didn’t want to qualify for the semi-finals, we wanted to be the team that could score 400 goals, and you saw that in the way we dealt with Trav, [David] Warner and then there [Mitchell] “Marci is third,” Cummins said.
“We wanted to be really aggressive and obviously a couple of our all-rounders were aggressive to finish the innings so we’d rather fail that way. But then Marnus showed his class and in South Africa you had to pick him. “He was fantastic and he was playing a different style to what he did. In the first start of his ODI career. It paid off and we know it’s a gun so you had to try to find space for it.
“After that, we thought the World Cup was over. It wasn’t until almost the next night. [the injury] Where is Ronnie? [coach Andrew McDonald] Came to me. “I haven’t slept all night, and I think we’ll keep it,” he says. We are going to take risks. He could be a good fit for the Netherlands, and then if we want to get to the finals and we want to win the World Cup, I think he should be there for the finals.
Cummins has played just two ODIs since November 2022 (and eight since November 2020) when the World Cup began. But he said he rediscovered the joy of the system during the World Cup, and called for more important matches. The future of offshore investment institutions is likely to be discussed at ICC board meetings this week in Ahmedabad, although no concrete decision is expected.
“Maybe because we won, but I fell in love with ODI [cricket] “Again in this World Cup,” he said. “I think the scenario where every match is really important, I mean, is a little bit different than just a two-legged match. So yeah, I don’t know. I mean the World Cup has a rich history, and I’m sure it will continue for a while.” “Long. There’s been a lot of great games and a lot of great stories over the last couple of months. So, I think there’s definitely a place.”
Othman Sami Al-Din is a senior editor at ESPNcricinfo
