A competition that has failed to capture the imagination belatedly sparked into life thanks to two thrilling contests
inally, after three weeks of World Cup austerity, came a couple of games where the match was all that mattered. Until this point, aside from the good vibes of underdogs the Netherlands and Afghanistan knocking over a couple of established teams, we’ve heard fewer stories than talking points: what a result means, how it affects position on the table, how that table affects the tournament itself.
Haris Rauf is increasingly a bowling tragic figure, like Wahab Riaz before him: roaring for that last wicket, not given by the umpire, the review showing as umpire’s call with roughly 49% of the ball knocking leg stump out of the ground., with that same sense of poignancy that he has prompted in spectators since the 2019 final, that ever-repeated day when his heroics with bat and ball were not enough to defeat the cruelty of chance and the fine print of the tournament’s tiebreaker.
Moments earlier, Neesham had struck Mitchell Starc for the most perfect lofted drive over cover, added six more over long-on, and split the midwicket gap from Josh Hazlewood for four. Starc started the final over with five wides. It seemed belated reparations from the universe for Neesham, narrowing his ask to 14 from six. Twice he struck the ball fiercely into a gap, twice absurdly good fielding from the Australians turned four runs into two.
The Australians breathed a huge sigh of relief. They should of course have had the game in the bag, but despite recent improvement a couple of things are not going perfectly. One is mid-innings batting, the other is early-innings bowling.
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