T20 World Cup 2024: India beat Pakistan in low scoring New York thriller!

[00:00:01] Cricket Podcast. We are recording this live when we're on YouTube right after India have beaten Pakistan in what is an almost a miracle upset. I'm your host Ashwin DJ. Thanks for

[00:00:25] joining. What a bizarre day for like the first four, three and a half hours of it. I'm extending including the time with the rain delays, etc. It felt like it was not going India's way

[00:00:35] and yet we pulled off a victory. How are you doing? Where are you feeling? It's a big day. Yeah, it's great. I mean at one point India had an 8% chance of winning given to it by win

[00:00:45] predictor, which in fact I believe is even lower than the lowest point when in 2022 when Koli was batting and played that miraculous knock. I think the lowest India's for cent card was 15 if I'm not mistaken. So this is second C20 World Cup game back to

[00:01:03] back where Pakistan has had 85 plus percent probability of winning and India manages to pull it out. Sorry to interrupt. Not quite as dramatic in the circumstance. It didn't quite go to the

[00:01:14] last ball. Well, Pakistan didn't have a chance to win at the last ball. What a week it's been. Indian fans, lots of them were in New York. You could hear the sound when the wickets fell. I mean, what an incredible outcome for Indian cricket fans everywhere. I mean,

[00:01:35] beating Pakistan's special beating Pakistan in New York on a dodgy pitch after a little bit of a batting collapse where we should get into the selection and the batting. But I mean, if Melbourne was about the batting and Virat Koli playing like the magnificent innings that he

[00:01:51] did, this was surely the just breathe boom rush. The just breathe the boom rush show. I mean, it's just unbelievable. And we'll get into all of it. And actually, DJ, it has been a weird kind

[00:02:02] of week and a half or so since the World Cup started because it probably started fairly predictably not that exciting. The game's very low scoring totals pitch drama. And we'll talk

[00:02:11] about a lot of that in the second half. And it's sort of come alive in the last four or five days, if you will, right? Starting maybe with USA beating Pakistan, which was big. Then Sri Lanka, Bangladesh got close. Then Afghanistan absolutely pummeled New Zealand.

[00:02:26] And then you have England who potentially lost a point against Scotland because it was rained out. But then and then also lost to Australia as Scotland has just gone on and beaten Oman by a huge, huge margin. So there's a lot happening now that make these groups actually

[00:02:41] a lot more exciting than it looked kind of the first three, four days of the World Cup looked like it was going to be pretty tame until the superates. But we have to first talk about

[00:02:50] India versus Pakistan. I mean, how brilliant was that? I was sitting there honestly, I run a ball basically after needed after 11, 12 overs. I still thought it was a done deal because

[00:03:01] 119 was maybe 15 runs short. A lot of people who haven't watched the games at New York, by the way, probably felt like where's the 180s 200 what's going on? Those who've been watching it and

[00:03:12] early on you could immediately tell it is not a 160 plus weekend. DJ, but you thought it was a 135 weekend, right? And I promise I'll go back and get in this election and all this stuff. But you thought it was a 135 140 weekend and 119 just felt short.

[00:03:26] Yeah, I mean, it felt very short because we played, I think, and as you were probably saying it, because we were exchanging messages, I was like, I mean, punth is making this look so easy

[00:03:36] and we should get into punth. 130 seemed like, I mean, at one point it looked like we're going to get more than that. But when the wicket started falling, it felt like 130 was

[00:03:49] kind of a winning score. There's a lot to be talked about. The pitch has to be talked about. I mean, it had its own issues which will come too. But I think India were a little bit light

[00:04:00] and they did the criminal thing by not batting the entire 20 overs. Now, I mean, they were bowled out within the 20 overs. There was lots of hat trick chances. I think the Amir

[00:04:11] had one and Rao had one. And it felt like it would throw away kind of a golden chance to put this beyond Pakistan's reach by getting a 150 plus score. But not just that, it felt like we had ended

[00:04:22] up light or 120 is a runner ball, right? Like you need to score a runner ball in the IPL. I mean, that's the kind of score you'd be looking to boost your net run rate with.

[00:04:33] But as we found out, New York is a totally different kettle of fish from any of the IPL stadiums. Long boundaries, slightly dodgy pitch, swinging conditions. Let's get into it, man. Even up until maybe the last like eight or nine balls left in the chase, I didn't believe.

[00:04:51] And I think it's not that you don't, it's not that I don't have faith in this team. It's just that one or two boundaries is all it takes, right? And it takes the game away from you.

[00:04:59] But let's get away. Let's get into it. So India batted first. Obviously not the ideal situation at the toss. Incredible. Like DJ, are we just incredibly unlucky in these big game-trip situations? It's you've had great weather for days on end and suddenly it's a very

[00:05:15] cloudy morning. And it's always all the teams I think who chased it New York up until this match have won. And yeah, what is your take on that toss? Pretty important toss to have lost

[00:05:26] in hindsight. Obviously, we ended up winning the game, but you would think that's a very, very big toss for Pakistan to have won, right at that point. Yeah. And I mean, that sort of

[00:05:35] toss advantage that Pakistan had meant that India had to go hard and you saw it in the dismissals of Kohli. You saw it in the dismissal of Rohit. You saw it. All of them got out

[00:05:45] trying to make sure that they got an above power total. So we have seen good teams struggling to make kind of mediocre total 70 odd has been difficult 90. I don't know what

[00:05:56] the highest score so far that was chased has been on the New York ground. I know the stats kind of show you. But it felt like India needed to get 131.40 a score to make it competitive. And then 160 would have been like beyond, there would have been above power.

