New Zealand cruise to 89 win in the Super 12 stage of the tournament while England beat Afghanistan by 5 wickets. Gulf News cricket specialists Shyam and Satish discuss the two matches.
See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km
Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV
#UAEnews #cricket #t20worldcup
See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km
Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV
#UAEnews #cricket #t20worldcup
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Welcome to Golf News straight back.
00:08Right, after a gripping week of upsets and nervy encounters during that group stage last
00:15week, the Super 12 of the T20 World Cup has now begun and we had four of the main contenders
00:22in action today in what looks like an open field.
00:24It looks like it could be anyone's title, whether, you know, puts their mind to it,
00:29they could go all the way.
00:30Today, England have come good, where it mattered the most against Afghanistan, while Australia
00:36lost against New Zealand and clearly home advantage didn't help those guys today at
00:41all.
00:42Joining me to discuss both those games are Golf News cricket specialists Sharm and Satish.
00:47Guys, how are you doing?
00:48Good, thank you, everyone.
00:50All good.
00:51All right, let's start with the earlier game of today, Australia against New Zealand, where
00:58I think Devin Conway, he was the star of the show.
01:01He hit, what was it, 92, unbeaten 92, as New Zealand claimed an 89-run win against the
01:09Aussies.
01:10It was a fantastic display from those guys.
01:13I think it was a bit of a shock.
01:14Did you expect that, Sharm?
01:15Did you think it would be so one-sided today?
01:18Well, frankly, I was very surprised because not just that, first of all, I was surprised
01:24that they scored 200, because I believe this Australian pitches and the conditions and
01:29the bigger grounds, in these conditions, the par score would be around 160, 170 max.
01:35But to score 200 itself is amazing.
01:38Not just that they scored 200, they even went on to dismiss the Aussies for something like
01:44111, which again, didn't speak well about the Aussies.
01:48And the biggest surprise, another surprise was, see, coming into the tournament, New
01:52Zealand didn't have the best of preparations, and whereas Australia did quite well, actually.
01:57And like you said about the home conditions, I would have expected Australia to continue
02:02their winning streak at home.
02:03So first win after a long time.
02:07Satish, it was a really strange result.
02:10It was, OK, credit to New Zealand for playing the way they did and winning, but to win by
02:15such a huge margin, and that too, on their own turf.
02:21That was a shock, wasn't it, Satish?
02:23Absolutely, Imran.
02:24But the way Australia played, I don't think it should have been a shock, because there
02:28was absolutely no application in terms of the batting, rather, from the Australian batsmen.
02:35And they literally went hammer and tongs from ball one.
02:39They should have taken a little bit of cue from what Conway did.
02:43Initially, he was playing 1s, 2s, maybe 4s here, picking the gaps, picking the right
02:50ball to hit.
02:51Whereas on one end, the youngster, Allen, did very well to give that quick start for
02:59Australia.
03:00And another one is, the Aussie bowlers didn't bowl at the areas where they should have bowled.
03:05The square is quite long, and you keep bowling them on the front foot.
03:09Even the spinner, somebody like Zampa, he was allowing Conway to come out and hit him
03:14over the straight field or mid-wicket on the front.
03:19So, I think Aussies played like New Zealand, and New Zealand played like Aussies.
03:24That's what I felt.
03:25It was a role-reversal sense, Satish.
03:26Absolutely.
03:27Shaan, do you think it was a role-reversal?
03:28No, actually, I think it was in many ways a role-reversal.
03:36I think Satish Kinta hit it on the head when he said, that was the spirit in his play.
03:41The aggression from the New Zealand is more like the Aussies, and Aussies were much tamer
03:45like the New Zealanders.
03:48Also, one important statistic here is that New Zealand has never won in Australia in
03:54the last 10 years.
03:55So, it's been a long time coming, and when they did it, they did it in style.
04:02Another interesting stat for you guys, this was Australia's, I think, second-heaviest
04:06defeat of all time in the T20 format.
04:09I mean, back home, the headlines, you can imagine, they're going to be going after the
04:12team, especially with them being the hosts, there's going to be a lot of negative press
04:15for them.
04:16So, how are they going to bounce back from such a bad defeat?
04:19Satish, you can answer this question.
04:23Yeah.
