26th Match - Australia v Bangladesh

[stephen]

I actually thought that NCN bowled better than I've seen him bowl all tournament. He at least looked somewhat threatening at times and was able to get a bit of swing. Still, imagine how much stronger Australia's squad would look with Marsh in over Stoinis, Hazlewood in over Behrendorff and a spinner who was somewhere around the quality of Tahir.

I don't know what's happened to Zampa, his confidence seems really low. He was bowling beautifully in the List A comp last spring.

 

[mr_mister]

Yeah when the game is out of reach it can take the pressure off a side and they can score freely. Kenya got their highest team total at world cups chasing Sri Lankas 395 in '96 iirc

I feel like if the target was 350 Bangas would have bottled it under pressure. The game against the windies excepted, they're historically pretty bad once in winnable positions right?

 

[Athlai]

Yeah when the game is out of reach it can take the pressure off a side and they can score freely. Kenya got their highest team total at world cups chasing Sri Lankas 395 in '96 iirc

I feel like if the target was 350 Bangas would have bottled it under pressure. The game against the windies excepted, they're historically pretty bad once in winnable positions right?

I don't really agree, Rahim, Shakib, Tamim and Marmadoola can all perform under pressure and they were the source of most of the runs.

 

[quincywagstaff]

Heard Darren Lehmann say on the radio pre-match last night that he thought this Oz attack was better than 2015 which I found pretty bizarre.

That's underselling how incredible Starc was at that time (especially with the new ball), underrating Hazlewood, underrating what a bonus it was to have Johnson (even if slightly past his peak) as first change and perhaps more significantly how smart a bowler Faulkner was back then.

Sure, it had less on the spin front but it didn't need it.

 

[Athlai]

Haha yeah it's a remarkable take, the Australian attack looks far more pedestrian than it has in years. I think New Zealand's attack might be a smidge better than Australia's at the moment, and ours is worse than it was in 2015 which was inferior then to the Aussie 2015 lineup.

 

[zorax]

I said it earlier in the thread, BD can chase 320-330. Letting Warner off early was huge, and they were just sloppy all game. If they tightened up and took that chance, they very likely would have been chasing something in that range, and that would be interesting. You can say Australia had their foot off the gas in the second innings, but so did the BD batsmen.

 

[Athlai]

Yeah they had 80 to get off the last 30 balls and they ended up only scoring 30 odd. Bangers could have certainly got to 350 from that position maybe 25% of the time with a set Marmadoola and Rahim.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Heard Darren Lehmann say on the radio pre-match last night that he thought this Oz attack was better than 2015 which I found pretty bizarre.

That's underselling how incredible Starc was at that time (especially with the new ball), underrating Hazlewood, underrating what a bonus it was to have Johnson (even if slightly past his peak) as first change and perhaps more significantly how smart a bowler Faulkner was back then.

Sure, it had less on the spin front but it didn't need it.

Not even close IMO. I also reckon Clarke and Haddin (despite what I think of them as blokes) were much better than Finch and Carey at marshalling the fielding and bowling.

 

[Burgey]

I think Finch has been pretty good given what he has to work with tbh. His captaincy vs the Windies was first rate - bowling out Starc and Cummins was gutsy AF. Even last night he went for Maxwell in the ninth over to get a few overs out of the way as soon as possible while defending a massive total. He just doesn't have the options available to him with Zampa bowling tripe, the fifth bowler being two part timers and the third seamer up til last night being expensive.

But this "if only the Bangers had been a bit more disciplined etc, they'd have won', is just too simplistic. Always is. There's a million stories in the naked city of an ODI. Finch taking the piss and resting Starc after two overs and bowling Maxwell early is but one of them, and is conditional on how many runs he had to play with. No way he does that defending 70-80 less. Warner's catch is held early, Smith comes in and bats long, NCN doesn't move like an 80 yo at long off, he catches Shakib in Maxwell's second over etc etc.

I mean, we all do it. If only Sharma had been caught early against Australia, or Carey catches Pandya is another one. But then you'd get Kohli or Dhoni in.

The best you can say is the losing sides had chances and failed to take them. Whether they'd have ultimately won is a different hill of beans.

 

[zorax]

I think Finch has been pretty good given what he has to work with tbh. His captaincy vs the Windies was first rate - bowling out Starc and Cummins was gutsy AF. Even last night he went for Maxwell in the ninth over to get a few overs out of the way as soon as possible while defending a massive total. He just doesn't have the options available to him with Zampa bowling tripe, the fifth bowler being two part timers and the third seamer up til last night being expensive.