[00:06:18] But that toss did play a big part. Yeah. I mean, with four, four quicks and four excellent quicks on paper, right in the same Harris Shaheen and obviously Amir, you'd want to be bowling under those cloudy conditions.

[00:06:32] Let's talk a little bit about selection. So it was the same 11 that played in the previous match for India, which again, we haven't really talked about yet in detail. What is your take on kind of, I think that selection of three quicks made sense and

[00:06:45] Ashid Pumrasaraj was the right play. Jeneda was always sort of going to play at eight and Harzik was probably always going to play at seven. So really, what was your take on the top

[00:06:54] six? The decision to sit Jess, while out, sit Samson out and then open with Rohit and Koli and have Sky five to Shivam six kind of approach. Yeah. So it was the same 11. It was the same ground. I guess the only question I had

[00:07:12] in my mind was the Dubey role. Now if he's not going to be bowling you any overs and yes, he's the designated spin hitter, but a is New York a spin haven? Not really. Is it? I mean like you're getting quicks and Dubey has been okay against quicks,

[00:07:28] but he's had two IPL season ago weaknesses against quicks on flat decks as well. So to put him onto that track, that sort of like raised some questions in my head like, wouldn't you be better off having someone like a Yasha Swee in that with a better technique,

[00:07:45] better against quick bowling, his plate test cricket in South Africa, similar kind of spongy trampoline type bounce that he can play. And going back to Koli at three and Rohit and Yasha Swee left hand right hand opening there,

[00:07:58] but also like there were some strange decisions to send in lots of left handers. So we should talk to that as well when we come in. But selection wise, I think that was the

[00:08:07] only thing I had on my radar does Dubey deserve his spot probably yes in a Guyana or a Antigua where the ball is turning. But arguably if you just put it as

[00:08:22] two batters against spin, are you going to tell me that Yasha Swee is any worse than Dubey? We saw him take the England spinners apart in like the test series right? 14-6 is in in innings at one point. So yeah, I think that role if needed.

[00:08:41] I think from a selection standpoint, the bowling option is proving to seem like it's worth more than it is actually seeming is actually proving to be worth on the pitch. But I think the fact that he can

[00:08:51] bowl if somebody is falling, having a really bad day or if somebody gets injured, etc. But anyway, we'll come back to it because one of the things we were messaging about as well is Dubey also

[00:09:01] dropped a sitter early early on in the innings. And I will come back to it because he didn't actually field much during the IPL. And so maybe he's just shy of playing a full game,

[00:09:14] playing a full 40 overs. That's part of it. I mean, we're just talking now, this is part of the problem, right? If he's not bowling, he hasn't been fielding much. He's been playing that impact player role. Then your question becomes absolutely valid the way you're asking

[00:09:25] it is listen, does he belong in the 11 on the basis of his batting alone in a place like New York? And the answer is probably no. Now the question is, okay, if you pick a just while, then are you really going to change that composition going into the

[00:09:37] Caribbean for the super eights? So a lot of questions. But Dijay, let's get through the match then, right? So they ended up getting one over him and then went off for him, came back on.

[00:09:49] And the guy who I think before this game averaged 308 against Pakistan and T20 World Cups because he'd only ever been dismissed once, Barak gets out to Nassim. And you can immediately

[00:10:00] tell the ball is sticking on the surface. It didn't come onto him. It swung away. So he had to sort of reach and lean into a shot. He normally wouldn't would have, you know, felt like he had that

[00:10:09] little extra second to hit. And he got ends up getting out for four. And is that an ominous sign for you? Or at that point, Pant walks in and actually it still makes it look pretty easy. So you didn't realize how bad the pitch was till later.

[00:10:21] Yeah, but that's what he was saying. I was like, why is Suriya batting like this? Like, why is he unable? What is the shot? Are you like, I think Pant is just making

[00:10:29] it look batting look easy. I mean, there was one shot, I think he hit off Amir early, fairly early on in his innings, which he took the ball from outside of stomach just flipped it past

[00:10:41] like wideish midway kid. It was an outrageous shot. Yes, he plays all the falling over lap, but that was a proper cricket shot. Right? And that is the genius of Rishabh. Because

[00:10:55] yes, he does all the falling over and he laps sweeps, reverse sweeps. We saw that in the first game against Ireland, right? Where he reversed someone over the keeper. But I mean, he just made

[00:11:10] it look like a completely different surface that they were batting on. And while he was there, of course, there was a massive total on the board. I think he lost momentum halfway through.

[00:11:22] Yes, he was dropped many times as the chat has been pointing out. Let's be clear, he was dropped a few times. Pakistan's fielding initially when there was no sound was pretty poor. But Pant seems to be really settling into this number three spot, right? And

[00:11:37] this is why he scored his highest ever for the Delhi Daredevil, if you remember, 2016-2017 where he was the top scorer of them batting three. So bit of a new role for Pant, but he is proving his wit is worth and gold.

[00:11:51] I think in hindsight, you look at 42 of 31 and say it's a decent score. You look at the total being 119 and getting defended. You say it's an amazing score. But then yeah, you have to...

[00:12:00] It is one of those pitches it felt like, and I know I sound very cliched, but it felt like you have to play your natural game. And Pant's natural game is to be aggressive.

[00:12:09] And that means he has and he will make very, very poor looking single digit scores. He will. He'll make those, he'll have those knocks where he doesn't look good

[00:12:18] and he gets out and you're like, what is this guy doing? He's so talented and he had a bad day. But the good comes with the bad. And he played his natural game. And I don't think Dube did later.

