Three Changes That Helped Turn Australia's T20 Fortunes Around

I guess in the long run it is an upset that Australia defeated India in the second of three T20I matches overnight. A shock perhaps. India had managed seven consecutive victories over Australia in this format of the game, stretching back to 2012, and given the number of players unavailable for the Australian team it didn’t appear likely that they would be troubling the scorers any time soon. Perhaps in the long run there are three major reasons for the change up of result, and perhaps reasons for looking ahead in regards to the T20 format in order to improve the Australian output.

Number 1: David Warner is installed as captain. With Steve Smith rehabilitating his shoulder before the start of the Ashes series in November, Warner has been given the captaincy of the team for this series. As vice-captain for Australia in all formats of the game it was not a surprise, but what is more compelling is that he has spent the past two years as captain of the Sunrisers Hyderabad team in the Indian Premier League. He knows this form of the game better than most, and his captaincy has been inventive and encouraging. That he is captain of Australia here is perhaps a better move than having Smith there. New ideas, different ideas, giving a team a better chance of victory. The team would be better having Smith in the line-up, but perhaps the different take on the captaincy is also providing a different mindset.

Number 2: Picking a winning bowling line-up. The Perth Scorchers has been the best all-round team over the history of the Big Bash League in Australia. They have made most of the finals, and they seem to be able to win the toughest matches. One wonders why with such form that it has taken so long for the pieces of that team’s bowling attack to finally be installed in the national team? Last night the opening three bowlers for Australia were Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Coulter-Nile and Andrew Tye. All three ply their trade with the Scorchers. All three did their jobs immaculately last night. Behrendorff’s spell of 4/27 from four overs, where he took the top half of the batting order off at the waist, was exactly the kind of performance Australia’s selectors and fans have been waiting for from him. It was bravado of the best kind. Coulter-Nile has been superb, and Tye did his job again. Was it coincidence, or was it the happy course of events that gave these three Scorchers the chance to bowl together in the national team? Time may be the one who answers, but one suspects it is the Scorchers link that is the most prevalent.

Number 3: Moises Henriques given his chance. There is little doubt that Warner being captain has created this little gem. While Henriques’ has been a team mate and captain of Warner at New South Wales for some years, Warner is also Henriques’ captain at Hyderabad, and Henriques mostly batted at three in that team. Last night, his captain elevated him to the crucial number three spot, and he didn’t let his captain down. Moises has been on the periphery of the national team for almost a decade, and his fleeting opportunities have not shown the best of his ability. Last night he and Travis Head (another IPL luminary) steadied the Australia chase of 119 from 2/13, and got the runs themselves with few problems. Head’s 48 from 34 balls was much like he has shown over the past 12 months in the ODI set-up. But it was Henriques’ innings that proved to be most potent. 62 runs from 46 deliveries, with four boundaries and four sixes. It was like the kind of innings he put together for Hyderabad. His captain’s faith was rewarded with victory, while Henriques showed what he is capable of when given the right opportunity. There is still time for him to parlay that into other sections of cricket at international level.

Scorecard: 2nd T20I India vs Australia

Rain Draws a Picture of a Cricketing Farce In T20

The continuing farce that is international T20 cricket continued this morning, when rain caused the 1st T20I between India and Australia to a reduced run chase for the home team batting second, and confining the result to one that will please the home fans but few others. As the game of cricket continues to be pulled and twisted into forms that not only strip most of the combative and interesting parts of the game all in the name of having it done quickly – and in the eyes of some more belligerently – we have now come to the stage where a rain-shortened game becomes more like an after-training hit for a country grade team than an international contest.

Obviously it is not an ideal situation for administrators. Once the match has commenced, they have to ensure they get a ‘result’ in the match, not for the glory of cricket but in order to keep the money that the patrons have paid to come into the ground to watch the farcical situation unfold. The fact that it is deemed proper that a game that has already been reduced to twenty over s per team can then be decided by one team having to chase an imaginary figure plucked out of the air in SIX overs in just rubbish. Surely no one can see this as a game of cricket. It becomes a sideshow act, one where no team is the winner, no matter who might be declared as such after the bowling of 36 deliveries. But, in order to satisfy the crowd in the ground and the television audience – and most importantly, the sponsors – this kind of manufactured result has to be found.

Australia wasn’t good enough with the bat, no matter what the final wash up. 160 is par score almost everywhere in the world in T20 cricket, and 8/118 off 18.4 overs before the rain came just isn’t going to win games at this level. Apart from Finch no one got going. Warner chopped on again in the first over to put the team behind the eight ball immediately. Maxwell, Head and Henriques all threw their wickets away with indiscreet shots. Tim Paine, on his return to international duties, was dropped twice and missed stumped all in one over. Given this performance it was probably a minor miracle that when the game was reduced to 6 overs for the chase that India’s target was so high.

As it turned out, India celebrated victory and a continued dominance over Australia on their home soil. For lovers of the game, the rain induced result just brought further concern as to how much the glorious game of cricket is being watered down – no pun intended – in order to make it a festival rather than an absorbing contest between bat and ball.

Scorecard: 1st T20I: India vs Australia