This week Ashwin and DJ discuss India’s win over the USA and wrap all the other big news of the #T20WorldCup2024 league stage. India take on Afghanistan on Thursday plus a preview of the super eights and knock-out stages.
[00:00:01] Cricket Podcast. I'm your host Ashwin. I'm joined by DJ. DJ, we are almost at the Super Eight stage of the World Cup. At the time of recording, the seven of the eight teams are through with the eighth most likely being Bangladesh, but the Netherlands is still
[00:00:26] alive and with some chance. How are you feeling, man? It's been a little bit of an up-and-down World Cup. We've had super low scoring games and we've had some thrillers and then some interesting points table dead avocs, which we'll talk about. But how are
[00:00:37] you feeling? Yeah, it's been a bit of a weird week. I mean, after the height of the India-Pakistan game, which we thought had set the tournament alight, let's say this week was a little
[00:00:47] bit of a literal damp squib in some cases with flash floods and rain and games washed out without a ball being bowled. There were some surprise knockouts, which we should talk about. As you said, some thrillers and yeah, I think I'm just about ready for the
[00:01:06] business end of the tournament to kick off being the Super Eights. But I'm not sure I'm a big fan. I mean, yeah, you should have lots of teams playing the World Cup.
[00:01:15] I'm not sure I'm a big fan of this extended league stage where lots of games end up being dead rubbers with the main teams having qualified. Yeah, I've been doing a lot of soul searching on that too. And I'm very interested in
[00:01:25] if you're listening to this on YouTube, leave us a comment or message us on social media at one to one because we love to hear your point of view. But I've enjoyed having more teams, to be honest. It has been great. It's really important for the growth of
[00:01:38] the game. And it does mean look at how much it means for teams like Canada and the US to be playing India or Namibia to get to play Australia, etc. It means a lot. I think right now we're probably at the stage in World Cup cricket
[00:01:50] where the sweet spot might be 16. 20 feels like a lot of teams. Like you have, you know, not to nitpick on some of them, but Papua New Guinea, Oman, Uganda to an extent, although Uganda did beat Papua New Guinea. I mean, they've seemed like
[00:02:10] it's very, very one sided. So I'm supportive of the qualification stages, etc. I do think, you know, less than 16 means we would have missed out the ability to watch some of the heroics from Namibia and some of the Nepal greatness. Again, that's necessarily always materialized in points, but
[00:02:26] that's kind of where I'm coming from. Does that make sense? No, I agree. I think there are some teams that are closer to the kind of more established teams. I think the US, Canada and Nepal run South Africa very close. Netherlands have been doing decently. Afghanistan are no
[00:02:45] longer even a mino. I mean, Afghanistan are one of the contenders at the moment, right? I mean, they could go all the way in this Cup. Yeah. Yeah. A few years ago they would have been playing the qualifying
[00:02:54] tournament, the pre-tournament before the tournament itself. So I do like the expanded version of it, but I think there's a little bit of a gulf between some of those teams which doesn't make for great viewing. I mean,
[00:03:06] it's good for the game, but I mean, I'm not sure how many people tuned in to watch, as you said, Uganda versus PNG, right? Yeah. I think that's exactly it. Right. So let's run through. I mean, there's no perfect answer, to be honest. There's schools of thought
[00:03:19] that say you should have even more teams and let the next year, the Italy's and those kinds of teams in the world also play. And there's schools of thought that say the World Cup should be the best of the best.
[00:03:29] And I think, you know, they've tried to find a sweet spot and I think the format will continue to evolve. Yeah. I mean, the Euros are on and that's got more teams than like the...
[00:03:38] And you have one side in group stage games, but then you go to a bracket style knockout. It's fascinating. Which makes it exciting. Yeah. All right, DJ, let's run through the point, the teams, the groups, the points table, and then we'll talk through some of the
[00:03:51] games. So group A, not a huge surprise in A1, finishing A1 is India and finishing in second place was the surprise, which is the United States. So we'll come back and talk to specifics in a second. Group B on paper, not hugely surprising. Australia and
[00:04:07] England finished top two, but a lot happened to unpack that. Group C was the upset, if you will. So Afghanistan, West Indies, New Zealand didn't qualify. I had actually predicted this one. And Varun said no chance. New Zealand
[00:04:20] finds their way to semifinals of everything. And he was right. They seem to find their way to semifinals or greater of ICC trophies and they just fell short in this one. And I mean, at this point, Afghanistan and West Indies each beat them.
[00:04:34] So it's not about other results of bad luck or this, that, yes, they... So yeah, they just fell short. And then group D, South Africa is through with four out of four, which is phenomenal. And there's a fight happening between Bangladesh and Netherlands
[00:04:48] again, at the time of recording this, by the time you're listening, you know what happened. But time with recording this, it is seeming like either Bangladesh will beat Nepal or should be a close age match. And then Netherlands has to beat Sri Lanka by a pretty big margin
[00:05:01] if and rely on Bangladesh losing. So basically, it's looking like Bangladesh will make it. But the upset there is Sri Lanka. So talk me through New Zealand and Sri Lanka first before we get into what happened in the other two groups of the US and England.