[00:12:27] Now he came in a different match situation, but he was looking overly defensive and he couldn't make it count. And so full credit to Pant because 42 ended up being one of what I'm calling

[00:12:38] a couple of things in the settings that changed the trajectory of the game. The second DJ, you mentioned it, right? So Rohit looked decent before he ended up getting out to Shaheen. Akshar walked in at four. What was your take on that? Right? You're thinking Sky is now,

[00:12:51] when did the wicket, the wicket fell over at the, in the third over, it was 19 for two. Your question is, as in the third over when a wicket fall, does he use this team management

[00:13:01] and the skipper saying, Sky isn't the right guy to walk into that 17 overs? Or what do you think? And by the way, sorry, long question, you should, I should caveat Rohit made it very

[00:13:10] clear. He said nobody in our batting order is fixed other than the openers. He said this before the game. He said, we will be flexible. We will be fluid. And they made the point. They

[00:13:19] made a point of demonstrating that today. So what's your take on that? It's a proper CFO, CEO, CEO type of right? Other than us, everyone is flexible. So everybody is flexible. Colleen Rohit are fixed. Everybody else bats in random places. So no, so I didn't understand

[00:13:40] the logic of that move, but maybe I've just missed something. Now Rishabh Panthe is in his left handed. Why are you sending Akshar Patel in also who's left handed? Yes, Patel is a good batter

[00:13:49] and he can finish it. But it's Patel, the right batter to come in there if you've got a Jadeja as well. Jadeja is a better batter in my view than Akshar. So why are you saving him for the

[00:14:03] end? So I don't know what we're solving for. What was the issue that we're trying to solve for? Were we solving for left arm spin? Were we solving for...? I think you're solving for somebody who

[00:14:17] can just consolidate, to be honest. And maybe it was today, Jadeja. Maybe it was a 50-50 toss up between who they sent, to be honest. But I think you're saying Sky, Dube and Hardik

[00:14:27] to an extent are in the team to hit bigger, to pick up the base faster. And at 2.4, at 2.4 overs when that second wicket fell, I can see them saying we got to push up either Akshar

[00:14:37] or Jadeja. Now you ended up with two lefties. But it's easy to say this is an hindsight because I've actually been critical of Rohit as a captain before too, but I think he had a

[00:14:48] great day out there today. He stayed calm and made some decisions. So I'm not sure. In the field, yes. But I'm not sure about that call to push Akshar up the order. I mean, forget the Jadeja thing. Sky has opened the batting for Indians scored 100,

[00:15:00] a magnificent 100 against England. And if you're batting first and you're trying to set the pace, what are you consolidating for? Let me back 17 overs. What's the problem? I don't think there was any sign that Sky had good bats 17 overs on this pitch.

[00:15:13] I don't think anybody could. That's the point. It was a very difficult pitch to bat on. And we're underplaying that a little. But the ball was sticking. The theory that you're better should bat the most number of overs. Especially in a 20 over game.

[00:15:26] I mean, like, yeah, I get it. I still sit here saying, I understand the logic of saying, gosh, it was so hard to the ball was not coming on the bat. Punt scored most of his early runs off

[00:15:36] of edges. Right? And some of the great runs as well. Yeah. And so while Punt is at the crease, give him company with somebody who can knock the singles, get one or two. I would have gone with with Hardik for that. He's done that role for good.

[00:15:51] But hard, they get some nice sixes in the previous inning. So I think now they're looking for hard to play more of a finisher role. So we can talk about this all day, but actually played a valuable knock and I'm making 20 odd runs.

[00:16:02] This guy didn't make runs, do wait in make runs. Hardik didn't make runs. Today, I got out first ball. And you're sitting here now and boomerang out first ball. Right? Those are the two Patrick chances that you mentioned. So you're not sitting here

[00:16:13] with Arshtip and Siraj. They ended up putting on 16 between the two of them right at the end. And those could have proven match-willing runs, right? They did because we won by six. Arshtip was forming the strike against Hardik at one point. It was just great. I mean,

[00:16:30] how great is that? Right? He took a single off the last ball. Hardik was like no, Arshtip Chips ran through. It was amazing. And he backed himself. He made nine. I mean, other than getting run out. He smoked a four the next ball as well.

[00:16:40] But it really did. It made the difference. I don't know, 119 maybe would have been 124, 125 if they had batted all 20 overs. So silly to get run out at the end. But it makes a difference. All of these runs make a huge difference.

[00:16:53] You see, let's come to the chase then, right? So I mentioned this in the early and the third over Rizwan gets dropped. Rizwan is maybe... Let me start by saying Pakistan doesn't really... And it's easy to say having come off the back of two losses.

[00:17:08] But Pakistan doesn't really have any good batting on paper, right? They basically have Rizwan, a barber who's been in a little bit of a bad patch, but he's an excellent batter. And then they have Fakhar, who comes in at four. Osman Khan, Imad, Shadab, everybody's decent,

[00:17:25] but I don't think they have that quality of batting. So this match came down to Rizwan and Shivam Duvet drops him late in the third over. What was happening for you then? And then talk me through also the captaincy choices of not giving Boomerah the new ball.

[00:17:39] Because again, in hindsight, it looks amazing, but at the time we were all like, what are you doing Rohit? Why don't you have enough runs? Why are you preserving Boomerah? I mean, you're right because in hindsight, it looks great. Hindsight is 20-20, but

[00:17:50] if India had lost this game, these would be the questions. Akshar, why did he bat four? Why did we play Dube because he totally looked at C and has, in fairness, looked at C for some time since I think you guys said, since the selection in the squad.

