Australian batter Marnus Labuschagne on Monday announced to retire the bat he used in the ODI World Cup 2023 final against India.
Labuschagne played a pivotal role in Australia’s triumph as he scored an unbeaten 58 off 110 balls. He and Travis Head built a partnership of 192 off 215 balls to guide Australia win their sixth World Cup title at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
Now, Marnus Labuschagne has announced that he is retiring the bat he used to help his team triumph in the final.
Taking to Instagram, the Australian batter posted a couple of photos of the damaged bat.
He captioned the images, “Think it’s finally time to retire the World Cup final bat.”
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Travis Head’s century and Marnus Labuschagne’s important 58 not out led Australia to their record sixth World Cup title with a six-wicket win over India in the ODI World Cup 2023 final.
Australia, led by Pat Cummins, were crowned World Cup champions for the sixth time on November 19, 2023, having lifted the prestigious on five occasions before in 1987, 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2015.
Australia bowled out India for 240 and then galloped to victory in the 43rd over.
Set to chase a modest 241, Australia comfortably knocked off the winning runs in 43 overs, courtesy of a match-winning fourth-wicket partnership between Head and Labuschagne.
Australia found themselves in a state of bother earlier in the run chase when they slipped to 47/3 in just seven overs with in-form openers David Warner (7), Mitchell Marsh (15) and experienced batter Steve Smith (4) perishing cheaply.
The left-handed opener put together a match-winning 192-run partnership with Marnus Labushagne which put Australia in touching distance to their record victory.
Head was the core aggressor of the magnificent stand while Labuschagne batted cautiously to make sure he did not throw away his wicket.
The opener, however, could not score the winning runs for his team as he smashed a short delivery from Mohammed Siraj straight to Shubman Gill at deep midwicket.
Travis Head top-scored for Australia in the ICC World Cup 2023 final with a brilliant 137. His 120-ball knock featured 15 boundaries and four sixes.
