While the plaudits for Australia’s T20 World Cup semi-final victory over Pakistan have deservedly gone to Matthew Wade and Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa once again reaffirmed his world-class standing.
Stoinis and Wade, who cracked three sixes in a row off Shaheen Afridi to end the game, shared a crucial 81-run partnership that guided Australia past Pakistan’s total of 176 with an over to spare on Friday morning (AEDT).
Zampa’s work in the first innings didn’t steal the headlines but was just as important.
The leg-spinner inched closer to man of the tournament honours with a return of 1/22 at a match-low economy rate of 5.5 runs per over to stem Pakistan’s momentum at a crucial time.
The 29-year-old, who has taken the second-most wickets for the tournament with 12, removed Pakistan captain Babar Azam (39 off 34) for Australia’s first breakthrough in the 10th over.
While Zampa has enjoyed bigger hauls in recent times – namely his exceptional 5/19 against Bangladesh, the best figures of anyone at this year’s World Cup – the spinner’s latest performance drew plenty of praise on social media.
Twenty20 cricket is often thought of as a batter’s game, but Zampa and his fast-bowling colleagues have been the backbone of Australia’s surge to Monday’s final against New Zealand.
And though Zampa has been a core member of Australia’s white-ball teams for some time now, he is now arguably one of the most integral cogs.
As well as being able to change the course of a match with a much-needed wicket, Zampa has maintained an outstanding economy rate of 5.69 across six World Cup matches so far.
He earned a glowing appraisal from captain Aaron Finch in the lead-up to the Pakistan match.
“I think Zamps’ biggest strength over his career is that he’s been able to get good players out on good wickets consistently and that’s a great skill to have,” Finch said.
“He hasn’t surprised any of us one bit. We’ve seen how good he is. But it just comes down to him being a really good bowler – there’s nothing more to it than that.”
Matthew Hayden, the great Australian opener who is working with Pakistan as a batting consultant, encouraged Fakhar Zaman to target Zampa in the semi-final.
Fakhar ended up blasting 55 off 32 balls, but facing Zampa he was content to rotate the strike in an indication of just how tricky it is to get the leggie away.
In fact, aside from a two and a six to Mohammad Rizwan in consecutive balls, Zampa only went for singles in his four overs, showing impressive control in a craft where accuracy is tough to master.
He may not turn the ball as sharply as the great Shane Warne – very few can – but Zampa has honed his match-winning qualities through subtle variation and clever thinking.
For the Aussies to knock off New Zealand and secure their maiden T20 World Cup trophy, they’ll need Zampa nailing his role one more time.
And if he can do that, he just might take home the player of the tournament award too.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
That's very clever.
Clear as mud
Guest
ish
Clear as mud
Guest
Travis Bichel
Clear as mud
Guest
yep. some people think Maxwell is a real chance for the subcontinent white ball legs. how many Shield games will he get? how far back is he starting after the last couple of years?
Clear as mud
Guest
there was a great piece on instagram. where he talks about how "there was always someone better"... in the bush, in grade, for Vic, for the Stars, for Australia... he is a cracking character who adds colour to our game and I am real proud of him and happy for him.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
He's actually not my favourite bowler. Graham McKenzie by a long way, then DK.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
People always remember the last 3 shots. Wade was behind Stoinis' rate until then.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
This is what you said: "I shouldn’t be over critical of Stoinis- if he gets out, we probably lose. But he was the main reason the run rate went from 8 to 12 and almost out of reach." 12 an over is comfortably gettable...as shown in (almost) every game. Stoinis never let it get out of control.
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
Very sustainable. Previous comments stand. Anyway, it’s not really criticism of Stoinis so much as saying that the main credit goes to Wade. If they both bat at Stoinis’s pace, we lose. The fact that only one of the top 8 teams previously had chased 12 an over successfully in the last 4 overs, and that our success depended on a guy coming good who had been very poor in a late middle order role, means it’s hard to get too carried away by Stoinis’s batting.
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
That doesn’t follow.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
Always easier to score quickly in the power play than in the middle overs with the ball older and the field out. Your criticism of Stoinis is unsustainable.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
That's why you should be praising Stoinis for keeping it down 12 an over rather than blaming him (solely) for letting it drift from 9 to 12.
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
But Rizwan is an opener to compare with Faqar Zaman and Wade. Strikes me as a high risk strategy to leave the heavy lifting to a guy who’s had a scoring rate of 103, averaging 16, when batting at 5, 6 or 7 in 18 T20 internationals.
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
I stand to be corrected, but in 14 games between the top 8 sides in this tournament, i.e. the only competitive ones (Aus, NZ, Pak, Eng, India, WI, SA, SL) there has not been one game where a side has won having to chase 15/over in the last 4 (NZ did score 60 off the last 4 it faced but it was chasing a target of 60 off 5). This was the only game when any of these teams chased a target of 12/over in the last 10 overs.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
Those numbers were the runs Pakistan scored at the end of their innings, not the runs they "conceded".
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
Well it’s a legitimate opinion to say he is your favourite bowler. But obviously debatable that he was the greatest and certainly not much evidence to support the idea he was way better than these guys.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
Re Stoinis: he played exactly the same way Hussey and Bevan did. A better strike rate, for instance, than Rizwan.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
Almost every game, teams score 15 to 20 runs per over in the last 4 or 5. Australia always had a higher score than Pakistan at the same stage in that game. Pakistan's last 4 overs conceded 21, 15, 3 (the outlier) and 15 (that's 13.5 an over). If you have wickets in hand, you can whack away. Afridi always puts it in the "right spot". The ball that trapped Finch was the same ball that went for 6 at the end.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
Oh yes..."way better" than all those bowlers. My post was going one way "none of them are better than Warne"...I then changed to they are all terrific but not better..." The problem was that I typed it on my phone and another one of those silly ads popped up and I lost the handle on my post. The Roar should ensure pop ups never cover the posting spot. Anyway, no one ever again will bowl like Warney does.
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
It’s not very gettable at all if the bowlers put in the right spot. And I’ve seen nothing to make me think Stoinis would have got those runs. It was harder than it needed to be in part because he hits so many dot balls.