[00:05:16] New Zealand just looked rusty. They didn't really look like their campaign got off the ground really. I mean, I actually also think they had a couple of difficult games to start off. I think the easier games came at the back end of their campaign, whereas the
[00:05:31] harder games came at the front where I think they were coming in from all over the world. They were still like they were all linking up and... I mean, they played the top two teams first, Afghanistan then West Indies and then got to play Uganda.
[00:05:44] And they were caught cold. They were caught cold. It's not an excuse, man. But I mean, they didn't have the opportunity to get into their stride really. But that said, you had the likes of Darin Mitchell, Rachin Ravind, the Trent Bolt. All of these guys
[00:05:58] were playing the IPL. So it's not like they were out of match practice or they were not... I mean, Bolt went all the way to the playoffs. So yeah, it's an odd one, to be honest. I mean, I mean, listen, this is the
[00:06:14] quote unquote group of death. It is going to be weird to see them not even in our court, but Afghanistan and West Indies have both won three games, like all three of their games except against... Yeah. And it's more a testament to how good
[00:06:28] Afghanistan are as a side, as a T20 side. They are leading T20 side in the world. I mean, they've got a lot of bases covered. New Zealand, it's odd to not think of them as one of the top eight T20 sides in the
[00:06:42] world, but you've got Canada in... Sorry, US in there. So yeah, it's interesting results, I think. So if you are the New Zealand team, right? And the leadership, et cetera, is this the opportunity? I mean, I'm trying to find quickly as we while we speak, we're trying
[00:06:59] to find some of their ages, but obviously Kane, the captain is 33. You then start looking down, you say Bolt, Saudi. Bolt is 34. Bolt is retired now. He's now official. It's his last T20 World Cup. Last T20 World Cup. Yeah, he's done. Right? Tim Saudi is 35.
[00:07:18] Like you have a slightly older side. Yes, you have some younger folks, but even Devin Conway who's been around on the seat for a while is 32. Mitchell Santner is 32. Like this the opportunity for New Zealand cricket to say, listen, kind of
[00:07:29] the chat we had about India, to be honest. But listen, we need some young blood there. Just bring in some young guys from the Super Smash or whatever. That's what it's called, right? Big Smash? Big Bash is... Big Bash, Big Smash. I don't know. It's probably called...
[00:07:46] It is a Super Smash. Why do you doubt it? Super Smash. I don't know. Big Smash. Yeah. Is this the opportunity you think? Is this New Zealand going to look at new captaincy, new blood, just change it all up? I don't know, man.
[00:07:58] Like do they need Kane Williamson to be playing T20 cricket? I don't think so. You can just play one day cricket and test cricket. And I think T20 cricket is more and more going to be a young person's game. That's what they sort of said 10 years ago
[00:08:14] and then it hasn't quite materialized in that way. And yeah, MS is still playing at 42. Yeah, it's true. All right. So New Zealand was the one upset and then, yeah, talk me through this, but there's this Sri Lanka situation, right? Sri Lanka sitting at the bottom, three
[00:08:29] matches, two, I mean, the only one did get played against Nepal, which they would have backed themselves to play, but lost to South Africa, lost to Bangladesh. Angelo Matthews has actually just recently at the time of recording released a statement saying we've let the whole nation down.
[00:08:43] I mean, as Afghanistan and to an extent Nepal start to rise as forces in Asian cricket, seeing Sri Lanka fall a little bit is upsetting. Is this a one off? Is this similar to New Zealand? They had their two big games up front and lost them and then
[00:08:57] couldn't recover? Or how do you feel about this? Well, a little bit, Sri Lanka's a little bit like, I mean, one Indo is one of the big T20 players on the circuit at the moment, Hasaranga that is. He didn't play the IPL because of injury.
[00:09:11] Of course he's a Sunrisers boy now, but I think the issue is it's an administration kind of cricketing similar to the issues that Pakistan are facing. There's been kind of government interference with the board and they don't have a structure that's feeding cricket, international cricket as it was
[00:09:34] say 20, 30 years ago where the school system was strong and that was feeding that they don't really have a first class system. It's relied always on individual brilliance and for a long time it was massed by Mahela and Kumar Sanghakara and Malinga to an extent, Muralithara until 2011.
[00:09:55] Yeah, before that Sanaat and Arvind. He had Heerath playing test cricket and kind of the joke used to be that Heerath will carry on in a walker and just walk up on board. But it's that the cracks in the domestic system have been massed to a large extent.
[00:10:10] The fact that Angelo Matthews is still playing, I mean, he said, I would say he's well past his prime now. I don't know like how old is he? He must be late 30s now. I mean he's a brilliant cricketer, he's been around for a long time.
[00:10:24] He's led Sri Lanka with distinction, but I don't know. I think they've got people in that side which are past their prime. They have the likes of Patirana, they've got Tushara. So Malinga was excited saying this is the best bowling attack in the whole World Cup.
