Australia hammer final nail into England’s World Cup coffin
Australia v England, 4th November 2023.
Australia 286 all out
England 253 all out
Australia win by 33 runs
With today being “Super Saturday” at the World Cup and being the mad dog Englishman that I am, I rose like a lion from my slumbers at 4.45am for a 5am start and the first of two games that saw records set, broken and tumble on a day that was anything but super for the vanquished, dishevelled lions of England and the unlucky Kiwis of New Zealand. Whilst New Zealand put Pakistan to the sword in Bengaluru, scoring their highest ever World Cup score of 401–6 in the process, England captain Jos Buttler won the toss in Ahmedabad and after inserting the auld enemy of Australia into bat, continued a pattern of their World Cup hence far by having an impressive opening hour and restricting Australia to 38–2 at the fall of the wicket of the dangerous David Warner. A 75 run partnership followed from the “Chuckle Brothers” of Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne and together with substantial scores of 47 from Cameron Green, a run-a-ball 35 from Marcus Stoinis and 29 from just 19 balls received from eventual “Man of the Match” Adam Zampa, Australia set England 287 for victory. With the ball, Adil Rashid impressed once more for England with 2 wickets for just 38 runs conceded, Mark Wood grabbed 2 wickets for a far more costly 70 runs but pleasingly there was a real return to form for the under-performing Chris Woakes who finished with bowling figures of 4–54.
At the half-way stage England were well and truly in the game.
Returning to Bengaluru, New Zealand captain Kane Williamson continued an impressive return to the team following his brilliant 95 runs from just 79 balls received with the bat with a spectacular running and diving catch to dismiss Abdullah Shafique for just 4 and at 6–1, Pakistan were seemingly about to follow their somewhat traditional pattern of flattering to deceive before their eventual cricketing demise. Chasing 402 to win was imposing enough without their own self styled ability to implode on the biggest stage, but they’d been backed into a corner by the record breaking Rachin Ravindra with his third century in his debut World Cup and a stunning 108 from just 94 balls received. Cornered into a near impossible position or not, Pakistan captain Babar Azam knocked a remarkably assured run-a-ball 66 runs in double quick time but this paled in comparison to his teammate at the other end, Fakhar Zaman. The 33 year old returning veteran, having previously been dropped or left out of the starting XI earlier in the tournament, began “clubbing it, absolutely clubbing it” according to Pakistan legend Waqar Younis on TV commentary duties before Matthew Hayden, ex Australian batsman who sure could hit a cricket ball a mighty long way in his heyday, described Fakhar Zaman as “monstering” the bowling of New Zealand to the furthest reaches of Bengaluru on his way to a stunning half century from 39 balls before reaching his century from just a further 24 balls received. Whether it was Matthew Hayden’s made up word of “monstering” (It’s Matthew Hayden, he’s allowed to make up words!) or more grammatically correct clubbing, Fakhar Zaman crashed and smashed 11 enormous boundary clearing 6’s and 8 boundary 4’s on his way to 126 from just 81 balls received and at 200–1 from 25 overs, Pakistan were halfway towards an incredible victory.
Then the rain came for a second and final time in their innings and being 21 runs ahead on the “Duckworth/Lewis Method” (a cricketing method of determining a victor in the event of bad weather and which will take me a thousand years to explain to you and we’ll both be none the wiser), Pakistan had their victory, New Zealand an unfortunate defeat, and both teams now reside in the World Cup table on the cusp of qualification for the Semi-Finals in 4th and 5th positions with only one final spot in the top 4 up for grabs in the coming final week of the Group Stage.
"Ashes to Ashes" - My self-published book
"The Spirit of Cricket" - My self-published book
Whilst the rain continued to fall in Bengaluru, England were making the worst possible start to their run chase in Ahmedabad with Jonny Bairstow dismissed with the first ball of their innings and 26 balls later fellow Yorkshireman Joe Root followed him back to the Pavilion and England were already deep in the mire at 19–2. Spirited partnerships between Dawid Malan and Ben Stokes (84) and Stokes and Moeen Ali (63) resurrected English hopes of an improbable victory but despite a returning to form Chris Woakes and his run-a-ball 32 late in the innings, England still fell 33 runs short of their target to remain rooted, embarrassingly, to the foot of the World Cup table below tournament minnows the Netherlands and Bangladesh. Meanwhile their oldest cricketing foes Australia have finally found some form and look nailed on for a Semi-Final spot with 5 wins, 10 points and a current position of 3rd in the table.
Since we were last together, the Texas Rangers finally secured their first World Series title in baseball’s “Big Dance” defeating a thoroughly outplayed Arizona Diamondbacks, Tyson Fury defeated Francis Ngannou in Saudi Arabia in the biggest boxing “fix” since the last one, with the entire event bringing shame on an already heavily tainted sport, and my Mighty Reds of Liverpool continue on their winning ways in a season of transition and evolution under their lovable German manager with the most beautiful of beards, Jürgen Klopp.
Returning to the World Cup in India, the hosts continue to look unbeatable. After disposing with England by 100 runs they demolished a poor Sri Lanka by an almighty 302 runs after bowling them all out for a paltry 55 and at the time of writing are 3 wickets away from thoroughly dismantling South Africa by over 200 runs. Today’s opponents South Africa appear to be the only team to threaten their eventual crowning as World Champions come the Semi-Finals and Final in 2 weeks time and today crowd darling Virat Kohli scored an unbeaten century to match the achievements of national icon Sachin Tendulkar and on his birthday too! Nearest and fiercest neighbours Pakistan not only remain in contention due to today’s rain affected victory over New Zealand but their 7 wicket win over Bangladesh earlier in the week was notable for yet more records for talismanic fast bowler Shaheen Afridi (100 wickets in One Day Internationals) and yet another bludgeoning and “monster” innings from Fakhar Zaman who crashed a quick fire 81 from 74 balls received.
I, on the other hand, remain firmly in the cricketing corner of Afghanistan who since we were last together, brilliantly and thoroughly defeated both Sri Lanka and the Netherlands by 7 wickets on each occasion. I can’t help but pull for the spinning twins of Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan and the batting expertise of their captain Hashmatullah Shahidi and Rahmat Shah, both of whom scored bags of runs in the respective wins over Sri Lanka and the Netherlands. Afghanistan still need a minor miracle to qualify for the Semi-Finals with their final 2 Group games pitting them against Australia and South Africa with Tuesday’s game against the Aussies make or break in their bid for an unbelievable spot at the very top table of world cricket.
I’ll be cheering them on come Tuesday and should they shake up the world once more they might, just might, dump a tournament favourite such as Pakistan or New Zealand or even Australia from the top 4 and an early exit.
Now that’s a sporting story I can get behind!
Thanks for reading. Please feel free to take the tour around my profile here. There’s well over 900 articles on any and everything aside from the grand old game of cricket. You might even be surprised! If so, please consider subscribing.