The dry wicket was the reason for India's final defeat

Unfortunately for Indians fans, Australia put up a clinical performance in all three departments — first with the ball and then Travis Head played the innings of of his life to break a billion hearts.

India were the team to beat as they had beaten all the teams convincingly and excelled throughout the tournament. They were the overwhelming favourites to lift their third World Cup.

More so because the final was in their own backyard and with 120,000 fans backing them.

So where did India falter?

It was the wicket which was very dry and slow, making it difficult to bat, especially in the first innings.

Skipper Rohit Sharma, as he has been doing all tournament, gave India a rousing start but once he got out, India found batting difficult on this pitch and went into their shell.

Yes, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul had to consolidate but hitting boundaries on this wicket was challenging and India managed just five boundaries in the last 40 overs.

And when Australia came to bat, the ball did move around in the first 10 overs, but the wicket settled down in the evening and batting became definitely much easier than what it was in the afternoon.

This is without taking anything away from the Aussies who were absolutely brilliant and bowled to their field, their fast bowlers got the reverse swing because of the abrasive nature of the wicket — which was not the case when India bowled.