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India versus Australia. 2023 World Cup final. Unbeaten hosts against the most successful World Cup team on an eight-match streak. This is the endgame.
The tournament has seen hundreds of records being broken through the 47 matches. Most of them have been run-scoring ones.
Despite the varied conditions in India and the unpredictability in the round-robin format, batters have made full use of the ODI format's tilt towards them and scored a record-breaking number of hundreds, sixes, and fours.
The bowlers have been limited to a mostly defensive role except for a few outliers like Mohammed Shami, Adam Zampa and Dilshan Madushanka. While Shami and Madhushanka put up some freak spells, Zampa showed unparalleled consistency.
There are some records on the line for the final as well. Three of them are for batters while two are for the bowlers. Check them out here:
#5 Rohit Sharma could be fastest to 1,600 World Cup runs
Indian captain Rohit Sharma might not be playing the run-accumulator role he did in the 2019 World Cup, but he's still among the top scorers this tournament. In 10 matches, he has 550 runs at a strike rate of 124.15.
This has taken his total World Cup tally to 1,528 runs from 27 innings - the fifth best in the tournament history. If he scores 72 more runs in the final, in his 28th innings, he'll become the fastest to 1600 World Cup runs.
Among the three batters who reached the landmark, the fastest was Sachin Tendulkar, who took 29 innings. Virat Kohli achieved it recently in 35 innings and former Australian captain Ricky Ponting took 39 innings.
#4 Virat Kohli needs 3 runs to go past Sachin Tendulkar's World Cup record vs Australia
There's been a lot of talk about the 2003 World Cup final between these two countries and how it scarred a generation of Indian fans. That's because the current Australian team is excellent, but the one of that era was above and far beyond the reach of the Men in Blue.
That also shows in some stats. In the history of World Cups, only three batters have scored more than 200 runs against Australia. None of them are Indians. Four have done so against India and three of them are Australians.
Kohli, who has scored 192 runs against Australia in four World Cup matches, is just eight away from becoming only the first Indian to go past that mark.
Collecting just three more runs today would put him past Tendulkar's current record of 194 runs (six innings), making him India's best World Cup batter against the Aussies.
#3 David Warner is on the verge of becoming the fastest Australian to 7,000 runs
David Warner is a World Cup legend. He has scored 528 runs in the current edition at an average of 52.80 and this is the third-straight World Cup he has been among the leading run-scorers. Overall, he now has 6925 runs in 158 ODI innings.
If he scores 75 more today, he'll become the second-fastest ever to score 7000 runs in the format, and the fastest for Australia.
The overall record is held by South Africa's Hashim Amla who reached there in a freakish 150 innings. For Australia, the current quickest to 7,000 runs is Ricky Pontig who took 192 innings.
#2 Adam Zampa and Mohammed Shami will chase the same record
India's Shami, with three five-wicket hauls in just six matches, has taken the competition by storm. Despite missing almost half of the tournament, he's currently the top wicket-taker with 23 scalps from six matches. He's closely followed by Aussie leg-spinner Zampa who has 22 wickets from 10 matches.
Currently, Australia's Mitchell Starc owns the record for the most wickets in a single edition of a World Cup - 27 in 2019. Although it's difficult, Shami and Zampa could break that with five and six wickets in the final respectively.
#1 Mohammed Shami could be the fastest to 200 ODI Wickets
The kind of form Shami is in, you can't put taking another fifer past him. If he takes six wickets in the final, he'll take his overall ODI tally to 200 wickets in just 100 innings. This will make him the fastest-ever to the landmark, beating Starc, who took 102 innings to pick his 100th wicket in September 2022.
Even if Shami doesn't reach the mark today, he will have 33 more innings to reach there and become the fastest Indian to 200 ODI wickets. The current record holder is Ajit Agarkar who got there in 133 innings.
