T20 World Cup ‘24: Low Scores and Associate Nations
Pat Cummins is on strike facing Gulbadin Naib. An Australian win will push them into yet another World Cup semifinal. At 111/7 with 38 runs required of 29 balls, they are still in a good position to win the match against a supposedly second tier team.
Naib charges into the pitch and rolls his wrists to change the pace of the ball at the last minute. A few months earlier, Cummins would have played (blocked) this ball easily. He was batting alongside Glenn Maxwell who played, perhaps, the craziest innings of all time by scoring 201* (128) while playing on one leg. On the other end, Cummins played another crazy innings, although a polar opposite of Maxwell’s. He blocked, blocked, and blocked some more to make only 12 runs in 68 balls — which is enough to raise eyebrows even in modern test cricket, leave alone in an ODI world cup! But those 68 balls that he blocked were worth a lot more than gold. His solidity at the crease allowed Maxwell the luxury to hit one outrageous shot after other. On one leg. Like a wounded tiger, injured Maxwell was more dangerous than his fully fit version.
Cummins did not have the same luxury this time. Maxwell, who threatened to break Afghanistan’s hearts again, got out a mere 10 balls before. The run rate, though manageable, was above run-a-ball. Cummins had no option to block but to attempt a giant heave but was flummoxed by the slower one. The slower ball barely …… meekly …… crashed into the stumps as Naib (the erstwhile body builder) flexed his biceps signifying a giant killer.
Afghanistan beat Australia reversing the ghost of that fateful Maxwell’s innings. They would later beat Bangladesh in yet another topsy-turvy low scoring thriller to reach their first ever semifinal in the world stage confirming that they have indeed arrived.
One of the themes of this World Cup has been the nature of pitches where bowlers have dominated and run scoring has been extremely hard. Outrageous hitters like Klassen have struggled to put bat to ball; sixes are few and far in between and even paltry totals like 120 have been defended successfully on multiple occasions — Afghanistan themselves defending quite a few of them.
This reaffirms that whether test cricket or T20, keeping bowlers in the mix never hurts this wonderful game. It is equally exciting to watch a low scoring thriller as it is to watch a high scoring one which is breaking all records. However, in a big tournament like the World Cup, it becomes even more important to prepare bowling friendly pitches which brings in the associate teams into the mix.
It would have been impossible to gloat in USA’s story where they beat Pakistan in a super over if the pitch was not bowling friendly. Afghanistan’s rise both in the ODI world cup last year and in their semifinal qualification this year wouldn’t have happened on flat pitches where 200 was a par score. The batting of second tier teams (though Afghanis are increasing making their claim to being a tier one team) are many levels below the top teams but bowling friendly pitches does level it somewhat.
More importantly, giving the bowlers their fair share of chance to showcase their skills keeps the game inclusive without compromising on thrill. In that way, this world cup has been a success where 200+ scores haven’t been safe and a 120-odd score has been successfully defended as well.