04:24See, Australia, at home, they are really good, but what is happening is, Imran, though they
04:31are the defending champions, they are the favourites, I think this Australian condition
04:36and the way the T20 has evolved, you need to play a different brand of game.
04:40That's exactly what even the second game England showed also.
04:43Initially, they were going hammer and tongs against Afghanistan, but finally, they struggled
04:47to score 111, such a small target.
04:50So, I think the T20 has now grown, and the bigger Australian grounds are making it even
04:57more better.
04:58So, I would say Australia needs to change their approach, and of course, the French
05:03is out of form, Warner has to start clicking, and you have many factors to come in Australia's
05:10favour.
05:11But it's going to be very difficult for Australia to bounce back from here, because their net
05:15run rate is going to be very poor, and almost all five teams are test-playing nations.
05:20So, anybody can beat anybody on a given day.
05:23So, it's going to be extremely difficult for Australia.
05:26But given their strength, given the way they are resilient that they show at home, I'm
05:33sure they will come back.
05:34But how much this run rate is going to affect them, we'll have to wait and see.
05:39Shyam, Satish has mentioned Finch there.
05:42It's interesting, because in the last five games running, he's won the toss, and he's
05:49elected to bowl, and for the last five games, they've failed to win.
05:54So, what does Finch do from here, Shyam?
05:58I think it's not a question of winning the toss, it's a question of bowling well, actually.
06:06If you look at today's match, the bowlers gave the match away.
06:10When you are up against a total of 200, you're already on the back foot, which means the
06:15pressure is already on you.
06:16So, the batsmen are already under the pump, which is why a clump of wickets can make the
06:22situation worse, which is precisely what happened.
06:25Now, traditionally, Australia has been a very slow starter, but like Satish said, with a
06:35defeat in the first game, it's always tricky, because that affects the rest of the campaign,
06:40and you are always chasing the tail to make the grade.
06:44So, that's when all the mathematics come into the picture, the net run rate comes into the
06:48picture.
06:49So, then it gets tricky.
06:50But I think Australia will bounce back, and I think the first match in every tournament
06:57is always tricky.
06:58I mean, just like England found out, it's not easy, even when you play the lesser fantasy
07:03side.
07:04I mean, it's not a lesser fantasy side.
07:05Sorry, Shaham.
07:06Carry on.
07:07Yeah, because between Australia and New Zealand, there is a lesser-known rivalry, the trans-batsmen
07:21rivalry has always been going on.
07:23So, New Zealand has always been looking for a point to prove, and they just came out on
07:27top today.
07:28Satish, Shaham has alluded to the quality of the Australian team.
07:33Do you think they've got it in them to bounce back with the quality that we know that they
07:39all have?
07:40Obviously, yeah, like Shaham has just said, the first game, you can get some shock results.
07:44But 89-run defeat is a huge setback for them.
07:49Yeah.
07:50See, that's what was puzzling me, even.
07:54Because Akeez Malik, you could have tried.
07:56But right from the start, from 1 to 10, they played the same brand of cricket.
08:00They didn't try to increase their runs, play out the overs.
08:05I don't know what went wrong there.
08:07But even if you look at the previous campaign in 2021, there was a game where they were
08:12touch and go, like they were just made it, I think, if I remember right, to the semis.
08:17So as Shaham says, it's a bad start and they were a little slow starter.
08:21But once they find their rhythm, then they will live up to their potential as one of
08:28the world beaters.
08:30So, the run rate will not be a problem if they win the next four games.
08:35So hopefully they win and come back and then have the points, then the run rate come into
08:42picture at that point of time to enter the semis.
08:46And just quickly, who is their next game against Satish?
08:48Do you have the fixtures there with you?
08:51Do you know who they've got next?
08:52Yes, I do have the fixtures.
08:55Australia will be playing next against Sri Lanka on the 25th Tuesday.
09:00That is.
09:01OK, the Asia Cup champions.
09:03What do you think is going to happen there?
09:05I think Australia will bounce back.
09:13New Zealand, we have to give credit to New Zealand because for one reason, Vakane is
09:19a master strategist.
09:21So he plans well for a team.
09:24So, Sri Lanka is not the same as New Zealand.
09:28But in T20, you can't write off any team, any time.
09:32Because one over can turn the match around.
