Last week this time a couple of Australian cricketers wise-cracked about altering their style of play against Scotland to shove England out of the T20 World Cup. Perhaps they were meant in jest, but the residue of Australia’s past tinged the reactions of some neutrals towards a here-they-go-again unpleasantness. Those original comments may still be open to interpretation, but not what was at stake on Saturday night.
Afghanistan hadn’t forgotten the 50 over World-Cup thriller when they came so close but were denied by a once-in-a-generation knock by a limping breathless Glenn Maxwell, who should have been on a hospital bed taking drips instead of annihilating the Afghani dream. Rashid Khan had spoken about how he at times lies sleepless in bed, thinking about that World Cup game on the Mumbai coastline. The Australians, barring Maxwell too, it felt, hadn’t forgotten their nervy batting that Mumbai night, as their nerves seemed shot in the chase here. This Australian-angled story has to raise the hat to an utterly confident Maxwell, not an usual sight these days, threatening to break Afghani hearts again, beside the shimmering Caribbean Sea this time.
Which moment to choose, for there were many, to observe the Australians? Perhaps, the 16th over when they bowled is best to be cued first for it revealed a mini-breaking-away moment from being entrapped in the spell cast by the feisty Afghani openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran, whose unbeaten 129 had been overshadowed by Maxwell’s madness in the World Cup. Until then, ground fielding was as bad as it was against Scotland, Wade’s wicketkeeping too wasn’t flash as he too missed a stumping, and the bowlers couldn’t find a way through, when Marcus Stoinis decided to pull out the bare-the-Australian-fangs trick.
After Gurbaz punched a ball back to him after backing outside leg, Stoinis gave the nasty eye – unsure if the Australian lip was also thrown in. Gurbaz stared, Stoinis lingered on. The next ball was thrown back from wide long-on stands and though his partner was beside him with cheers for the audacious hit, Gurbaz was still giving an angry-cold stare at the receding Stoinis. Immediately, arrived the payback-moment to throw in a send-off for Stoinis, as Gurbaz, with passions still unspent, charged down the pitch to hole out to deep square-leg.
This seemed a mini-turning point – Afghanistan were 118 at that stage- for Australia rallied back via Adam Zampa, who skidded out Zadran and bounced out a startled Azmatullah. Cummins ripped out the lower middle order with a hat trick, and was denied a four-in-four as David Warner dropped a sitter. That fielding had continued regardless of the bowling turnaround as Agar too had dropped a catch and committed a few misfields. Those aware of his recent past when he has bounced back from a severe mental-health issue triggered by a trauma from a childhood physical-ailment are likely to be less severe on him, and focus on the rest of the below-average fielding efforts of the night. But even amidst the bowling-comeback, the nerves showed on the field did say something.
Gloomy, stuttering chase
A sense of doom soon embedded itself in their camp as Afghans sniped at them from the start of the chase. Naveen-ul-Haq, an infamous cult figure among IPL faithful, produced an absolute Jaffa first up that stunned Wade. From round the stumps, it veered in on back of length on the middle-stump line, before viciously cutting away with alarming bounce to thud into the wicketkeeping gloves of the adrenaline-junkie Gurbaz. Naveen would walk away ever-so-coolly point his finger with a seemingly ‘I-told-you-so’ gesture to a team-mate a ball later after shredding the stumps behind Wade with a corker. It was a great course-correction ball from Naveen, a perfect knockout blow to follow the earlier brute: fuller, starting audaciously from leg and middle and darting away from that angle and leaving Wade’s aggressive flail with no hope of stopping it from its destination.
Australia’s captain Mitch Marsh, who has overseen some of shoddiest fielding displays back to back, projected his imperious batting persona, reeling out a few booming front-foot drives. But Afghanistan bowlers cannot be limited to conjuring magic balls, but also dish out well-thought out gems. Naveen, yet again, with a peach of a slower one twisted out from finger tips sucked Marsh into a big forward drive rather early and unsurprisingly it ballooned up to mid-on.
David Warner, who on his last lap as he retires after T20 world cup though as is his wont has kept the door ajar for a possible return in ODI colours for next year’s Champions Trophy “if Australia needed me”, was off strike for a while, and fell off Mohammad Nabi’s first delivery, top-edging a sweep from outside off stump on a track that had showed signs of spin allied with bounce.
It was Stoinis’s fall in the 13th over that then captured Australia’s state of mind. Stoinis, who had biffed a couple in company of a determinedly-bold Maxwell, walked a couple of steps down the track to the mediumpacer Gulbadin Naib. The aggressive intent had the same whiffs as his banter-move with Gurbaz with the ball, but he was duped by a 121-kmph slow bouncer. He froze as the ball reared, couldn’t but stab his hands up as face-shield to pop a catch to who else but Gurbaz, who pouched and roared.
Australia would stagger as Gulbadin would punch the knockout moment in the 15th over by taking out Maxwell. It was a full delivery outside off and Maxwell plunged into his crashing off-drive but spliced this off the outer edge towards backward point where Noor Ahmad contorted his body and swooped forward to grab the match-turning catch. Where Australia had fumbled at such fielding moments, Afghanis were making their fans proud in Kabul and around the mountainous country.
Wade was removed by Rashid Khan who brought himself on to bowl his final over in the 16h to do precisely that. And the gush of anguish that emanated from Pat Cummins’s mouth even before the slower ball from Gulbadin had disarrayed his stumps told the story. He knew he was cooked and had; so was Australia. Befittingly, the veteran Nabi took the final catch to trigger blissful pandemonium in the dugout and back home in Afghanistan. Australia should have lost that World Cup game but they Maxwelled their way to seal the semi-final spot and shove out Afghanistan. Now, Afghanistan have done their bit to try reproduce similar outcomes in the near-future.
It remains to be seen if India deliver that push-out move on Monday or Australia ram their way back to glory but one unforgettable night in the Caribbean left joyful repercussions in the morning as Kabul emptied out onto the streets in celebrations of a historic win. From talks about manipulating results to hanging on dearly to one’s life in the campaign, one week can, sometimes, be a long time in cricket. What will the next week bring: the famous Australian resurgence or …?
Afghanistan players celebrate after defeating Australia by 21 runs in their men's T20 World Cup cricket match at Arnos Vale Ground, Kingstown, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saturday, June 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa) 
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