With their marketing campaign again on monitor after thrashing Bangladesh of their final match, Australia can’t afford a slip-up towards the unpredictable West Indies of their last Super 12 match as they attain the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup right here on Saturday. Ready to make a spot. After dropping to arch-rivals England final Saturday, Australia bounced again with a document eight-wicket win over Bangladesh on Thursday, elevating their internet run fee from -0.627 to +1.031. Still, a win will not be sufficient for the Aaron Finch-led facet to ebook a last-four berth if the Proteas beat England by a margin that can lead Australia to a different Group 1 match in Sharjah on Saturday. Will enhance their NRR compared.
If fortunate, a loss towards the West Indies may nonetheless see Australia as Group 1 runners-up within the semi-finals if England make 5 out of 5 to beat South Africa. Therefore, rather a lot is at stake for each Australia and South Africa. Australia are at present ranked second forward of the Proteas on the idea of higher NRR within the Group 1 desk. Faced with such an unsure state of affairs, Australians can’t afford to change into complacent. Also, an injured and battered Caribbean, who’re the defending champions, will attempt to avoid wasting pleasure and exit the showpiece with a win.
2010 runners-up Australia made their final semi-final spot in 2012, once they had been knocked out by eventual champions West Indies. The two-time defending champions West Indies couldn’t reside as much as their status as they relied closely on their getting old stars like Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Andre Russell and Kieron Pollard.
From crashing for 55 of their group opener towards England to faltering towards Sri Lanka on Thursday, which despatched them out for a semi-final spot, it simply hasn’t labored out for West Indies. Australia, however, are beginning to peak at simply the best time of their bid to win their solely lacking title. Their bowling assault got here to the fore of their eight-wicket win over Bangladesh, which got here off 82 balls – the very best T20I win between two full member groups.
The fast pairing of Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc delivered early blows, with leg-spinner Adam Zampa sharpening the tail en route on the best way to a career-best 5/19. Even Glenn Maxwell (2-0-6-1) was tight-lipped along with his part-time off-spin and the workforce will solely hope that he begins firing along with his bat as effectively. Their inconsistent top-order additionally acquired some enhance with Mitchell Marsh’s return to No. 3. Marsh scored an unbeaten 16 off 5 balls, together with a six, towards Taskin Ahmed to seal the problem after skipper Finch laid the groundwork for 40. He expects gamers like David Warner and Maxwell to fall into the groove towards misfiring Windies as they’ll follow an unchanged XI.
Australia Squad: Aaron Finch (c), Pat Cummins, Ashton Agar, Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa, Mitchell Swepson.
West Indies workforce: Kieron Pollard (captain), Nicholas Pooran, Fabian Allen, Dwayne Bravo, Roston Chase, Andre Fletcher, Chris Gayle, Shimron Hetmyer, Evin Lewis, Jason Holder, Lendl Simmons, Ravi Rampaul, Andre Russell, Oshane Thomas, Hayden Walsh Jr.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