[00:18:07] So yeah, because he didn't do anything at the back end of the IPL, right? And then the third one would have been you're defending 120 runs. How have you not given just for the new ball? Like why, what is the thinking behind that?

[00:18:23] Because you need to bowl Pakistan out as it turned out. India did not bowl Pakistan out. That is the crazy part about this. Pakistan ran out of overs to chase the runs.

[00:18:35] And the chat has just pointed out as well that this is the first time India's ever been bowled out by Pakistan in a T20 World Cup game. But your natural inclination at that point is like,

[00:18:46] not that we're going to stop them scoring the runs in the overs. You have to bowl them out to win it because you're so conditioned to think that 120 is a score that you cannot

[00:18:56] possibly defend if the other team bats the overs. And that's the logic that Pakistan utilized while batting there went. Yes, they lost Babar early to a magnificent catch by Sky.

[00:19:07] But they just said we're going to go over and run a ball and we're just going to knock these off coolly. And at one point, I mean, this could quite easily, Ashwin, if that review of Akshar

[00:19:18] had not been taken for a smart, been a game that Pakistan won by a tweak. It's at a canter. Absolutely. Like that review was taken, it was crashing into the stumps.

[00:19:30] And that then again, you said Rohit had a great day. You need to do those things. You need those little pieces of luck to go your way. I don't agree with the decision to bowl, not bowl,

[00:19:41] boom, rah with the new ball. I thought he needed wickets to put the pressure on Pakistan. Yeah. But there is in limited overs another way of winning games, which is to like put the

[00:19:53] squeeze on so hard. And Akshar, I mean, look at those figures, Akshar Patel, magnificent figures for a game where you wouldn't have thought that he'd be, what has he got? Three overs one for nine

[00:20:06] or something? Two overs one for 11. Right. So one for 11 in his couple of overs. Jadajah also bolded tight. I think it all just clicked today. It all added up even actually was a little

[00:20:17] expensive, both early on Siraj was a little expensive late with no balls and wides and stuff. But I mean, even Siraj, I think he ended up giving nine or eight or nine off one overs and then finished

[00:20:27] at 19 of his four. So everybody kind of clicked. Jaspreet Pumrah obviously is a magician. We've said this about 18 times on this show that I don't have any words left for him.

[00:20:37] I mean, he came back on for, when was it? I think it was the 40, 15th over. They brought him back on for his third and the first ball moment there's one by the way was the difference.

[00:20:49] What a brain fade. What a ridiculous shot. Yeah. I think there's, there's just something there on all of the cricketing logic dictates. This is the best. I'm going to say this is the

[00:21:00] best bowler in the world at the moment. Play him out. You have more than enough balls left. And something in his, in his mindset probably said, I don't play boomer out. I can hit him for

[00:21:09] a six even on a tough wicket and obviously proved to be wrong, proved probably to be, to have cost them the match. Now nobody else really stepped up. So I don't blame Rizwan alone,

[00:21:18] but man he could have taken his team over the line and just a white government wicket is what he was going for off Jaspreet Pumrah. I mean as Rohit Sharma as captain, you're like, okay,

[00:21:27] I've got 12 balls left for Pumrah. How do I maximize the effect of those 12 balls? And if he could have asked for one thing at that point, it would have been for Rizwan to try

[00:21:40] and hoik one across the line and lose his off term. The fact is Pumrah is good enough to know that, to know that the awe he inspires in the Pakistan cricketers might. I think some Pakistan X cricketer who was on commentary and he was talking about

[00:21:53] they are counting the number of balls for Pumrah. Maybe it was Rameez Raja or Ramesh Sahil, one of these guys I don't know who it was. But the awe that the likes of Kohli inspire in Pakistan

[00:22:03] fans and cricketers and Pumrah now inspires in Pakistan fans, I think they have that fear factor that they are just like this guy can do special things and it's a mindset thing. You've kind

[00:22:15] of lost half the battle there if that makes any sense because you're like, you're not playing the ball, you're playing the man. And so there's no cricketing logic to Rizwan swiping that one to

[00:22:31] try and hit it. He'd been batting at lesser and run a ball till then. Yeah, I mean it came down to it still looked like at the college 1213 over market still looked very doable. Then Rizwan

[00:22:42] got out and he was still thinking this is chaseable man. I mean it's a tough pitch to bat on, but when you know exactly how much you need it feels fairly chaseable. And then I mean

[00:22:52] a hardic ball to great balls of all to shout out and a phenomenal catch by the month. The month was outstanding by the way behind the way. Fantastic. Outstanding multiple. There was one where he nearly fell over the helmet is running. That's the one he was running backwards.

[00:23:07] And the Pandia. Well, yeah, but then I'm also talking about the Arshdeep went to Ahmad where he dived full length to take it like in the 19th or in the 20th or

[00:23:17] right. But that has a good comedy value after that as well. Arshdeep, what was he blind? Did he just like he missed the stuff from like here? Yeah, Arshdeep was all kinds of weird even

[00:23:28] at 19.3 or whatever it was, he hits the seams pad and just starts appealing and they go for the red. It's like, dude, like go pick up the ball while you appeal and try to stop them

[00:23:39] take the red. But anyway, different discussion. But yeah, I mean 20 needed off two overs. Boomra comes ends up giving I think three runs is what he gave off that over. So phenomenal gives Arshdeep enough to defend still though, right? Three balls left. They needed

[00:23:57] 16. Now I'm all over this. They needed 16. Which means ideally two sixes and a four and they get a four and you're thinking, okay, interesting. And Naseem Shah, by the way, has done this right? He said two sixes off two balls to win against Afghanistan at one point.