But this "if only the Bangers had been a bit more disciplined etc, they'd have won', is just too simplistic. Always is. There's a million stories in the naked city of an ODI. Finch taking the piss and resting Starc after two overs and bowling Maxwell early is but one of them, and is conditional on how many runs he had to play with. No way he does that defending 70-80 less. Warner's catch is held early, Smith comes in and bats long, NCN doesn't move like an 80 yo at long off, he catches Shakib in Maxwell's second over etc etc.

I mean, we all do it. If only Sharma had been caught early against Australia, or Carey catches Pandya is another one. But then you'd get Kohli or Dhoni in.

The best you can say is the losing sides had chances and failed to take them. Whether they'd have ultimately won is a different hill of beans.

I think of it more mechanically than the way you're painting it. I've seen this BD unit bowl and field when they're switched on, and they usually manage to keep decent batting lineups in check. They were sub-par yesterday and as a result were left chasing 380. Had they been switched on and at their best, they're probably chasing something closer to 320-330. That was the prediction I made at the start when they lost the toss. Now, maybe that catch is held, Fizzy takes a five-fer and BD are chasing 180. Maybe TPC tons up and they're chasing 340. Maybe Maxwell comes in and ruins everything and they're chasing 400. Who knows. But if you were to replay this game over a million times and average out the results, then IMO, a good performance from BD sees them chasing 320-330.

And again, would they have actually chased that? Who knows. But play out the BD batting lineup vs the Aus bowling lineup a million times, and I believe they chase it down fairly often. Maybe 30-40% of the time. Maybe even 50% of the time if you consider the confidence and form they're carrying into this game. They wouldn't be favourites, but it would be very possible.

I'm just disappointed they showed up and didn't deliver the kind of performance they're capable of in the field. Had they done so, there's a good chance they're set a target that they can chase. But they just didn't give themselves that chance to win with the way they played the first 50 overs.

 

[Burgey]

Yeah there's no question they were very poor in the field. Couple of key injuries may have taken some sting out of them, but they should have been up for it given what was riding on the game. I'd have said they might have been a bit sort of stage struck with the way they bowled and fielded, but that wasnt' reflected in their batting so that wasn't it. Just didn't turn up with the ball

 

[Spark]

If anything they seemed to complacent in the field and taking it a bit too easy, as if it only dawned on them late that they were careening towards conceding a gargantuan score.

 

[zorax]

If anything they seemed to complacent in the field and taking it a bit too easy, as if it only dawned on them late that they were careening towards conceding a gargantuan score.

Yea this is what I felt as well. I think they just aren't used to what winnings games in a World Cup feels like. I think they were still riding high on all the success vs WI and SA, and were finding it hard to dig deep and be desperate in the field vs. Aus. Almost like they were just satisfied with knowing they're good enough. They couldn't bring themselves to perform and prove it.

They really need to bring it now for these next 3 games if they're serious about making the Semi-finals, but I'm worried that some part of the squad is quietly satisfied with finishing 5th or 6th out of 10.

 

[Burgey]

In other news though, how juicy is the Archer v Finch/Warner clash going to be next week? Finch is just ****ing imperious atm and Archer seems like he can go up a gear almost anytime he wants to.

 

[trundler]

I'm hoping for some clouds. Hope England's monotonous hitters are exposed.

 

[Burgey]

They will choke. It's just a question of whether it starts next week at Lord's or they wait until the finals. But it will happen.

 

[trundler]

Bangers have been a lot less lolworthy, that Mush ****up Vs NZ notwithstanding. I'm just glad they've at least tried most of the time. Could've bombed it with the bat last night but didn't.

 

[the big bambino]

Every Stoinis boundary/wicket eats up my will to live

Maybe that’s why we keep picking him. Damned if I can find another reason.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Soumya looked like a handy little bowler. Reminded my a little of a Greg Blewett-type. Probably never bowled much before because Bangladesh play on dustbowls and slow-low wickets so often.

 

[artvandalay]

australia will still be quite the contender going into the semis. 3 games now where they've comfortably defended scores with the WI one being the standout and also their top order all scoring runs and in form. They were never in real danger against either Pakistan or yday of losing imo. It's mainly Stoinis (with bat and ball)and Zampa who might prove to be the problem for them but then too i see starc and cummins as a guaranteed 20 overs of top quality bowling which obviously should help cushion the blow of whatever the others concede. If they were to play Nzl for example id back them to win it even though this is a shadow of even the 2015 squad what with the mental hold they have on them.