[00:10:46] But I mean kind of there was probably a little bit of bias in that statement. Right? He's excited to see players that bowl like him come through the park. I mean, listen, their bowling isn't bad, but their batting just doesn't seem like it has that
[00:10:59] leader, that depth to neither the depth nor the leadership at the top to kind of set the tone for a team. And that's disappointing. But I think to your point, we've always had that one superstar kind of cricketer or a couple of them at the
[00:11:13] same time to cover up the cracks and it feels like now they're showing. Listen, I've said this for a few years now, but I hope for the betterment of the game Sri Lanka bounces back because they're an exciting side, incredibly talented and just it would be good
[00:11:25] probably for the game at large to see them find their way back into being able to compete at this level. Right? Yeah. And I mean, in a way, and we talk about superstar culture in Indian cricket right now. Let's just think about that for a second.
[00:11:39] Strong teams need strong characters to lead them. Right? Their most successful captain by a long distance were Arjuna Ranatunga. Like what do you think of Sri Lanka cricket? You think of him like he, him with his finger in Roy Emerson's face about the Murali no ball incident,
[00:11:58] him with Daryl Hare leading the team off like 96. And when you think of India, you think of like Sourav Ganguly. You think of Virat Kohli. You think of even Anil Kumbhali. You think of leaders like that, that you can't think of a leader in that side. Right?
[00:12:14] Similar kind of a little bit similar to Pakistan situation right now. They've got issues with their domestic structure, their administrative structure. They've got issues with Imad Wasim has come out and given a statement recently saying we are lagging behind the world in T20 cricket and how
[00:12:28] we play it. They've had issues with captaincy. It was Shaheen one day, then it was Babur the next day. So it's an you kind of need someone to emerge from all of that and take control of cricket in these countries. Virat did that for India
[00:12:45] for a long time. Rohit is a well established leader now. So I think what they need is for someone to emerge from the shambles and say, I'm going to take Pakistan. I'm clubbing Pakistan with Sri Lanka. Yeah. Neither of them have qualified in the Super 8. Right?
[00:13:03] And they need to go back and think like who is going to take us forward into the next era. Is that going to be Babur Azam? Is it going to be Shaheen Shah of Friidi? Is it going to be, I don't know who else that they've got really
[00:13:17] to do. Is it Rizwan who's going to captain? I see that. I find that hard to see, but I understand. Yeah. Yeah. But it's that lack of central leadership in these teams. And I think that's it. You've tried Shaheen and now you're saying if not Babur then who?
[00:13:31] And similarly on the Sri Lanka team, you can't think of an automatic name. I mean, you have Nisankas 26, you have Asalankas 26. You have some younger guys, but none of them really has stood out and shown their ability to really step up. I mean, even Shannukas 32. So anyway,
[00:13:49] disappointing for Sri Lanka. We will come back and talk a little bit more about Pakistan in the second half of the show. But DJ to wrap up our kind of group preview before we get into the Super 8 or group wrap up before we get into the Super 8 preview.
[00:14:00] Let me run you through how Group B ended up playing out. And then I want to hear your point about it. So Australia was on track to win four or four. They won all four ended up winning all four other games, which becomes important. England got no
[00:14:15] got one point against Scotland lost to Australia. So now they're now sitting there saying, OK, we have one point from the first two games for a max of five. OK, Scotland also obviously got one point against England, beat Namibia, beat Oman. So Scotland now already has five points.
[00:14:33] So you're sitting there at this interesting point where England had to win both their games and hope that Scotland lost and then still it was going to come down to net run rate. OK, England gets the win against Oman by a huge margin, which is 19 points. Ridiculous.
[00:14:47] In the midst of all, yeah, chased it down in 19 balls. I mean, ridiculous. In the midst of all this, Josh Hazelwood has come out and said and been asked a question in the media to say, listen, if you if one, if Australia is already through
[00:14:59] and seeding doesn't matter in this group, which we've talked about a couple of weeks ago has its own problems. But if Australia is already through, do you kind of potentially fudge the game? What it takes? Go slow to narrow the gap. Right. Or not. Or even not.
[00:15:13] We're on purpose. Doesn't matter. It wouldn't have mattered at all to Australia. And Hazelwood said, why not? We should do the that we should do the best we can to maximize our chance in the next stage. And if we believe England not being in the next stage,
[00:15:23] maximize our chances. Why not? And the Internet exploded. News media blew up the ICC, I think officially released the rulebook, which said you're not allowed point stable or net rendering manipulation, et cetera. It's a whole thing. What ended up obviously happening is. England almost got
[00:15:43] rained out against them, maybe, which is where really matters. It's an hour delayed, two hours delayed, et cetera. And if that didn't matter, none of it matters. Then they're out. Because they would have had four points and that's they're done. They ended up getting what started as an 11
[00:15:56] 11 over game, finished as a 10 game and won, which was the first step. That was within England's control. So we won the game. By this point, Scotland Cricket had tweeted a picture of sunny skies and stuff while England was waiting out. There was all kinds of stuff.
[00:16:10] And at that point, then Australia comes out to play Scotland. It looks for us. Scotland makes 180, which Australia has never successfully chased out of the T20 World Cup before anything above one. Three drop catches by the Aussies, three easy drop catches, a couple of more.
