A case for last round to be held together

2022

35 138

India's scores in the first six overs reflect the challenge for openers Opponent PAK DUTCH SA BAN

Venue Melbourne Sydney Perth Adelaide

2022

35

2914

Four of the top five bowlers with the best economy rates in this WC are pacers

258

846.4

290

Among the top ten teams, Anrich Nortje has taken the most wickets by a pacer in this World Cup. He has troubled the batters with his sheer pace

Econ

7.78

Stats:CricViz

Anrich Nortje

SR

17.5

MELBOURNE: When England step out on the Sydney Cricket Ground to face Sri Lanka on Saturday, they will know exactly what to do to qualify for the semi-finals. First, they have to win. Even a slender margin will do, considering their present net run-rate (0.547) is already enough to pip Australia (-0.173). Having squandered the chance to carve a huge win over Afghanistan on Friday, Australia now have to depend on Sri Lanka to do them a favour by beating England.

It should have been a threeway face-off on one day. Like in other sports. Instead, cricket fans are being robbed of the thrill because the ICC slotted the last round of Group 1 on two different days. They have not followed the same logic with Group 2 though. Sunday will witness all six teams playing their last match, with India slated to take on Zimbabwe in MCG in what is to be the final tie of the group league phase. But why didn’t the ICC adopt at least a similar strategy with Australia’s group?

Pressure makes the mind do many things. Had all the matches been slotted on the

ENGLAND: 2nd same day, England would have been under pressure to win, or who knows if Australia would have been even better against Afghanistan. “We’ll stay here and watch that game, hoping for a bit of an upset,” said Matthew Wade later, before owing up to the mess they had created. “We put ourselves in that situation, been trying to chase a bit of run rate but it hasn’t gone our way.”

England, on the other hand, have all the time to plan out their game. And they had no qualms in admitting the scheduling did play out in their favour after all.

“It does play to our advantage. See what happens today, and then we can adapt to whatever tomorrow requires. I guess we’re pretty confident with whatever we need to do, we’ve got the skills and firepower to do it,” said Alex Hales, their top-order T20 specialist. England won’t have to overthink this time. But net run rates can be such a knotty affair that even a run or a wicket can change things. T20 has crunched the game to a manageable format that can afford to have concurrent games to decide the best team in a standoff. But it remains to be seen if the ICC is open to making the T20 World Cup a truly fair tournament by not giving away time advantages like this.