- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
When Indian skipper MS Dhoni joined Virat Kohli in their sudden death World T20 clash at Mohali against Australia, they need 67 runs to win off 36 deliveries.
Kohli wasn’t setting the world alight with 35 off 30, so there was no way India could win.
But they were playing Australia, renowned for grabbing defeat from the jaws of victory, especially in T20 cricket.
As if inspired by Dhoni’s presence and greatly assisted by rubbish Australian bowling, Kohli got the Indians home with five deliveries spare – 67 off 31.
Kohli cruised from 35 off 30 to 82 off 51 – or 47 off 21 when push turned to shove. He was as magnificent as the Australian attack was embarrassingly inept, with the exception of Shane Watson.
In those final six overs:
Watson went for eight – Dhoni six, Kohli two.
Josh Hazlewood for 12 – Kohli 12.
Watson for eight – Dhoni six, Kohli one, leg bye.
James Faulkner for 19 – Kohli 16, Dhoni two, leg bye.
Nathan Coulter-Nile for 16 – Kohli 16.
And Faulkner for four by Dhoni off the first ball of the 20th over.
So the Australians are on the way home when they should be preparing to meet the West Indies in the semis.
Where did they go wrong?
It started with the selectors naming Nathan Coulter-Nile and Andrew Tye in the 15-man squad.
There were plenty of pace options already in the squad with Josh Hazlewood, John Hastings, Shane Watson and Mitchell Marsh – making Coulter-Nile and Tye superfluous on Indian tracks that demand spinners.
So leaving them out would have made room for offie Nathan Lyon and leggie Cameron Boyce.
But the selectors named only two spinners – left-arm orthodox Ashton Agar and leggie Adam Zampa with offie Glenn Maxwell hardly an international quality spinner.
Agar was carted for 18 in one over by Kiwi Martin Guptill in the opening game and was never seen again, Zampa was a definite find with 5-69 in the tournament with the best economy rate of 6.27, while Maxwell did his usual thing without worrying anyone in taking 2-61.
The New Zealand selectors were more switched on by picking offie Nathan McCullum, left-armer Mitchell Santner, and leggie Ish Sodhi.
They went far further by naming all three in every game, and leaving out their world-class opening bowlers Tim Southee and Trent Boult. Result – the Kiwis have won all four of their group games, including beating Australia and India,
When will the penny drop for the Australian selectors in naming squads to play in India – it’s horses for courses. Spin in, pace out.
And the same horses for courses formula works for the Australian batting order as well. You don’t pick four opening batsmen in a squad of 15, and if you do, two of them have to bat elsewhere,
But you don’t split recognised openers David Warner and Aaron Finch – ever.
Messing with Warner in the order was very costly, making only 38 runs in four digs – a 9.50 average is not Warner’s way to do business. Usman Khawaja should have been batting three, with Watson five or six, depending on the make-up of the side.
And that leaves Steve Smith’s captaincy under fire for the first time.
From the outset when he took over from Michael Clarke, Smith has been a very positive and passionate leader, but not in this tournament. He was floundering with bowling changes and field placings, normally his strengths.
As his confidence fell away, so did his batting with only 83 runs at 27.66 with a top score of 61* – that’s not the skipper’s way of doing business either.
So when Warner and Smith go AWOL with the bat, Australia was always going to be in trouble.
And Coulter-Nile magnified the problem by taking 1-132 in the four group games. All that did was prove the obvious he shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
So another badly selected Australian T20 campaign comes to an unsatisfactory close.