[00:16:28] Mitchell Marsh doesn't bowl. Stoiness doesn't bowl. Maxwell gets his full quota of four overs. There's a lot of things that are starting to seem like Australia doesn't necessarily want to win. And it got pretty it went pretty late in the game. And then, you know,
[00:16:42] Stoiness ended up hitting a huge 50. Tim David ended up hitting the winning out. So I'll pause. There's a lot to unpack there. Let me start with, do you think Hezlwood was wrong? Do you think it was wrong for him to say, listen,
[00:16:55] we might we should do what we can to try to knock out England at this stage? So it was fairly foolish of him to say that in the press. I can see what he was trying to do. He was trying to get under
[00:17:06] the skin of the England players and say, not only do you have to worry about winning your games, winning them by a big margin, but you have to worry about other people as well. Manipulating their results now. So what it took me back to,
[00:17:20] actually, was it was a football game in in in university where we were playing inter batch football and we we would it was a goal difference. If we if if the team that was supposed to have won would have won, we would have played them
[00:17:38] in the final on goal difference because we had a better goal difference on the other side. They didn't want to play us in the final. Yeah. So what they did was they played a they didn't reg it, to be fair. They played like a totally second string team,
[00:17:53] like their striker was playing in goal. Their goalie was playing forward. They did all of that stuff. And I remember sitting there being so it was our last year of law school as well. So it felt like you didn't have an opportunity to come back from this.
[00:18:09] So it I was outraged, but it was all moral outrage because like it's their prerogative to do whatever they have to do. Right. So Hazelwood, who made all these comments, didn't play that come into then came out after him as the skipper
[00:18:24] and said we would never do that. Of course, we were going to try to win. He also didn't play. So it's kind of what you did. It's not a second string team, but they arrested two of their starter 11s. Yeah. So I I get the outrage
[00:18:40] because I've personally felt that outrage. I don't know whether he looked at the rulebook, but the rulebook obviously said you got to play to win and all of that. But putting all of that aside, if you can't win your matches and you've got bad luck, luck is luck.
[00:18:57] That's just bad luck. Like if it rain gets rained out, it gets rained out. I think it's OK for other teams to say, listen, we've got to put ourselves first. And I'm not saying fix them. I think there's like a match fixing element to all of this. Right.
[00:19:10] There's like a betting gambling. I think that's why football matches in tournaments and leagues are played simultaneously to the end. So you can't rig a result. So to speak, I think there's a match fixing betting element to all of this, which which keeps
[00:19:27] which makes sure that you have to play to win every game. But I quite like the idea for team just like doing its thing, winning the game, but winning it in its own time. There was a point at which the India USA game,
[00:19:43] India batted pretty slowly to win it. I think they wanted it in the 18th and 19th over. And Pakistan fans were outraged that they're doing this to get Pakistan out. I'm like, you would win your games first. If you win your games, you're not in this position.
[00:19:59] So there's a little part of me that likes this kind of shithouse. It's shithouse. Let's be clear. I'm actually think even in a more extreme position of liking it than you are. I think you should have to like, why should I?
[00:20:10] I'm trying to process this match fixing element. Like you said, why the heck shouldn't you be allowed to lose your game on purpose if not for the objective of trying to mess up England or whatever?
[00:20:20] But if your team must like, let me ask you this question in reverse, right? If England, who very well could, it gets past the super stage, makes it to a final. It the semi could be India versus England and the final could be England versus Australia.
[00:20:35] And Hazelwood is bowling the last ball and gets hit for six to lose the trophy. And England lift the trophy. Like, Stoinis has made a mistake then by batting as well as he did. Like this is what I'm saying. The goal is to win the tournament.
[00:20:48] If potentially losing a game maximizes your chance of winning the tournament. I think the rule book is absolute horseshoe. Like that's what I'm saying. Yeah, but I don't know, see, because the group stage is a super eight, I don't think that argument is relevant because England being out
[00:21:05] also gives everybody else an equal chance of winning the tournament. Sure, but it just as well give Australia a better chance. Because let's say group two was instead of what it now is, is England, South Africa, West Indies, US.
[00:21:20] It could have been Scotland, South Africa, West Indies, US. So then you'd basically know unless there's another freak chance, you're betting on South Africa and West Indies making the final four. The same as opposed to England potentially making it.
[00:21:33] I mean, I just I understand the nuance and the manipulation and very little. But in the spirit of the goal for any of these teams is to win the tournament. It's not to win a single game.
[00:21:43] And if you've done if you've won three out of your first four and you're in a position where you can afford to lose and England has not done well enough, I'm I don't know. I'm probably missing something.
[00:21:51] I'd love to hear even from listeners what I may be missing. But you have to you should be able to why not? It maximizes it would have maximized Australia's chance of winning the tournament to throw the game against Scotland and let Scotland qualify because then Australia has been
[00:22:06] has zero percent chance of facing England, who have who are a formidable team on any day. Yeah, I don't know whether they would have thrown the game anyway. I think they they I think throwing the game opens it up into like bookie ish. Can you forfeit?
