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Australia face India in a must-win World T20 2014 encounter in Dhaka on Monday morning but even a victory may not be enough for them to make it to the final four. Follow the live blog of this game today starting 12.30am (Monday).
The fact of the matter is even that if Australia win both their remaining games – this one against India and then against the hosts Bangladesh – they may be knocked out of the competition before they take field today.
Pakistan will be up against Bangladesh in the first game of the day and with two defeats in as many games, Australia could be on their way out based on the result of that one.
West Indies have four points from three matches while Pakistan are on two from two. So, a win for the latter against Bangladesh today will push them to level on points with the West Indies.
What that will mean is that when West Indies and Pakistan meet in their next match, one of them will go to above four, a tally that Australia cannot hope to catch up with even if they beat India and Bangladesh.
In short, if Pakistan win the first match of the day, the Australia-India encounter will hold little interest bar the academics. Of course, it could still leave a lot to play for, given the situation that both sides find themselves in.
India, who became the first team to qualify for the semi-finals, have batted second in all three games so far. They might want to try doing the opposite in preparation for their last-four encounter and allow the bowlers to get used to the dewy ball fielding second.
On the other hand, Australia will hope to end their rather long season on a high. They have been below-par in almost all departments of the game in the competition so far, and that wouldn’t have gone down well with coach Darren Lehmann.
Even if they do get knocked out by a Pakistani win earlier in the day, they will hope to come out hard at the unbeaten Indians and push their up performance a notch.
From India’s perspective, it’s their oft-criticised bowling attack that has won them all three games so far. In all three games they have been able to restrict the opposition to less than 140.
Amit Mishra (twice) and Ravichandran Ashwin have been the man of the match in their first three games, which is indication to how the track has behaved bowling first for them.
That’s helped the top-order, including Rohit Sharma – who has an ODI double-century to his name against Australia – and Virat Kohli to ease themselves into their chase and make the wins look quite easy.
Contrast that to the Australian bowling.
The quick bowlers, namely Mitchell Starc and Nathan Coulter-Nile, haven’t been able to keep a lid on the scoring and the others, Doug Bollinger and James Faulkner have been steady without picking up too many wickets.
Brad Hogg was tried and discarded and while James Muirhead bowled with a lot of heart in the previous match, there wasn’t much by way of support for him.
Australia may have erred in their over-reliance on quick bowlers on slow tracks but now they have the opportunity of bowling in a night game, it may not make too much sense to bring in a second slow bowler.
The last I saw, more than 70 catches have been dropped in the tournament across 26 matches, with Australia having chipped in with a half a dozen misses of their own.
That’s rather surprising from a side that’s associated with bringing in something special on the field most times. It’s the one thing that will miff the coach Darren Lehmann the most.
With Australia having won and lost four of their eight T20Is against India, can they overcome their aforementioned issues to surge just ahead of their opponents?
Or will it be four wins in a row for a suddenly-resurgent Indian side, who are also grappling with the trickle-down effect of a major upheaval within their cricket board back home?
Join me for this World T20 2014 game between Australia and India on Sunday and you can follow the live score of this game from 12.30am (Monday) and post your comments below.
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