Is Australia’s T20 World Cup title defence alive? Mathematically, yes.
But the hosts’ fate is now officially out of their own hands, and their creaky, sporadic performance in a narrow defeat over an Afghanistan side they’d have confidently expected to beat by far more than the eventual four-run victory margin couldn’t have summed up their campaign any better.
There were flashes of brilliance – Glenn Maxwell’s dynamic 29-ball half-century and bullet throw to run out rampant Afghan Gulbadin Naib chief among them – but amidst it all was selection controversy, some inexplicable batting choices and plenty of mediocre bowling from supposedly one of the world’s best attacks.
Chief among the former was the omission of Mitchell Starc, who alongside injured duo Aaron Finch and Tim David, made it three changes for Australia at the Adelaide Oval.
The left-arm quick had been shifted away from his traditional new-ball role into the middle overs in recent matches, but his omission, confirmed as such shortly before the match, still caused a major stir, particularly after capturing a pair of wickets with ferocious inswinging yorkers against Ireland.
Former Australian captain – and Starc’s teammate during his Player of the Tournament run at the 2015 ODI World Cup – Michael Clarke led the chorus, describing the axing as ‘strange’ on commentary, especially given the Aussies’ need to restrict Afghanistan to as low a score as possible in order to move past England on net run rate.
“There’s absolutely no way you can leave him out of tonight’s game,” Clarke said.
Marcus Stoinis and Matthew Wade of Australia. (Photo by Mark Brake-ICC/ICC via Getty Images)
“If anyone’s going to rip through Afghanistan’s batting it’s Mitchell Starc. Left-arm, if it swings with the new ball and then we’ve seen his yorkers at the death.
“I don’t get it.”
Clarke’s bemusement again reared during the innings break; with Australia needing to defend 8/168, the former captain said Starc would have been his ‘first bowler picked’.
“I still can’t believe it to be honest,” he said.
“I think we saw a bit of swing. I think Starc right now with the new ball swinging back into the right-handers would have been lethal.
“He’d have been my first bowler picked against this Afghanistan line-up… to me we’ve got a lot of the same-same here, [Josh] Hazlewood, [Marcus] Stoinis, [Cameron] Green. It’s all right-hand back of a length, hit the wicket hard.
“We’ve got to win this game and got to win by a lot. I just think that left-arm something different – it would have been exactly what we needed tonight.”
A slew of other former and present greats concurred, with Mark Waugh and Tom Moody, World Cup winners both, taking to Twitter to express their surprise.
However, the most surprising Starc advocate came from a long-time foe – current England Test quick Stuart Broad, who described the left-armer as a ‘beast’ in short-form cricket..
The bold move didn’t pay off, though: Richardson was clubbed for a ghastly 48 off his four overs, finishing with consecutive sixes off the bat of Afghanistan all-rounder Rashid Khan, to very nearly cost the hosts a win.
Rashid Khan do anything: Afghan gun’s brutal onslaught wows
Despite a patchy display, Australia seemed on track for a comfortable if fruitless win over Afghanistan when the visitors needed 49 runs from the final three overs, with just four wickets in hand.
Rashid Khan, though, had other ideas.
An Adelaide Strikers star in the BBL; Rashid was loudly cheered when walking out to bat with his side in dire straits; then, showing his full knowledge of the Adelaide Oval and an extraordinary array of shots, bludgeoned Aussie bowlers of all shapes and sizes to and over the pickets.
An incredible whipped half-pull cleared the mid-wicket rope comfortably off none other than Josh Hazlewood; his next shot, taking full advantage of a full ball to pump it straight down the ground, left Marcus Stoinis needing to defend 22 from the final over.
The Aussies would hold on, but it wasn’t without the mother of all fights from Rashid, hitting Stoinis for two fours and a glorious six over cow corner to reduce the margin to just four runs.
Finishing unbeaten on 48 off just 23 balls, the onslaught has prompted calls for the Afghan legspinner to be given more opportunities higher up the order for the Strikers this BBL season.
Former Aussie Test great Mark Waugh was among those, describing Rashid as a ‘seriously dangerous striker’, and suggesting the Strikers’ aren’t getting enough value out of him batting in the tail.