[00:22:22] Can you just not take the field, give to other people? Well, that's that's got Hansi Kronje vibes to it as well. You see, these are the problems. I know it sounds these are the problems that you run into
[00:22:31] the moment you start saying we're going to do stuff other than play to win in the best possible way. And I don't know what the rulebook says. I'd be interested to see whether you know, you you know what the ICC actually said.
[00:22:43] I think it just said point stable and net run rate point stable manipulation is considered illegal. And that was extended to include not just points, but net run rate manipulation in particular, like batting. Interesting. Now, how do you know? Go slow. Yeah, it's hard evidence.
[00:23:01] I mean, that's the thing. You're the lawyer here. How could anybody know? It's difficult to prove because like you could see even in the India US game, Sky was struggling to hit the ball at the beginning. Right. Yeah. And by the way, yeah, sorry.
[00:23:15] I'll say again, David, there were three or four needed. Tim David hits a sky. The Scottish fielder soul needed to catch it. If he catches it, there's three of three with a new batsman coming in. He ends up dropping it and they get two.
[00:23:27] So it became one of three and the game was over. But I was like, it's not out of the question that Tim David was just told hit it in the air. If you get six, that's fine. But if you get out, that's fine, too.
[00:23:36] We're not upset about it. Yeah. So I think they would have run into a they would have run into a lot of problem around like how to prove it, what the evidence around all of this water constitutes manipulation.
[00:23:47] How do you prove that someone isn't able to get the ball? Like they were in that charge game, right? For the first 20 balls did nothing. And it was not for lack of trying. It was just like he couldn't hit it.
[00:23:59] And it's a very difficult thing to prove a negative almost like you can prove spot fixing because you see it. It's an activity. He's overstepped. Whereas if someone is constantly hitting the inner ring, they're showing that you weren't trying to bet your best
[00:24:15] or ball your best to win a game is nearly impossible. Yeah, it's difficult. I mean, maybe they should have brought back in Steve Smith and Kam Bancroft and they would have pulled it off. And, you know, yeah, but having heard what the ICC tweeted,
[00:24:27] I think it's a very it's a slippery slope and teams start. No, but this all only because Josh Hazelwood said it to the media, which is what your first point was. It's not something that crosses anybody's mind, right? They could have just gone to the media and said,
[00:24:40] of course, we want to win every game and then lost to Scotland and said, well, we tried and they got outplayed on the day. It could have been that. But then that's the kind of thing that comes out later, right? Like if there's some other investigation.
[00:24:51] New season of the test of the test. Yeah, and it comes out in some investigation how Hansi Kronje offered Herschel Gibbs some money to throw to bat under 20 runs. And Herschel Gibbs forgot and scored 75 in that match. So this all comes out later.
[00:25:07] So I don't think you can as a team discuss this and actually I still come back to, of course, you can't be doing it to make money on the side of this or that. But if you are truly looking in your heart and saying
[00:25:18] what maximizes our chances as team Australia to win this World Cup, it would have been to not seeing them go through. But I can see that happening at like league cricket level or club cricket level or even like lower levels of cricket
[00:25:32] where the consequences are not that dire, let's say. But I think you won't see it happening at international level or easily identifiable at the international level. Identifiable is the key. Let's take a very quick break. We'll come back, talk about the India situation in the India, US game
[00:25:52] and how Pakistan got knocked out and then do a quick preview of the Super 8. This is the Edges and Sledges Cricket Podcast. We're taking a quick break. Do not go anywhere. Welcome back to the Edges and Sledges Cricket Podcast.
[00:26:10] If you're watching us on YouTube, hit that like button, hit that subscribe button. And if you are listening to us as a podcast, give us five stars wherever you listen and or write into us at one tip one hand.
[00:26:20] That's the number one tip, number one hand on all the socials, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, et cetera. Right, DJ, let's talk about Group A, where India and the US have got through. Pakistan is going home by virtue of basically losing the losing
[00:26:36] two matches and then the US getting one point against Ireland for it. Now you can argue the US may have won anyway. And when it came down to it, the US beat Pakistan. And so they are through.
[00:26:46] Let me start by asking, do you know if the US team is all available to travel and by that specifically? So Nithra Malkar, has he got extended out of office permission from Oracle yet? Or what's going on with that? Do we know?
[00:26:57] Yeah, I'm pretty sure he'll have enough handover cover from all the other American Indians that work at Oracle. I'm pretty sure Oracle is on board. His sister said he takes his laptop and works in the hotel room after. This dude has like a patent to his name.
[00:27:13] It's too much. Overachieving type. When he was bowling to Panth, somebody text me saying Panth versus Patent. That's really good. But I mean, we should get into it. But he got Virat as well as Rohit out. He had what I think would could have been a match changing
[00:27:34] moment in his hands and it just popped out at the last minute. But I mean, the story of this World Cup has been the thought of Nithra Malkar. I mean, there have been others. I think Monac Patel got runs again. He's done well. He captains the US.
[00:27:52] You've got other players. But I think the one that's really captured the imagination of all Indian Tiger moms all over the world has been sort of Nithra Malkar. And like what? I mean, how do you compete?
