timeThis World Cup was a joy to watch in the Caribbean as they screened the India vs Pakistan match in a Bridgetown airport bar on Sunday. But while England supporters watched nerve-wracking scenes unfold over a bottle of ice-cold Banks beer before flying to Antigua, Scotland had already made their way to the land of sea and sun, gleefully chatting in old foes’ Last Chance pub. Wait in line for a week.
England were beaten by Australia at Kensington Oval 24 hours later, coinciding with Pakistan’s humiliating defeat in New York, with a seven-wicket win over Oman at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, leaving Ritchie ·Bellington’s side are among the title contenders. Having completed their target of 151 runs with 41 balls remaining and enhanced their net run rate in the process, they could hardly have done more.
Scotland top Group B with five points and a net run rate of +2.16, with one game remaining against Australia in St Lucia on Saturday night. Between now and then, Jos Buttler’s side have just one point after last week’s disastrous start and must beat Oman and Namibia to equalize, a performance that would be enough to correct their NRR of –1.8 and hope Australia finish with a drop. Beat Scotland and they moved to third.
The problem for England (besides their own shortcomings) is that Scotland, while they will obviously want to win and make this irrelevant, will also know how much they can afford to lose as the game unfolds. And Australia, assuming they beat Namibia on Tuesday and secure a spot in the Super Eights with one game remaining, may feel no obligation to win quickly. Australia head coach Andrew MacDonald, while not keen on a game first, admitted his players might get a chance if his side progressed.
None of this is to say that Australia will lose on purpose – they won’t lose to United at the World Cup – but since NRR are not in the Super Eights and the seeding determines which group they will be in, it will start to change regardless of the final ranking. From their perspective, it’s still a game without any content. Win in a way that satisfies their oldest rivals and eliminates the possibility of a rematch in the knockout rounds? Like the local rum punch, it can be tempting even on a subconscious level.
“We’re not really looking at England’s situation,” McDonald said on Monday when asked whether Australia had such thoughts heading into their game against Scotland. “We have surpassed them and we will do what is important to us in these games. We have not had a chance to discuss this at the moment.
“England obviously have their work cut out for them in the next few games. We were in a similar situation at the last T20 World Cup and we had to go for a net run rate [and missed out on the semi-finals] And relying on other results is always difficult. But this is something they need to address.
The situation at the 1999 50-over World Cup was not dissimilar to the one depicted above, when Steve Waugh’s Australia played against the West Indies amid boos from the Old Trafford crowd. Hit the brakes hard with a score of 111. reason? Damaging New Zealand’s chances of reaching the Super Six. At the time – although the circumstances were different – the results between the teams in the group stage still stood, meaning that, after losing to New Zealand, an NRR win over West Indies provided them with an NRR lifeline for Australia. will be better.
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“I don’t know if it’s moral or not, but it’s in the rules,” Waugh later insisted, with history a reminder that the debate over the letter of the law versus the spirit of cricket is nothing new. There was no social media back then – oh, take a spin in the DeLorean and keep it that way – but in these pages, Matthew Engel called it “a horrific and disgraceful game of cricket ”. He wrote that the football community has long realized that the final games of the World Cup group stage should be played at the same time.
Whether it was a legal tactic that complied with regulations or an affront to public decency – New Zealand’s Stephen Fleming said he might have done the same thing as Waugh – it didn’t have the desired effect. Instead, New Zealand beat Scotland for 121 in Edinburgh the next day, defeated West Indies at NRR by 21.2 overs, and came home with 21 balls to spare.
Returning to the DeLorean and back to the present, there are obviously a lot of variables before this happens. Given the way England have started the tournament – and their tendency to create problems for themselves against so-called weaker teams compared to Australia – supporters booking flights to the Super Eights may have to change their views north of the border loyalty.
