Bags packed, nowhere to go: Aussies in self-inflicted limbo | cricket.com.au

Their bags are packed, but they don’t know where they are going.

As Australia prepared to cheer on Bangladesh in the World Cup’s final Super Eight match to keep their tournament hopes alive, there was an overriding sense their self-inflicted state of limbo has come about from shortcomings that have nothing to do with either batting or bowling.

Their five wins in the first two weeks of the tournament have all but been overridden by a second defeat in the space of 40 hours, as a Rohit Sharma-led Indian batting line-up cleverly adapted to a windy St Lucia ground before their impenetrable bowling attack turned the screws.

But on a pitch where 190 had roughly been deemed a par score, Australia were yet again rueing a costly error amid a spate of fielding performances Josh Hazlewood declared to be well short of expectations.

Mitch Marsh, who put down three difficult catches at the same ground against Scotland, failed to cling on to a ballooning chance off a Hardik Pandya top-edge that bobbled off his hands and into the turf after a second attempt.

Pandya, one of T20 cricket’s most dangerous power hitters, went on to clear the fence twice to finish on 27no from 17 balls. India reached 5-205 but could have ended up closer to, or even below, that magical 190 mark had the catch been taken.

Against Afghanistan not a full two days earlier, the Aussies put down five tough chances – all harder than Marsh’s on Monday – that allowed their opponents to post 6-148, a similarly just-above-par total.

Contrast it with Marsh, soon after the Pandya drop, being the victim of Axar Patel’s brilliant boundary-line one-hander. It came just as the Australia captain looked to be hitting his straps for the first time in the tournament, having made Arshdeep Singh pay for putting him down on five by launching a six out of the stadium two balls later.

“It hasn’t been good enough. I’m not sure what you can put it down to,” Hazlewood said of Australia’s fielding after the 21-run loss.

“The guys are always working as hard as ever on their fielding at training but there might not be as many opportunities to work on it at these tournaments. You’re always travelling and playing. But it hasn’t been good enough for the last few games in particular.

“One thing I guess here it’s very, very windy. It’s just as hard catching into the wind as it is down breeze, as we saw today with India as well. So you see some really good fielders drop catches.

“It’s out of the ordinary but you put all that together – new stadium, windy – they’re not excuses, but I guess it’s something.”

The frustrating part for Australia is their star players have continued to deliver strong performances even in their defeats.

Hazlewood was speaking after returning remarkable figures of 1-14 from four overs. The other four bowlers’ 16 overs cost 191.

Pat Cummins and Adam Zampa unusually copped some tap against India, but both have been integral to getting their side to this point; Cummins took consecutive hat-tricks in the preceding two games, while Zampa’s 14 wickets are the most by a spinner in this tournament.

Glenn Maxwell’s outrageous skill against spin has been on display against Afghanistan and India, while Travis Head put India’s suffocating bowling attack on toast for much of his 43-ball 76, one of his finest knocks in the format for his country.

Head was more circumspect in assessing their fielding woes.

“It’s just one of those things, when you set such a high standard and you keep that standard for a long period of time there’s always going to be dips in performance,” he said.

“That’s no different than bat and ball. Guys go through periods of their cricket when you would like to bat or bowl better, and fielding is the same. It probably goes a bit unnoticed until you string a couple of (bad) performances together, but everyone is working hard.”

There has been little time for the Australians to process their back-to-back defeats. They were up early after the late finish to their night game against Afghanistan to make their flight from St Vincent to St Lucia, followed by a 90-minute drive from the airport.

They had to swiftly adjust their body clocks for the 10.30am start to the India match. No other team in the tournament has been subjected to the night game, travel day, morning game sequence that Australia have here.

If Bangladesh do beat Afghanistan to put Australia through to the final four, they will have to front up against South Africa less than 48 hours later in Trinidad.

Hazlewood refused to blame the short turnaround as a factor in their recent missteps.

“I think it was fine. You play international cricket and you’re always travelling,” he said. “I think the guys came ready this morning and we played pretty well for the majority of the game, I think they were just a bit more clinical a few areas. That’s part of the game.”

For now, Australia must play the waiting game. They expect to watch the Bangladesh-Afghanistan game as a team (venue unknown) but may be getting weary by the time the outcome is known, possibly after midnight local time.

“It’s pretty raw at the moment,” said Head. “There’s a lot of hypotheticals, there’s a lot going on, so pack our stuff and get out of here and see how it pans out.

“I think we’ll get as a group and see what happens and see where the night takes us. But it’s hard to know what we’re going to do just yet.”

2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup

Australia’s squad: Mitch Marsh (c), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa

Australia’s Group B fixtures

June 6: Beat Oman by 39 runs

June 9: Beat England by 36 runs

June 12: Beat Namibia by nine wickets

June 16: Beat Scotland by five wickets

Australia’s Super Eight fixtures

21 June: Beat Bangladesh by 28 runs (DLS)

23 June: Lost to Afghanistan by 21 runs

25 June: Lost to India by 24 runs

Semi-finals to follow if Australia qualify

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