Finally, after three weeks of World Cup austerity, came a couple of games where the match was all that mattered. Until this point, aside from the good vibes of underdogs the Netherlands and Afghanistan knocking over a couple of established teams, we’ve heard fewer stories than talking points: what a result means, how it affects position on the table, how that table affects the tournament itself.
There have been individual performances but a lack of competitive tension, while home supporters are treated to the sight of India moving from city to city as a kind of travelling moral lesson, ritually spanking each opponent for the righteous enjoyment of the crowd.
Then in two nights the contest became the thing. On Friday against Pakistan, as they had against the Netherlands, South Africa morphed from werewolf to confused teenager, going from a team that monsters 400 batting first to one that quails at 250 batting second. Keshav Maharaj performed the Heimlich on his own side to finish the chase nine down.
Haris Rauf is increasingly a bowling tragic figure, like Wahab Riaz before him: roaring for that last wicket, not given by the umpire, the review showing as umpire’s call with roughly 49% of the ball knocking leg stump out of the ground.
In Dharamsala on Saturday it was Jimmy Neesham’s turn, with that same sense of poignancy that he has prompted in spectators since the 2019 final, that ever-repeated day when his heroics with bat and ball were not enough to defeat the cruelty of chance and the fine print of the tournament’s tiebreaker.
This match was extraordinary: Australia set New Zealand 389 to win, a score of a magnitude that has only been successfully exceeded in South Africa’s famous 438 game in 2006. New Zealand nearly did it. They needed 124 from 78 balls when Neesham walked to the middle at No 7. It was 96 from 58 when Rachin Ravindra’s gorgeous innings came to an end, 69 from 39 when Mitchell Santner got a high top edge, 43 from 20 when Matt Henry cut a catch, and 19 from the last over with Trent Boult for company and only Lockie Ferguson’s strained achilles tendon to come in next.
Moments earlier, Neesham had struck Mitchell Starc for the most perfect lofted drive over cover, added six more over long-on, and split the midwicket gap from Josh Hazlewood for four. Starc started the final over with five wides. It seemed belated reparations from the universe for Neesham, narrowing his ask to 14 from six. Twice he struck the ball fiercely into a gap, twice absurdly good fielding from the Australians turned four runs into two.
Needing seven from two balls, his final gift was a full toss, but he didn’t strike it cleanly. He was run out from the deep attempting a second. The game all but ended with Neesham face down in the dirt, a literal addition to his previous metaphorical instances, and was formalised as Ferguson unsurprisingly could not hit a first-ball six.
The Australians breathed a huge sigh of relief. They should of course have had the game in the bag, but despite recent improvement a couple of things are not going perfectly. One is mid-innings batting, the other is early-innings bowling.
On the former, their total of 388 should really have been north of 400, given the start that David Warner and Travis Head supplied. Warner has been in outstanding touch – aggressive and middling almost everything – in the past few weeks of warm-ups and group games. Head has been watching from the couch until this week while recovering from a broken hand, but walked in and struck the ball just as cleanly.
An opening stand of 175 from 19 overs is the stuff of video games. But having been moved to first drop to accommodate Head’s return, Mitchell Marsh contributed a strange 36 from 51 balls, batting out part-time spin like Glenn Phillips was Jim Laker, while Marnus Labuschagne could not get moving. In 14 overs after Head’s dismissal Australia added 67, before late momentum was picked up again by the hitting of Glenn Maxwell, Josh Inglis and Pat Cummins, even though the tenth wicket fell in the final over.
That midday lull looked like it would cost Australia, as Ravindra by contrast attacked the middle overs in artful style after New Zealand’s top order offered a fast start. Since three quick wickets against India to start their World Cup, Australia’s new-ball bowlers have had no effect.
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Even the India game gave up a 164-run partnership that started in the third over. South Africa’s opening stand was 108, Sri Lanka’s 125, Pakistan’s 134. Spin and mid‑innings pace changes are what have hauled back some of those games. New Zealand were 168 for two, after making 73 in the first 10 overs.
Australia won a classic, but with four group matches before the knockouts there remains work to do.