[00:24:13] Then two balls left 12 needed, two sixes needed and he swings it and like over covers and everybody's hearts in their mouth for like because if it goes for six anything is possible in the last ball. Veran Kohli is running full speed massive dive and it bounces just near

[00:24:30] him and goes for four. And it's sort of like to get that one because at that point you're saying, okay, as long as there's no extras, it's eight needed off one in this one the game. But for

[00:24:39] that moment while the ball's in the air in the off chance he hit two if he hit two sixes to win off two balls a billion and a half hearts would have been broken. It's sort of a very

[00:24:48] different episode right now. You and I are feeling it. We were almost set to do that episode one. I was prepared for it 110, 110, 119. We were set for doing it. I mean to be fair,

[00:25:00] we did plan to do an episode whatever the result. We were going to do this either way, but it's much more fun to do it after India would over pack some. 100%. But when that ball

[00:25:09] went up in the air and it's a long boundary man. Yeah, it would have been a six on an IPL ground that and that would have been a totally different game. But you could see

[00:25:18] when Kohli got up, he did a full-length dive. Kohli got up. He saw it bounce. He knew it was for he had a little smile to himself away from the camera because you knew that as long as our

[00:25:27] sheep kept his foot behind the line. That was it. That was the game. So yeah, I mean, incredible, quite an emotional game, quite a different game from a usual T20 game. Yeah, phenomenal. I mean, this is the thing we've come from 253 and like 260 runs in

[00:25:45] IPL games and stuff. And suddenly 119 is being defended. I don't think it's a great, I've been saying the low scores aren't this level of low scores and difficulty to bat is not a great

[00:25:55] advert for the game. I'm cricket especially playing in a new market trying to grow the game in the US and all that. But absolutely phenomenal. I mean, when your voters can defend 119, what an Indian does it, I'm happy about it. So it's great. It would have been different

[00:26:07] if India had failed to chase the 120 we would have been like laying into the Indian batters. But I mean, we should give credit to Hartik Pandya as well. This New York pitch, he's taken five wickets.

[00:26:20] He hits that back of a length. He's bowling bouncers. He's cramping the batsman for room. He's been, we haven't felt the need for a kind of like Jereja and Akshar have been sharing the

[00:26:34] overs, right? Yeah, he's played the fourth Seymour role to perfection and he can bat at five or six, right? And that's huge for you. He's quickly on our group and then what this means

[00:26:45] because you're now sitting here and we'll talk about, we're going to take a break and come back and talk about the rest of the games. But India and the US both have four points. India has slightly

[00:26:53] had a head on net run, right? Pakistan and Ireland have not yet opened their accounts and Canada's got two points. This blows, sort of blows the group wide open. Anything is still possible but it's looking at this point like India and the US should qualify which

[00:27:06] means Pakistan might not make it, right? What do you think? Or do you think this is going to be a way of just needing? So what does happen? Like what does Pakistan need to happen to qualify now?

[00:27:16] I think Pakistan needs to beat Canada and Ireland by huge margins. And the US needs to lose to India and Ireland by huge margins or I guess India needs to lose both but let's assume India will beat Canada, right? Let's put that aside. The US needs

[00:27:30] to lose to India and Ireland by huge margins. So now I'm coming here saying if you're Rohit and you're on track to beat the US, do you let them get some extra runs so that their net

[00:27:40] run rate doesn't get hurt too bad instead of beating them by 80 runs? Do you let them do win by six, six runs or seven runs? Obviously you're not going to do that but that would be very

[00:27:48] funny. If you're Rohit, you're just going to try and win the game, wrap it up for me and save your energy for the latter stages of the tournament which have been the real problem

[00:27:57] for your team. Yeah. All right, DJ, great chat about India and Pakistan. There have been a lot of games this week. We obviously won't cover them all. Why don't we take a quick

[00:28:04] break? We'll come back and talk a little bit about the rest of the matches that happened and wrap up the episode. Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back on the other side of this break.

[00:28:21] Welcome back to the Edges and Sliges Cricket Podcast. There are lots of you watching on YouTube right now. Hit that like button, hit that subscribe button and send us your questions. We'll try to take some of them or your questions, comments, etc. We just

[00:28:31] dropped up talking about India vs Pakistan. I'm sure we're not done. I'm sure it'll come back. We can always come back to it. It's been absolutely phenomenal. Well, DJ, a lot happened. The big game I want to talk about is also involving Pakistan,

[00:28:45] but the other big one that sort of blew this tournament alive was the US vs Pakistan. 159 runs on the board. The US made 159. Sorry, Pakistan made 159. The US comes out, not a bad total. The US comes out and for the most, almost the opposite of this match,

[00:29:04] for the most part, this looked like a very, very straightforward chase. For fairly straightforward chase, there were 104 for 1 at one point, Manang Patel and we're going to get his pronunciation wrong, but Andri's goose, the South African born cricketer, both had an absolutely magnificent

[00:29:20] partnership. Without getting into all the details, they ended up needing 15 off the last over, which suddenly felt not doable. A little bit of chaos ensues, Drop Cat, Single, Six and then a four off the last ball by Nitish Kumar in the week of an election.

[00:29:36] Nitish Kumar, who by the way has played for and I think captained Canada before in a previous World Cup now plays for the US team. It's a boundary of the last ball, gets to super over. Did you get a chance to watch the super over?

[00:29:50] Oh yeah, of course. It was the wildest thing I've ever seen. Amir bold. He just could not adjust to, I'm not going to be able to talk about all of it, but the US made a choice to send out Aaron Jones, obviously. Aaron Jones.