[00:28:04] Finish your go get a master's degree, get a job and still bring it at the highest level, winning World Cups, getting Rohit out for three and Kohli out for a first ball duck, which I haven't seen in forever.
[00:28:15] So apparently Rohit and him used to play at the same club in Mumbai. Did you know that? Yeah, so they are club teammates apparently. And another club teammate took the catch that got Rohit out. How crazy is that? Amit Singh. Wow.
[00:28:28] Yeah. So they were all like all club mates in Mumbai. I mean, you read some of these stories, even the Canadian stories where I was reading, I think one of the Creak In 4 articles where a Pakistani player and an Indian player and they got together
[00:28:46] and like, oh my God, it's what stories have come out of this world. It's been great for that kind of stuff, right? It's been like very heartening that way. Yeah. So let's talk through the US India game really quickly,
[00:28:57] because I want to move to the we talked a little bit about Pakistan and what fell short for them. But US made 110 for eight. This was the last game, I think, in New York. Pitches have been tough. Ashdeep picks up four, Harzik picks up two.
[00:29:10] Umar actually goes wicked list despite pulling his full spell. But it's because Ashdeep was four for nine in four overs. I mean, somebody shows up on the day. 110 for eight and then one for one and 10 for two. At that point, you're starting to worry a little.
[00:29:24] The match didn't matter for India, but it could have been the way the US actually locked down their qualification. Yeah, it didn't matter for India because you're betting they'll beat Canada at that point. But yeah, I mean, obviously, then Rishabh comes in at three,
[00:29:37] gets some runs and then it became the Surakumar show, right? Dubai looked like he struggled a little, but I'm not reading anything really into Dubai or New York pitches because of the New York pitch, which I think has now been destroyed by the way. It's been dismantled.
[00:29:50] Already been dismantled. But Sky seems to show up in matches where it totally matters, right? Always. Oh, that's hard. I'm being a little mean. But there was no stakes and so Sky could bat himself in and he did. He made a great half century to win the game.
[00:30:04] Yeah, Sky hit a skier as well. And before that, he was like 21 of less. He was going at less than run of ball. And that kind of galvanized him, that drop, which I mean, it's a tough catch. So just to put it in context,
[00:30:17] I think Nitra Valkar was running backwards from short third and he caught it and then it just popped out at the last minute. If he'd taken that catch, then we could have had a little bit of a blip in that Indian innings.
[00:30:31] Nice knock from Sky, not a typical Sky knock. Dubai got some runs important in the larger context as we move to hopefully more batting friendly pitches. But I want to ask you, are you worried about Virat Kohli's form as an opener? I'm not, honestly.
[00:30:46] It's not ideal. Three innings, three failures. Yeah, it's not ideal, but three innings in New York, three failures. And so to me and if they were going to continue to play in these conditions, I would be extremely worried.
[00:30:56] I think the fact that the New York stadium has already been dismantled. We have to import Jiteshwar Pujara into play these conditions. I mean, honestly, nobody could bat at that pitch, right? And obviously some people ended up making that. Rohit got a 50, right?
[00:31:09] Did anybody else get a 50 in New York? And Sky in this game, right? Yeah, OK. So it's not impossible to bat, but I don't want to look too much into that pitch. I think the question is, could you bat him at three and play a Jetshwar?
[00:31:22] Maybe. But at this point now, man, going four out of four games, you're not really messing too much with the order. So let me come then to ask about as we look to a Super 8 preview. You know, they're now flying to the Caribbean, right?
[00:31:35] There's now the games are kind of going to be in lots of different venues. But. Kuldip Yadav hasn't got a game. He's going to Chehal has no game. And India has played three quicks plus Hardik, plus Dube, who is bold a little bit.
[00:31:50] Do you think India has to change that up? I mean, I'm just looking at where the fixtures are. Afghanistan, they play at Barbados and then D2, who's probably going to be Bangladesh. They'll play in Antigua and then Australia, they play in St. Lucia.
[00:32:04] You have to believe that Kuldip is going to play a role, right? And if he does, does he come in for one of the quicks? And by the way. Does he potentially come in for Jadeja three games, one washout? Jadeja has made no runs, taken no wickets
[00:32:19] and taken no catches here or runouts or nothing. He's really contributed nothing so far. So lots to unpack. But basically, do you see any changes ahead for Team India? Or do they go into their first group 8 game, a Super 8 game against Afghanistan unchanged?
[00:32:35] So if it's Barbados, in theory, it should be a quicker pitch than the other two Antigua and I think St. Lucia should be better batting pitches or slightly turning slower pitches. Barbados has a reputation for being quick. I don't know whether they play to that reputation or not.
[00:32:52] So maybe not the first game. But you have to be horses for courses. I mean, like, why would you just stick to a combination which is, I don't know, that's part of the inflexibility of the Indian team. After you've said, OK, we're going to have
[00:33:06] we're not going to have fixed batting order and all of that stuff. But you've got to play the best 11 that gives you the best chance of winning in those conditions. Now, Dubey is going to bowl. Then he has an argument to play in that 11.
