After the first three games of the Tri-Series in the West Indies, the three teams moved from the slow pitches of Guyana over to the unslow pitches of St Kitts, where Australia and South Africa faced off yet again.
Here are the ratings for Game 4 of the Tri-Series.
Dropping Glenn Maxwell
Grade: F
The Australians recalled Starc who had been inexplicably rested in the previous match, and dropped Glenn Maxwell from the side, in favour of George Bailey.
While everybody can support captain Steve Smith abandoning his resting Mitch face, a dropping Glenn face is surely no improvement.
Maxwell may have had a poor run with the bat in recent times. When he made a duck in the first game Australia played in this series, cricket statistician Ric Finlay pointed out that he was the 15th Australian to score six or fewer runs in four consecutive ODI innings.
He then went on to note that others who’d achieved this feat were Greg Chappell, Steve Waugh and Shane Watson, three of Australia’s finest ever ODI captains.
Was this a pre-emptive strike from Smith to deny Maxwell the captaincy in the fifty over game? Common sense tells us that it is. And it’s a disappointing turn of events, because just imagine what a Maxwell captaincy would bring us. It would almost certainly start with a correct coin toss call of ‘landing on its edge’ and then get ever more crazy-amazing from there.
David Warner
Grade: B+
Australia batted first and soon lost Aaron Finch for 13 (28). He was bowled by Tahir, which inevitably resulted in the standard over-the-top celebrations from the bowler.
Players batting against Imran Tahir should celebrate every run like he does a wicket.
Take a single. High-five your batting partner.
Scamper a two. Race around the circle, arms raised in triumph.
Smash a six. Explode.
It’d slow the game down no end, but it’d be worth it, surely.
Regardless, the Finch wicket brought Usman Khawaja to the crease, where he joined David Warner in a partnership of 136. During the partnership, Warner brought up his first ever ODI century outside Australia.
Admittedly, he did it at a ground named Warner Stadium, so I’m not sure whether that fully counts. Perhaps Cricket Australia should look at sponsoring cricket stadia all around the world on Warner’s behalf, in a bid to improve his overseas record. It can’t hurt to try.
Running without a bat
Grade: B+
Without Maxwell, everybody else needed to lift to add some of his patented pizazz to this game.
AB de Villiers did his best, dropping a simple chance from Khawaja, to give Warner the opportunity to remind him that he’d ‘just dropped the Ballr Cup Powered By Cycle Pure Agarbathies’.
But simple dropped catches aren’t really Maxwell’s style. Matthew Wade managed to channel Maxwell much more authentically when he decided to run a two without a bat.
From a Kagiso Rabada delivery, Wade swung wildly, losing his grip on the bat in the process. As it clattered to the ground, Smith called him through for two runs.
Great thinking from Wade to realise that carrying a bat is an impediment to maximising one’s ground speed. He’ll need to work on his turns though. Is it better to tap in with a foot before setting off for a second? Or is reaching down with a hand before accelerating back from whence one came the quicker manoeuvre? Plenty of nuances to explore.
Sadly, he didn’t get much of a chance to explore them this innings, as he fell for 24 (14) in this match’s obligatory ‘terrible LBW decision after the DRS review had been wasted by Smith’ wicket.
South African ruthlessness
Grade: C
Australia had set a target of 288 from their 50 overs and South Africa set off on a methodical and highly tedious run chase. With a solid foundation from Hashim Amla (60 from 64 balls) and Faf du Plessis (63 from 76), the South Africans were cruising to victory with AB de Villiers and JP Duminy at the crease.
As we all know, when AB and JP bat together, the partnership is so initially, you’d assume they were openers.
Yes, that’s a terrible joke. But that’s the kind of state the ruthless competency of the South Africans had reduced us to as they made their way to 3/210 in the 38th over.
Glenn Maxwell
Grade: A+
But around about this point, George Bailey looked around and noticed that Michael Clarke wasn’t out there, and was presumably injured. So Bailey assumed the captaincy with immediate dividends.
First, Josh Hazlewood was called back, and clean bowled de Villiers (39 from 32) with a reverse-swinging ball that Hawkeye later showed going over the stumps. Bad decision-making followed from de Villiers as he declined to review the wicket. Perhaps he thought it would be Umpire’s Call.
And then Warner injured his finger, opening the way for Maxwell to return to the field, where he sealed the match by taking a catch in the outfield to dismiss Duminy (41 from 39), the last recognised batsman.
He then topped it by taking a screamer at point to remove Aaron Phangiso.
Full credit to Maxwell. How many other players could bounce back from being dropped with a man of the match performance in that very same game?
Nobody, that’s who. And that’s why Glenn Maxwell remains the most exciting cricketer in the world.
While a premature retirement isn’t the solution, he or England want, he may be forced into it if he can’t maintain a long run of matches.
Check out some of the short-arm pull shots from Rocky Flintoff!
Harshal Patel was not a happy man!
David Lord has been remembered as an icon of Australian sports journalism following his death, aged 84. The renowned writer and broadcaster was an…
Sign the man up for a contract next season!
A brutal century by Travis Head has blasted Sunrisers Hyderabad back into the Indian Premier League play-off places in another match for bowlers to…