[00:30:05] And Harmeet Singh who hadn't batted in that game, which is different because I was saying maybe but left you had Corey Anderson available, you had lots of options, but anyway, it worked because three times Harmeet faced or at least twice. He got wide.

[00:30:21] Even out died Jack Leach in a partnership. He scored zero in that partnership. But he got his team, he got his team four runs of zero balls. There were wide and then there were four rows on wide. They were overthrows and wide as well. It was proper comedy.

[00:30:38] It was like the most school. Comedy meltdown mode. It was I mean absolutely complete schoolboy cricket. They ended up making 18 with one boundary. One fall. They hit one for the first ball. They don't hit it past third man.

[00:30:53] And then it just went into comedy meltdown mode after that. It was every time Amir bold to the left, he bold to wide down the leg side by the time they Rizwan collected and through the wall, they'd run an overthrow. This happened I think three times.

[00:31:07] Then the fourth time or twice to the left. The third time it happened to the left hander. Rizwan drove the ball. Ahmed takes it and flings it. So they get an overthrow as well. And he just like, I mean it was just symptomatic of how it had gone.

[00:31:25] Pakistan scored 159 very slowly in the first half. Baba got a runner ball 40 something. Pretty difficult conditions. They then were brought back into it by a great over by Amir. We're five run over. They then nearly had it one where in the last of our Haris Rauf like bold.

[00:31:45] The first three balls were awesome. The next three went for runs. I love Aaron Jones by the way. Every time he hits a four, he does a fist pump. Yeah, unbelievable. Is this an American fist ball? Unclear man, but it's phenomenal. It's just great to see.

[00:31:57] I'm actually waiting for India to play USM for Kohli to like copy his fist pump celebration after Aaron Jones gets gold or something. It's going to be great. It's going to be awesome. But yeah, it was great. And then Pakistan, they went into complete meltdown mode.

[00:32:11] This whole comedy, like you see these like club cricket games where kids are throwing the ball up and down and everybody is running. That's what it was. Yeah, that's what happened. And then when they came out to bat, they didn't come out to bat for nine minutes, dude.

[00:32:24] Yeah, it seems unacceptable. You should have been timed out in somewhere. Right? They were timed two batters out. It would have been over. Like ridiculous. You're supposed to be at your crease what within two minutes of your. Oh, yeah.

[00:32:37] But the change over the last week, it's falling right? So they were timed both batters. They could have timed both batters out but bizarre. Oracle engineers. So yeah, let's talk about that, right? Sort of Netramalkar who has played under 19 cricket for India. What a stat.

[00:32:53] He's been Pakistan at under 19 cricket. Unbelievable move to the US went to Cordell, I think now works full time at Oracle. I don't know how much truth there is to this, but there's a screenshot making the round. No, no. There's a screenshot being there.

[00:33:07] I said he's out of office until June 17th. But I mean, he then takes some work time off full credit by the way. Oracle has gotten as now announced or tweeted saying how proud they are of him and how much they support and all that great stuff.

[00:33:20] But unbelievable, right? Like this is every Indian kid's nightmare, right? Because every Indian mother is saying, look at that guy. He's got a master's degree from Cordell. He works full time at Oracle and he plays World Cup winning cricket for an international side. I mean, phenomenal. Absolutely phenomenal.

[00:33:36] Great. It was unbelievable actually. If India had lost this game to Pakistan and needed the USA game as a must win by a big, imagine I would have been a lot more nervous about our openers facing this lefty quick because he's great.

[00:33:51] Now some of them have played with him, but he's excellent. So phenomenal made 13. I mean, Defended 19 got 13, gave them only 13 for one in the over. We talked a little bit about this group before we move on to serve some of the

[00:34:03] other groups and at least one other big result I wanted to talk. DJ, what lies ahead for Babarazam? Pakistan has gone through some captaincy chaos. You have to think right now.

[00:34:13] I mean, I want to go watch some of our peers who are podcasting right now to see what the Pakistani point of view is, but it's obviously not going to be good. Right? Ours wouldn't have been good if we couldn't chase down 120.

[00:34:24] What's next for Babarazam and where did they go? Who do they make captain next? Who's next in line? How does Pakistan cricket come together if they don't make the super? But this must be the worst week in Pakistan cricket for a long time.

[00:34:37] It's like maybe the match fixing, spot fixing scandal or something to lose to India. By the way, the jokes that were flying when Abir bought three wide in a super offer. I won't say anything more. That means you're pretty mean actually.

[00:34:54] Like there was one who said like, no ball, I won't do wide. Yeah, it's just it was so pretty. And there was one that said, they took them nine minutes because he was calling his bookie in Vegas making some. Ouch.

[00:35:08] No, I mean, obviously he brought them back into the game to be jokes apart. He just like melted under the pressure and but like think about it from the spot fixing scandal Pakistan has not been at such a low for a really long time.

[00:35:26] I think this is going to be a watershed moment in that D20 cricket. I think they are just going to have to bite the bullet. They're going to have to say, you know what?

[00:35:34] You guys, you play this cricket, you played one day cricket and you play already at a T20 cricket. I think this one is the number one T20 batter in the world right now. I should check. Yeah.

[00:35:48] I think he is but are they playing T20 cricket in the modern way? Look at the Australia game. David won a top scorer that game. 200 plus game, the only 200 plus score. The number one T20 batting ranking in the world ranked ranked batter in the world is Surika Mahayana.