09:34But still, I would say Australia are one of the favourites to make the semis, even though
09:39they lost by 89 runs.
09:41Shyam, do you think they can get back to winning ways?
09:46Well, they'll have to.
09:47If they lose…
09:48Absolutely.
09:49Like Sadeesh says, because they have far too much quality in them.
09:55And Sri Lanka are not a…
09:59See the kind of ruthlessness Australia has, Sri Lanka doesn't have.
10:04And Sri Lanka is a side in transition.
10:06I know they won the Asia Cup with some good wins.
10:10But I think Australia is a different kettle of fish.
10:13And not just that, the Australian conditions are different.
10:15So I think I would always pick Australia to beat Sri Lanka.
10:20OK, we'll see how those guys get on in their next game.
10:23The other game, which just finished a little while ago, was England against Afghanistan.
10:30And England's bowlers, they set up a five-wicket win over Afghanistan.
10:36Josh Butler's team making a solid start.
10:38Nothing spectacular.
10:39I mean, they sort of laboured their way towards the end.
10:42It was a very small target that they were chasing.
10:44112, I think, Afghanistan got.
10:47Just under…
10:48They posted just under 20 overs.
10:50And I mean, England weren't ever really in any sort of trouble.
10:54But I would have thought that they would have got to that score a lot quicker than they
10:59did.
11:00Shyam, what did you make of their batting and their chasing today?
11:04I would have expected them to kick into high gear pretty early.
11:08Because this is a chance to up your run rate.
11:12Because you have 111 to get.
11:13And this is a chance to really, really have a healthy run rate.
11:18So I was a little disappointed from that.
11:20Because initially, the Afghan bowlers struggled a bit.
11:23Because especially their best fast bowler, that is Faisal Haq Faruqi, was a bit wayward
11:29in line, rather.
11:30He was getting the length right, he was getting some movement, but he was not getting the
11:35line right.
11:36So, maybe, if he had bowled a little bit better line, England would have been on a back foot.
11:44Not just that.
11:45The worst thing was, Afghans dropped a hell of a lot of catches.
11:50They dropped tails twice.
11:53So if those catches had stuck, then England would have been in a spot of bother.
11:58But despite that, I think they were at least 30-40 runs short.
12:04Yeah, those catches, what do they say?
12:07Catches win matches.
12:08The old ways that apply.
12:09Absolutely.
12:10Absolutely.
12:11It applies.
12:12Satish, but Sam Curran did really well with the ball.
12:14He took five wickets for 10 runs.
12:16It's the first five-wicket haul for England in the T20s.
12:20It was a really good bowling performance by him and, you know, compared to Afghanistan's
12:25weakness in the field, England were very good in the field today, weren't they?
12:31Absolutely.
12:32See, actually, Sam Curran bowled very well.
12:34Nothing to take anything credit away from him.
12:36But of the five wickets, I think three of his bowling, like the fabulous catches that
12:41were taken.
12:42Two, I think, two or three of those.
12:44So the fielding totally, the fielders backed the bowlers.
12:48So it was overall a very good effort in the first innings.
12:52But the second innings, I think they fumbled a bit in the batting.
12:56But again, England has got a very, very deep batting line-up and they have quality.
13:02So it's just that they need to hit the top gear sooner, which should happen again.
13:08The quality of attack also, like Afghanistan is more spin-oriented.
13:13So I think probably one of the few teams in the entire World Cup which has got such quality
13:19spinners in their line-up, like you have about three or four of them who could come and hold
13:24those 12 overs.
13:26So it's rare that you get such a spin-dominated line-up in Australia on a bouncy wicket.
13:33So again, going back to the game, Afghanistan could have got another 30-40 runs had they
13:40not gone for the big hits.
13:42This Australian wickets or grounds are not for your big shots.
13:47I don't think the number of sixes were so many as compared to what it was in UAE last
13:52year.
13:53The number of fours may be yes, but the sixes.
13:55So I think the team should understand that pretty quickly and try to play more on the
14:00ground, which is exactly what Devon Conway did, playing more on the ground, trying to
14:04hit.
14:05Even the bad balls, he was trying to hit on the ground than hitting it in the air because
14:09he knows that sometimes he could be out as well.
14:11So those kind of adjustments need to be done.
