T20 WC: India takes on Australia in their final super 8 match : AUS opt to bowl
In the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Cricket, India will play against Australia today in their Super 8 at the Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium, Gros Islet, St Lucia, at 8 p.m. Indian time. In the 31 previous head-to-head meetings in T20 matches, Australia have won the toss and have opted to field.
India holds an advantage with 19 wins, while Australia has won just 11 such encounters, and one match ended in no result. Team India already defeated Afghanistan and Bangladesh in the Super 8 group with ease.
So a third straight win for India will not only make them the group toppers and send them to the semifinals; it will also substantially threaten Australia’s chances of progressing through to the semis..
It’s probably the shortest flight, in the cricket world anyway. All of 12 minutes between St Vincent and St Lucia. And you would have expected the Australians to be not too displeased with their trip across the Caribbean Sea. But the fact that they had to endure a 40-minute drive to the airport in St Vincent followed by a 90-minute drive to the hotel in St Lucia while jumping on board the aforementioned 12-minute flight.
The flight was delayed by at least 90 minutes. And then once they got there, it still took them over 15 minutes to get on. They had of course probably only got to their rooms the previous night by around 1 am after their defeat to Afghanistan. And they wouldn’t have got to their hotel on Sunday (June 23) before around 4 pm, less than 16 hours before they take on India in a must-win match, that will decide whether they stay alive in the World Cup or not.
While Australia made the crazy scramble to get to St Lucia on the eve of their final Super 8s match, the Indians were taking a day off. They had of course got here a day earlier after having more or less guaranteed their qualification for the next round with their win over Bangladesh in Antigua. Not to forget energised by the fact that they could potentially knock out the team that broke a billion hearts and their own only six months ago in the final of the 50-over World Cup.
As historic an achievement as it was for Afghanistan, their first-ever win against Australia across formats in St Vincent has thrown their group wide open with none of the teams having officially qualified for the knockouts, While Rashid Khan & Co ended up giving themselves the best chance to do so, the loss for Australia has derailed what seemed to be a rather perfect campaign till that point on.
It’s also given the Indian team, who with their superior net run rate are closest to a semi-final than the others in the mix, the opportunity to more or less knock out the Aussies if they overcome them at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground on Monday morning (June 24).
Teams:
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah
Australia (Playing XI): Travis Head, David Warner, Mitchell Marsh(c), Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Tim David, Matthew Wade(w), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
Rohit Sharma: We would have fielded first as well, looks a bit sticky. We wanted to chase. We know what exactly we are doing, will try to do our best. I hope it doesn’t change much. The overhead conditions also matter in this part of the world. We have adapted well, hopefully another game where we put up a show. Every game matters in this tournament, nothing changes. We are playing the same team.
Mitchell Marsh: We are going to bowl first. Looks a belter, it looks lovely. It’s a quarte final, looking forward to it, big challenge against India. We have had ourselves in this situation before, every game is a must-win now. We got an experienced group, a great staff. Starc comes in for Agar.