[00:36:05] Thank you very much. Okay. Okay. Number two is Phil Salt. Rizwan is three and Baba is four. Right? So they got two of the top four. Yeah. But are they playing T20 cricket in the way it's meant to be played like Mitch Marsh.

[00:36:18] Are you implying they're just playing Zimbabwe and piling up runs? No. Baba is not playing at this World Cup so maybe that's part of the issue. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Sikandar Raza took a really good catch by the way in the T20 blast.

[00:36:31] If you guys haven't seen that go and watch that but they need to take a hard call with their cricket. Pakistan cricket has always been riddled with a lot of politics and board issues and infighting and announcements. It's not run professionally. It's run basically on talent. Right.

[00:36:46] And it's obviously there will be brilliant talent in there. It's just not going to come to the fore if it's not being administered correctly. But you've got to take a long hard look and say like is the PSL, yes they don't get to play the IPL.

[00:37:00] Is the PSL good enough? I mean they don't really have a choice do they? But they were the runners up at the last World Cup and they did have a ridiculous loss to a small team which I can't remember which was now.

[00:37:15] Who did they lose to last time? Man if you don't remember I don't remember. They definitely lost to... I think they lost to Zimbabwe maybe. That was the whole Pac-Bean thing that happened. Oh yeah of course in the World Cup.

[00:37:25] They did lose to Zimbabwe last time in the World Cup. Man Pac-Bean, that's a great number. Yeah anyway it'll be interesting to see. I don't think... I think Babar would be criticized. It'll be interesting to see if he keeps his position as captain.

[00:37:37] Obviously he belongs in the side for his batting but it'll be very interesting. So DJ very interesting group aid and amic. Because unless the US loses by a huge margin to both India and Ireland by the way Ireland have looked pretty hapless.

[00:37:49] So from what we've seen so far the US should beat Ireland and if that happens I think no result can get Pakistan through which is huge. Group B also very interesting because England and Scotland shared points.

[00:38:03] We now have a situation at the time of recording this where Oman is eliminated. Scotland has got five points, Australia has got four and Namibia has two, England only has one because they haven't won yet. Now England plays Oman and Namibia next.

[00:38:15] So let's assume they win both those. They're at five. Assuming Australia beat Namibia and or Scotland, you have a situation where England and Scotland will be tied at five points. That's the most likely scenario at this point

[00:38:29] and Scotland's net run rate right now is 2.1 and England's is minus 1.8. So really it comes down to Scotland don't have to beat Australia. They just have to not lose by a huge margin and hope England doesn't make 300 against Oman and get them 16 or louder something crazy

[00:38:46] and England might be out of this World Cup too which is just absolutely wild to think about. Defending Chalmers? Yeah, which is just crazy. This is the thing with this format too. Honestly, Varunay did the preview where he said Australia and England should make it through.

[00:38:59] We weren't really factoring in that Scotland could walk away with a point from rain and that could change the entire dynamic. I'll come back to Group C because that's the last patch I want to talk about. Group D fairly predictably South Africa's on top.

[00:39:10] A little bit of a scare against the Netherlands to be honest. It looked like they might shake there after having lost to the Netherlands twice, but one guy you wanted at the end to finish a game for you is David Miller and he did it yet again.

[00:39:21] And Bangladesh Sri Lanka, I mean Sri Lanka sitting languishing at the bottom. I don't expect any major surprise, but it'll be interesting to see which of Sri Lanka or Bangladesh can make it through in that second-sword and Group D. But Nagin too went to Bangladesh. Bangladesh, yeah.

[00:39:37] If Bangladesh loses to South Africa by a huge margin or comes short against Netherlands or Nepal, let's remember Bangladesh just lost a series to the US. So it is very possible that somebody wobbles in there. So I think this group could be really interesting.

[00:39:50] Let's talk quickly DJ about Group C. The three big teams are Afghanistan, the West Indies and New Zealand. It is early because New Zealand's only played one game, but a loss by 84 runs. I mean Afghanistan got New Zealand 75 all out.

[00:40:06] Didn't New Zealand play the last T20 World Cup final? No, England and Pakistan played it too. Oh, they played it in New Zealand, played it in 21. 20, yes because Australia beat them. Yes. Yeah, that's not that long ago. And Afghanistan is obviously a force on the world stage.

[00:40:26] By the way, Baron predicted that Afghanistan wouldn't make the playoffs. So I'm bringing this back up. I mean, it's fair to predict the West Indies and New Zealand. What do you think happens in this group now? Like it's absolutely blown wide open for me too because

[00:40:40] Afghanistan absolutely crushing New Zealand means New Zealand has three must win games essentially and must win by a huge margin. So I think New Zealand are rusty. Yeah. I think Afghanistan are going to go through. I think they're just like a well oiled T20 machine. They just know.

[00:41:01] Fuzzle Huck Faruki is the top wicketaker of this tournament. He's got to be. I'm sure I haven't looked at this yet. He's got to be. He picked up a 5-4 in the first match and 3 in the next. And by the way, 5-9 in four overs. Yeah, fantastic.

[00:41:18] What a spell granted it against Uganda who's playing their first World Cup. But unbelievable. Phenomenal. But you've got him. You've got Naveen, another IPL player. You've got Rashid, you've got Mujib. You've got Gerbaz who's smacking it everywhere. It's like it is a good T20. Mohammed Nabi.

[00:41:39] He's like an afterthought for me. I think he's beaten 45 countries in his career or something crazy like that. That's because he's played so much and so cricket. Yeah. He's played like global level cricket. I think it's 10. Like beaten 50.