The curious case of the missing ball
If you thought the fourth over of Australia’s batting innings felt a little short… that’s because it was.
While appearing to never be disclosed by the ICC’s official tournament commentary feed, which it sells to both Channel 9 and Fox Cricket, it has been confirmed that Afghanistan’s Naveen-ul-Haq should have bowled an extra ball.
The ‘totally unacceptable’ miss, according to sports journalist Adam White, left plenty of Australian cricket fans incensed at the unfair disadvantage forced on the Aussies.
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However, Afghanistan could also feel slighted, given the bowler at the centre of the debate, quick Naveen-ul-Haq, was the pick of their bowlers in Adelaide, finishing with 3/21 from his four overs.
Andrew
Guest
This is the ideal T20I squad for AUS: Warner, McDermott, Marsh, Inglis(WK), Maxwell, David, Stoinis, Agar, Starc, Ellis, Zampa, Head, Hazlewood, J Richardson, Phillippe Aaron Finch, Matthew Wade - Should have retired after winning the WC last year. Pat Cummins, Steve Smith - World class Test cricketers. Definitely, not suited for T20Is. Like, Joe Root, Stuart Broad & James Anderson. Cameron Green - Should have been playing shield cricket at this time and get prepared for WI & SA Test series. Kane Richardson - He has been given too many chances like Nathan Coulter-Nile. But never really cemented his spot in the team. Coming and going!
ColinT
Roar Rookie
I blame the selectors. Surely it was obvious that it is much harder to score runs on hard bouncy wickets against quality slow bowlers than pace bowlers serving up a succession of fast medium balls right in the middle of a batsman’s hitting zone. Especially in the power play, a batsman only needs to get bat on a fast ball in his hitting zone for it to fly to the boundary. So what does Australia do? It selects a four man pace attack and one spinner?? Worse, they drop the only fast bowler capable of swinging the ball in the first few overs!!. And even worse they didn’t let Maxwell bowl any overs at all, despite his good record and despite the failure of the quicks. If you can’t take wickets then you need to restrict runs and to do that you need good slow bowlers.
DTM
Roar Rookie
One of the highlights of last night was Rashid Khan almost saving a 6. He caught the ball, went to flick it behind his back and it hit his boot. Maybe a bit of showmanship on his part as in hindsight it might have been better to throw it in front of him but spectacular effort. Of course, that may have cost Afghanistan the game!
Clear as mud
Guest
thanks Simon, agree. either side of his one brilliant over the other night, Starc had 0-36 from 4 against NZ; 1-23 from 4 against SL (8 overs for 1 wicket so far, not much of a "beast in this format, wicket taker, game changer"). Starc then converted 2-0 off his first to 2-43 from his 4 against Ireland,. they could have dropped both Cummins and Starc, to be fair. Cummins did OK ER wise last night but we were trying to bowl them out I thought. he ends with 3 wickets in 4 games. mmmmm moving forward, pick neither, that makes it easy.
Simoc
Roar Rookie
Given the nature of the T20 game you can lose quite easily to a solid team with a superstar. The most surprising thing to me was the Pakistani bowling in the last four overs. They gave nothing away and bowled outstanding slower balls, when 180 plus runs looked assured. You're always going to need a bit of luck and so good luck to Sri Lanka today. Somebody doesn't like Mitch Starc apart from opposition batsmen. Kane Richardson is a club cricketer by comparison.
Liam
Guest
Just this month?
Simon
Guest
People have been saying both Starc gets selected because he's in the boys club and then now he didn't get selected because he's not in the boys club. Do you think maybe we could look outside this theory
Peter Darrow
Roar Guru
I have watched many of the T20 games and am really enjoying the tournament. Australia has done a great job so far in organising the event. The weather has been the only downer. And I believe the problem with the Australian team is there is a them and us mentality with supporters. There appears to be a boys club where favourites are selected not the best available. How did Kane Richardson, whom I don't rate at all, get selected ahead of Starc? They will come out with some complicated theory as to why.
Simon
Guest
My biggest takeaway from the last month is that The Roar has become a Facebook comments section. Seems to have been infiltrated by angry old blokes who don't watch a lot of cricket but have very strong opinions on it.