After Australia succumbed to a surprising 10-run defeat against South Africa at Old Trafford on Saturday, one saw what it will take for the other three teams to get the better of Aaron Finch’s side. The defeat also exposed the limitations in the defending champions’ setup at the moment.
Injuries have plagued them even before the start of the tournament and they are yet again forced to shuffle their batting lineup with Usman Khawaja and Marcus Stoinis struggling. Mitchell Starc, who is well on course to finish as the top wicket-taker in the World Cup once again, was also seen walking gingerly towards the end of the South African innings.
Those injuries, combined with a rare day when Australia’s bowlers failing to contain the opposition and their openers not laying down a strong foundation, still didn’t stop them from having a proper go at South Africa’s mammoth total of 325.
David Warner added another masterclass to his glittering century tally and Alex Carey, at this rate, is fast establishing himself as one of the best lower-order batsmen going around. Same old Australia, clawing their way back from a hopeless situation in a manner only they have patented over the decades. And it’s the World Cup, so trust them to kick into a different gear.
Over-reliance at the top?
But even then, there were enough pointers towards the chinks in their armour.
Finch and Warner scoring so consistently at the top of the order may have perhaps shielded the middle-order in the group stages. With the skipper falling early, a chance presented itself for the batsmen coming down the order to take responsibility. However, what we saw was that this Australian outfit, many of whom are already World Cup winners, blinked with the scoreboard pressure hovering over the batsmen from ball one.
Warner and Smith were involved in a comical mix-up while going for a run, but just about survived. It was similar to how Australia’s innings fell off the rails before being revived by Carey in their only other group-stage defeat, against India at The Oval.
Australia and South Africa have been involved in many a spicy encounter in recent years so this was no way another dead rubber. The Aussies had the top-spot to fight for. Warner and Kagiso Rabada were constantly trying to get one-up over each other in one of the better bat-ball duels we have seen in world cricket.
Warner, along with Smith, were facing the Proteas for the first time since Australian cricket had a disgraceful fall from grace last year.
Stoinis and Glenn Maxwell’s wicket had Australia staring down the barrel before Warner and Carey’s swashbuckling partnership set South African nerves jangling as the match approached the finish line.
But, have the middle-order really faltered as such? Yes, one can point out at Australia’s games against Pakistan and England – they faltered after Finch and Warner were rattling along with ease. But the reigning champions showed their famous grit and counter-punching abilities against West Indies and New Zealand, two games where their top-order fell cheaply.
Home advantage vs experience
When posed with the awkward question of who would go on to lift the cup, South Africa captain Faf du Plessis pointed out that Australia and India play big games better than the rest. While England have assembled their greatest-ever limited overs team, their three defeats came in chases. Despite wrestling back the momentum they built at the start of their campaign, England still have a lot to prove when it is not Eoin Morgan who wins the toss.
That is where things just seem to fall in place for Australia in World Cups. While a England, South Africa and New Zealand have frozen in the arc-lights in the past, Australia thrive on it. New heroes are born and new landmarks are conquered. The World Cup brings out the best in them.
Since the inception of the tournament, they have lost only three knockout games and two of them happened to be the finals. Before facing off against their old rivals at Lord’s, England had beaten Australian in nine of 10 ODI games. In comes Jason Behrendorff to wipe out the top-order and Starc applied the gloss on the victory in the group stage.
Compared to their defeat against India, Australia made fewer mistakes against South Africa. Against the table-toppers, Starc in particular, was off colour while the Finch-Warner axis never got going, leaving the batsmen coming in all to do.
Maybe, this was the wake-up call Finch and Co needed before the high-voltage clash on June 11. The recent injury crisis may just leave too much patch-up work for even the Australians to work on. However, there is the tantalising prospect of them getting 3-0 over England (if one counts the warm-up game), shutting down the relentless boo boys who have hounded Smith and Warner, and importantly, raising their levels for a big game.