14:14And the sooner the teams make those adjustments, the easier they will win or they will be able
14:20to go further.
14:21But Satish, any ideas why, for that chase, for a relatively small score, why the batting
14:29for England misfired?
14:30I mean, I think at one stage, they were 97-5.
14:33And like Shyam says, had a couple of those catches stuck in their hands, we may have
14:38been looking at a very different result today.
14:40No, 111 against this England batting, I would say even Aadhar Rashid will get you this 20
14:46runs, 25 runs at the end of it.
14:49The score was quite low.
14:51But yes, all the Hales and Butler, they would have probably wanted to get a better hit.
14:57But we have to also understand, Perth, which is not the one which is going to favour a
15:03batter.
15:04So it's got a bit of a bounce, it's got extremely good bounce and a bit of a grasp makes it
15:08very difficult to bat on.
15:10So thankfully, it was Afghanistan who didn't have a good fast bowler.
15:14But if you look at England, the way the bowlers' faces were steaming in Wood or Wokes or Stokes
15:20or Sam Curran, they were all, almost every ball, they were on the throat of the Afghanistan
15:25batsmen.
15:26So that kind of a bounce and swing and seam, you get everything there.
15:31So on that note, I think, I am not too worried about England batsmen.
15:36But yes, they would have probably got it with one or two wickets spare, would give them
15:40the confidence.
15:41But they have the quality.
15:42I don't see a real problem in England's batting at this point of time.
15:47And just a quick word, Shyam, on Afghanistan, we know how dangerous they are.
15:51We've seen it just recently in the Asia Cup, how good they can be.
15:54We know they've got quality in the team.
15:57But today was a little bit of a setback, especially in the batting.
16:00How do you think they're going to come back from today's defeat?
16:03I think they need to see Afghanistan's problem has been their batting, I mean, always.
16:09And also, they have a tendency to run teams close, but never defeat them.
16:16They have done this to India, they've done this to Pakistan, but they would give them
16:21a scare.
16:22That's about it.
16:23They need, they don't have that extra 10% to beat this side, that I think will come
16:28from experience.
16:29They have the talent, but to perform consistently, and you need game awareness, which is lacking
16:36in Afghanistan.
16:38Like Sadeesh said, if somebody had stayed at one end and seen the Afghans through, they
16:44might have at least reached 140.
16:46140 would have put England under pressure, actually.
16:49So, because if you look at, this is the last established pair, that is the Livingston
16:54and Boeing Alley.
16:57And see, Perth is a pace bowler's wicket, actually.
17:03But on that wicket, all the three Afghans spinners kept England on a tight leash.
17:10So, like Sadeesh said, if Afghans had had a good fast bowler, this Faisal Haque, I'm
17:16very impressed.
17:17I've seen him in the UAE.
17:18He's a good bowler.
17:19He's got good pace.
17:20He swings the ball.
17:21More importantly, he brings the ball back into the batsman.
17:26But today, he was pretty mid-wayward, I think.
17:28If he was on a song, then England would have had problems.
17:33So, I think they need to go back and do those little things right.
17:39Get their fast bowling right.
17:40I mean, their spinners are spot on.
17:42They need to get that fast bowling right.
17:44And also, they need to get their batting right.
17:47But batting, like I said, has always been a problem.
17:49I mean, they have the dashers there, but there's nobody who can bat through in innings.
17:55So, there should be somebody to angle the innings, like what Conway did for New Zealand
17:59today.
18:00I mean, then Afghanistan will be a different sight.
18:04I think there's a lot more to come from both the losing teams today, Afghanistan and especially
18:08Australia.
18:09But congratulations today to England and to New Zealand.
18:13Tomorrow, we have a very early start, Sri Lanka against Ireland at eight o'clock in
18:18the morning.
18:19Are you guys going to be awake and watching?
18:20Yes, of course.
18:21Of course, I will be.
18:22And then we have the little case.
18:27And then we have the small case of India against Pakistan.
18:30We'll be back tomorrow to see how both those games get along.
18:34In the meantime, thanks to my guests, Satish and Tushar.
18:38Please head on to gulfnews.com for all the latest news, reviews, videos and all sorts.
18:42And we'll be back tomorrow evening.
18:43Thank you and good night.