[00:33:18] But if he's not going to bowl, Jesswell is a better batter, as a pure batter. So I mean, I kind of like the idea. But if you bring in Jesswell, you're not playing him at 6, right? No, you bring him in for the Super 8.
[00:33:30] You get him to open and you push everybody down. Like, you put Polly down to 4. Even Panth, who's done well at 3, didn't get to bowl? Yeah, Panth goes to 4. Sky goes to 5. And I mean, that's still a very solid batting order. I don't think they're changing that.
[00:33:43] I understand the logic. They likely won't. But I would have liked to see a bit more flexibility from them on. This is not just... I mean, I would have actually liked to see it in New York. But maybe then they were worried that
[00:33:56] Dubey would lose confidence if he got dropped or whatever and then would not be able to perform where he was. He's been picked as the spin hitter. This has been pitched as a tournament where spin is going to dominate. Now, this is the phase where...
[00:34:08] I don't know whether there are many games left in the US now. I don't think there are. No, they don't. I mean, nothing for India. There may be one. So it's all going to be the West Indies now. So that should, in theory, be slightly slower pitches.
[00:34:21] So Dubey should absolutely shine in those situations. Small grounds should be able to clear those boundaries. And yeah. So maybe that's what their thinking has been so far. Interesting. Yeah, so I mean, the US team, full credit to them against all odds, have qualified.
[00:34:38] I mean, if Bangladesh makes it through, yes, other than maybe Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, but no other major surprises. New Zealand we mentioned. But the US is going to be the one huge exception, right? Yeah, but I want to ask you, like you live in the US, right?
[00:34:51] What is the reaction of people in the US to their cricket team being in the Super 8 of T20 World Cup? Now I had some dinner with clients who are Americans, and they were surprised to find out that their team played cricket.
[00:35:05] The best part was there was a Pakistani fan and Pakistani national at that same table. And I was sat opposite the Pakistani national and the American was sat next to him as well. And it must have been torture for that guy at that dinner.
[00:35:21] But the American just seemed surprised that they have a cricket team. Yeah, I mean, listen, small sample size, right? I don't claim to represent everybody who lives in this country. But I'd say for the vast majority of people don't know anything's even happening.
[00:35:33] Right? Like it's not they don't know the World Cup is on. It's not called Indian baseball or anything like. No, it's not quite called Indian baseball. 119 plays, 113. I mean, so this is the thing then. So the vast majority of people don't even know what's happening,
[00:35:46] let alone that the US has a team. Then when they beat Pakistan, it started to get news coverage. The New York Times had articles, the Economist podcast that mentioned it in their daily or their weekly podcast, things like that. So you started to get a little more coverage.
[00:36:00] So then people are asking me, saying, wait, what happened? The US team won. What is that? And then, of course, having qualified similarly, they're starting to get some coverage. So again, the vast majority of people don't know, don't care.
[00:36:10] It's part of my beef, which is a discussion for a different day with how the ICC has marketed it a little bit as being like trying to grow the game in the US and stuff. And the reality is that's not it's not going to happen like this.
[00:36:23] It took 20, 25 years of heavy investment to start growing the game of soccer in the US. And you now have an MLS where Messi plays and, you know, Beckham has played and stuff like that. But it took a long time and a lot of money.
[00:36:35] This this tournament is to try to wait, like, delight or deliver for the massive South Asian and South African, etc. diaspora that's in the US. And that's great. They're big cricket fans with money to spend who are wanting to come out to the games and to enjoy it.
[00:36:50] Why not? You should absolutely do it. But this is a tournament for the desi's mostly in the US, more than the average non-Indian, Pakistani, Shalem and Bangladeshi origin American. Does that make sense? So, you know, it does. It sounds like it's like an expat focused tournament.
[00:37:09] It's not trying to grow. That's how it's manifesting. Right. So they're not really looking to grow the audience beyond that. You're audience of random of Americans who don't know the sport. You have a game in Florida or New York and you price tickets at 10 bucks
[00:37:25] and say, come on, you give free tickets to school kids and get them to come. Everything was one hundred and eighty dollars an hour. And you're basically only targeting that die hard who said, listen, I may I live here now.
[00:37:36] I may not be able to go travel to India or England or other places to watch cricket. And so I'll watch it in my backyard and pay extra because it's worth it to me to get to see Colie and Rohit. That's not how you grow a game.
[00:37:45] You grow a game by grassroots stuff and by getting tickets free and cheap or free. I mean, even the Women's World Cup in England, when the by the last day or two, if they had unsold tickets, they were giving them away for free
[00:37:57] because they said, we'd rather have the stands full. Every single seat full and grow the women's game. Then charge 200 bucks a ticket and let them sit empty and not, you know, not but so there's a different discussion.
