India restrict Australia despite Merlo's 76

Jonathan Merlo followed up a match-winning four-wicket haul against Afghanistan in the semifinal with a fighting 76 against India in the final, but India would've been the happier side at the break, as their bowlers regularly ended potential match-changing partnerships and kept the Aussies down to 216 in 47.2 overs.

In overcast conditions at the Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui, Aussie captain Jason Sangha opted to bat, hoping to make the most of the flat batting track and putting India under scorecard pressure. The decision may also have been prompted by the fact that their unbeaten opponents were yet to be tested in a steep chase.

Max Bryant and Jack Edwards were just about settling into the fixture early when the former was consumed by his urge to crunch a length ball through the off-side. Bryant got three fours in his score of 14, but found Abhishek Sharma on the full at cover while attempting a fourth off Ishan Porel in the sixth over.

Edwards continued to play his strokes to take the game to India early and force the direction that the first half takes, but that intention was nipped in the bud by Porel. In a very identical dismissal to that of his opening partner, Edwards backfoot-punched a back of a length ball, that came with a bit width, to Kamlesh Nagarkoti at cover. Nagarkoti dented Australia further with a ball that was angled into captain Jason Sangha and straightened just a bit. Sangha couldn't keep his bat out and ended up nicking it, which was acrobatically taken by Harvik Desai behind the stumps.

From 59 for 3, Australia were in desperate need of halting the rut and denying India the chance of taking the game away at such an early stage in the title clash. Jonathan Merlo and Param Uppal took it upon themselves to ensure that, as India appeared to take their foot of the pedal for a bit. Nagarkoti, who has enjoyed an excellent World Cup, seemed uncannily off-rhythm following the wicket of Sangha, while the fielding too that had raised the standards with each passing game, saw a dip.

The Australian duo did well against the barrage of left-arm spin bowling from Shiva Singh, Anukul Roy and Abhishek Sharma. With no left-handers in their batting line-up to nullify the impact of a left-arm spinner, Australia had to potentially deal with 30 overs of tough spin bowling, but Merlo and Uppal began brightly. There was a lot of backfoot play from both, while Merlo also executed sweeps and reverse-sweeps with a high success rate.

Merlo's constant decision to shuffle across the stumps and sweep balls that were pitched on off-stump disturbed the bowlers' length - as intended by the batsman. An innings-defining partnership was starting to build, until Roy used pace variations to break the stand. Roy tossed one up, followed it with a flatter trajectory ball and immediately tossed one up again. A mindful Uppal was looking to push one down the leg-side, against the turn, but ended up going to early. A leading edge lobbed up to the bowler, who took a simple return catch.

Nathan McSweeney arrived and did exactly what was expected of him at that stage - to get going straightaway, not let India carve open Australia again and build a stand with Merlo. He did the first two with much aplomb but only came nearly close to achieving the third, before departing to the left-arm spin of Shiva Singh.

In a dismissal identical to that of Uppal, McSweeney was too early into his attempt to push a Shiva Singh delivery down the leg-side, and ended up lobbing it straight back to the bowler. A superb arm ball for Shiva got the better of new batter Will Sutherland. He went wide off the crease and got one to go with the angle, which Sutherland didn't expect and threw his bat at it with an attempt to drive it away. A slight inside edge was expertly taken by Harvik Desai behind the stumps to reduce Australia to 192 for 6 in 41.3 overs.

In an attempt to get a move on, Merlo perished for a commendable 74 while attempting a reverse sweep off Roy. With only the tail to deal with, India turned the screws on Australia. First Nagarkoti returned to unleash a full ball at 140ks and clean up Zak Evans, before a sensational fielding effort from Shiva at deep square leg caught Baxter Holt short of his crease. Off the second ball of the 48th over, Shivam Mavi got Ryan Hadley to nick one to the keeper to bring an end to the innings.

Brief Scores: Australia 216 in 47.2 overs (Jonathan Merlo 76, Ishan Porel 2-30 , Shiva Singh 2-36) vs India