Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi feels ‘overconfidence’ led to India’s downfall in the ODI World Cup final, where they lost to Australia by six wickets in Ahmedabad on Sunday (Nov 19). Entering the final on the back of ten wins on the trot, Rohit Sharma-led Men in Blue were favourites to lift the title. However, they fell flat as Australia clinched their sixth ODI WC trophy.

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Afridi, who was live on Pakistan channel Samaa TV, criticised India’s batting effort as they fell for 240 in 50 overs, with captain Rohit (40), Virat Kohli (54) and KL Rahul (66) being the only performers. The likes of Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja couldn’t add much to the total. Afridi, thus, slammed India’s batting, Iyer’s shot selection in particular, and mentioned that overconfidence could have been a factor in India’s fall.

Afridi said, “Jab aap continue game jeete ja rahe ho toh overconfidence bhi zyada ho jati hai. toh woh cheez aapko marwah deti hai (When you have won all the games continuously, the ‘overconfidence’ is too much. So, this could lead to their downfall).”

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The former Pakistan all-rounder also slammed the Ahmedabad crowd for not applauding Travis Head when he reached his ton. He recalled his playing days and said, “I think we all have experienced this at some point in our career. Whenever we hit a boundary or score a century or take a wicket, there is never any response from the (Indian) crowd. Yesterday when Travis Head scored a century, then the crowd was silent. Why? A sports-loving nation always appreciates every athlete and their efforts, but not getting that from the Indian crowd, which is a so-called educated crowd was surprising.”

He added, “It was such a massive hundred, at least a few could have stood up to applaud. And the way the team’s body language kept dropping, the crowd had the same thing going.”

Chasing India’s 240, Australia were 47 for 3 before Head’s 137 and Marnus Labuschagne’s 58 not out took their side home in 43 overs.

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