[00:38:09] Yeah. But in theory, like the best thing that they could have hoped for happened like the home team, the USA, the biggest economy in the world qualified for the Super 8. Like if the I'm not going to say BCC, but if the ICC could have something imagined a scenario
[00:38:28] that a perfect scenario for this World Cup, it would have been for the US and maybe that maybe Canada. You're telling me the ICC didn't dream up the perfect scenario of India, Pakistan being in the same group with three smaller countries
[00:38:42] basically almost guaranteed India and Pakistan get through and potentially be at a knockout. That's what they built for. It wasn't really built for it. I think it's a good outcome, but the entire group stage and stuff was built with the pre decided seedings and this
[00:38:55] and that was all built to make sure India and Pakistan played at least once, maybe even twice and both qualified. So and they can Pakistan conspired to foil that plan. That is exactly how it went. DJ, before we wrap, let's do a quick preview of the Super 8.
[00:39:11] Group two, which is fixed, I said England, South Africa, West Indies. Fixed. Group two is fixed. Which has already been set. The lineup has already set for group two. How do you feel this is going to shake up?
[00:39:25] Does England capitalize on the fact that they just snuck in? Does the West Indies really go big on home ground advantage? Let's not write off South Africa, who's got four wins from four games and the US who's managed to sneak in. So what happens in this group?
[00:39:41] So I don't think the US is going to do it right. Sadly, I hate to break that news. I think it's fair. South Africa have flown under the radar a little bit here. They had a very close call with Nepal, but they've won everything that they've come across.
[00:39:59] Right. So it's kind of good for them to have those tough games. We didn't talk about, by the way, but Nepal could have fairly easily gotten into a super over. Yeah, why did the guy slow down? I think it's just experience. He just was ball watching.
[00:40:13] And I think he was trying to figure out, can I go tap down and get two? Do I think I can get to a position to get both and win the game and actually ended up losing? Dude, it was such it's such a poor look as well.
[00:40:24] So you I think you tweeted a picture of Mustafa's reaching trying to reach the crease against India in 2016 and the only taking this down. But Mustafa is a set full stretch. This guy's like crowd shriek. He's not even pulled his hand out fully.
[00:40:41] I think and I think that's just experience, man. That's what it is. Yeah. So I'm going to be controversial. I'm going to say England and and weather. I don't know about weather, but I'm going to say England and South Africa are going to sneak this. OK.
[00:40:55] I will say in this group, I think the West Indies is making it for sure. I think England is going to want to find their way through, but I think they've just looked a little a little scratchy. And so for me, they go big or go home.
[00:41:06] Cricket is finally starting to run to run its course for me. So I'm going to say South Africa and West Indies make it the same. And then group group one, Australia, India, Afghanistan and let's call it Bangladesh for now, but it's Bangladesh slash Netherlands.
[00:41:19] What do you think happens in this group? The problem is that whatever what your head says, your heart is always going to say India. Right. So I'm going to say. India and Afghanistan. Interesting. So the four of the Aziz.
[00:41:42] Afghanistan are still hurting after that game against the Australian. They could have knocked them out of the ODI World Cup. And India is still hurting after the M the Bad Devokul on the 19th of November. So we are going to be the.
[00:41:56] Both of them get revenge against the Aziz. Yes. I love it. I don't even want to give a prediction. There's no there's no brain involved. It's pure emotion and it's all heart. I love that. Like we're still hurting from those games.
[00:42:09] I love it as it should be made. India and Afghanistan to come through. You know, I'm not going to dispute your prediction, even though my head completely disagrees because of how good Australia looked. I'm going to not I'm not going to dispute for a second.
[00:42:22] Love that. So we have one difference in our semifinalists, which is I have the West Indies, you have England, but South Africa, India, Afghanistan. It's going to be a great run into the tournament. DJ Final prediction for who wins it from here. I guess we've already.
[00:42:36] You're going to predict India, aren't you? Oh, see, the problem is, man, like this is all that's not the best. We're not the best team. If India is not going to win the pick, lift the trophy. There is nobody I would rather see lifted. I would say Afghanistan.
[00:42:52] I mean, of course, right? Yeah, of course. But honestly, if India is not going to lift the trophy, then Afghanistan would likely have either met us in the final because we would have been different parts of the semis. Right. Yeah, we can't play each other in the semis.
[00:43:10] Right. It'll India's semi if they do play will be England, South Africa or West Indies, which is a crazy semi. If you think about it, I have a bad feeling India is going to be out in the knockout phase of this tournament yet again. All right.
[00:43:24] So now the league stage actually starts. It feels like it all the some of the big teams are missing. Yeah, I mean, which is you shouldn't. We shouldn't be taking like the big teams qualifying for granted anymore. We should absolutely not. Absolutely not.
[00:43:38] Right, DJ Super 8s are around in the corner by the time we get here next. We probably would be most of the way through the Super 8 by next weekend. Actually, we should be almost fully through it
[00:43:48] with the Cup of Matches pending by Monday and then the following week. The World Cup will be done Saturday, July 29th is the final June 29th. Excuse me. It's the final. It's been fun. DJ, thanks for joining me to relive some of what happened.
[00:44:00] I still want to hear about people think about this Australia situation because I don't know if I'm alone on this one or not. But this has been the Edges and Slidescreen podcast. Send us in your messages, your questions at one to one hand on all the social medias.
[00:44:12] If you're on YouTube, leave us a comment. We look at all the comments and we'll be back next week to talk about how the Super 8 stage of this World Cup is shaping up. See you next time.