[00:41:51] That's more than most Indian players will have will ever be in there. It's insane right? By the way, Fazal Hook's World Cup figures today are 9 for 26. Not bad. I think they're going through. I think the West Indies have been a little disappointing for me.

[00:42:09] Nicky P on Moss is doing Nicky P things. So Netrunner, it gets really weird here because Uganda lost their first match by 125 and their second by 134. So the margins of victory gets so confusing in your playing teams that are

[00:42:23] there's a much bigger delta because New Zealand could easily. That's where what we were talking about earlier, which is rain could play apart. I don't know which games may have washouts because you don't get a net turn rate change or effect in games which are washed out.

[00:42:39] He just played at the point. So if a Ugandan game is washed out, that is a disaster for any of the teams that are playing them because they lose an opportunity to boost the net turn rate massively. So yeah. Very, very interesting.

[00:42:53] I'm actually backing New Zealand and Afghanistan to go through there. You think the West Indies are going out of their whole world cup? I think New Zealand is out. That was my prediction at the beginning and it stays. I think West Indies and Afghanistan.

[00:43:07] New Zealand are just a good side. I mean, I think they were rusty. They came across and they'll get together. I mean, Kane Williamson, I think exemplified the entire thinking of the New Zealand team.

[00:43:17] I think he guided like a Rashid Khan into slip, like literally like catching practice. They've just come along playing right by the looks of it. I'm just saying there's a world where both the Afghanistan and West Indies teams end up at six points.

[00:43:31] And so even if New Zealand win all three of their matches by a big margin, they need to win by a huge margin, I think, to actually have a chance. So there's a world where they win three out of four,

[00:43:42] but because they got 75 all onto Afghanistan, that was such a big loss that it takes a lot of digging. So yeah, but the West Indies have already played the easy games, right? They haven't played any tough games. Yeah.

[00:43:52] So they have to win one of New Zealand or Afghanistan, right? Assume Afghanistan will be Papua New Guinea. Yeah. But if West Indies lose to both New Zealand and of course, then New Zealand will probably make it through. So it's going to be interesting. Right.

[00:44:07] DJ India's two matches as we wrap up, India's last two matches coming up Wednesday. They play or June 12th. They play the United States and June 15th. They play against Canada, but should be both should be relatively easy matches. Who are you supporting for those games?

[00:44:21] I mean, I'm team India all the way. But if the US or Canada make it through Canada's looking unlikely, they'll be the second team I cheer for. And they're like, they're like, you would CSK for me because I lived in Canada most of my life.

[00:44:31] I live in the US now. But yeah, it's like you're always going to cheer for Delhi, but if Delhi start playing then you cheer for CSK, right? Yeah, in most cases. Yeah. That's going to be true for me.

[00:44:41] As long as I mean also just also just the US story is so great. Like it's going to be great to see them make it through. It is amazing. Like I do feel quite jealous of these guys have carried on playing their

[00:44:52] to international level and they play against some of the guys they played against as maybe not. I think he's like, man, you never know. If you remember is Robin Utdapar's generation, I think. Probably. I dare a place he's played Mumbai.

[00:45:06] Like he beat Pakistan 14 years ago as an under 19 player. Yeah. Yeah. So Utdapar generation makes sense. He's like 30. I don't know, man. Maybe if you hadn't ended up in England, you could have been doing this for Lithuania or something. You could have been playing. Yeah. I don't know.

[00:45:21] I don't know whether Lithuania would make it to the World Cup. Italy has a decent team. So what would I do in Lithuania, man? I mean, that's I'm there. I do finance law for a living. You don't think they have finance? Finance law.

[00:45:32] I'm sure I do, but like it's a different legal system. That's fair. DJ, that brings us to a wrap. Great, great to come live right after India's been Pakistan. Very weird kind of a win.

[00:45:42] Not Kohli hitting a winning boundary or six right across in the VE and this and none of that stuff. Defending 19 teams, crappy, efficient, bowling heavy, but that's been kind of the tail of this World Cup so far. Yeah. And winning is winning and winning ugly is still winning.

[00:45:59] I know you're a Djokovic fan, but Al-Kharaz has won the French Open today, right? Yeah. Big day. I mean, I'm equally and I don't want to get get distractibles, but I'm equally happy that Zverev didn't win. I'm not a fan of his.

[00:46:13] So it was a big day for Zverev to not win, but Al-Kharaz won his third grand slam title. But actually you mentioned winning ugly because that's the title of Brad Gilbert's book, right? It's not the best players. He says don't win the perfect, pretty games.

[00:46:28] They're the ones who can find victories even when you're having an off day and even when the conditions are not supportive, etc. But you get it done. And I would rather India win games like this and prepare for knockout games

[00:46:41] than just cruise the knockout stage, cruise to the knockout stages and then be five for three. Man, I had the opposite thought when we were losing. I was like, good, let's get our losses out of the system. Don't go to the knockouts or to the super eights undefeated.

[00:46:53] And but listen, we all rationalize however we do. Congratulations to Team India fans. Big, big day in the bag. It's been a good World Cup. Like I said, started slow, but it's come alive. Send us your messages. Everybody we're at one tip, one hand on all the socials.

[00:47:07] Hit the like button, hit that subscribe button on YouTube. Leave your comments below. We read every single one of them. We love to engage with them. And we'll be back next week to talk more about who's going to make the super eights

[00:47:16] and almost feels like the start of an entirely new tournament because you have different groups and different matches coming to life. DJ, thank you for joining me. Always fun to talk after any of your specs and victory. And thank you everybody for listening.

[00:47:28] We will see you next week on the edges and slug is free podcast.