MATCH STORIES
Follow UsIn cricket, the scorecard does not always tell the complete story, but sometimes it does.
It certainly did at the end of the powerplay in the clash between India and Australia in St Lucia on June 24 (Monday).
After six overs, India had raced to 60 runs, with skipper Rohit Sharma inflicting mad carnage. In one of the most brutal onslaughts in T20 World Cup history, Rohit notched up 51 runs alone in the powerplay, with 46 of the runs coming via boundaries.
He hit five sixes and four fours in the 21 balls he faced in the powerplay and hammered Mitchell Starc for 29 runs in a single over. That, by the way, was the second-most expensive over bowled by an Australian in T20I history.
At the end of the powerplay, the combined figures of Starc and Pat Cummins read 3-0-49-0.
But then there was a certain Josh Hazlewood bowling on a different surface. Literally.
Hazlewood bowled to the same batters Starc and Cummins bowled to. Hazlewood bowled with the same ball that Starc and Cummins bowled with. Yet at the end of six overs, his figures read a ludicrous 3-0-10-1.
Predictability is supposed to be bad in T20 cricket. Still, Hazlewood somehow continues to be one of the best bowlers in the world in this format despite doing the same thing over and over again, which is pounding the ball on a good length.
Against Afghanistan in St Vincent on June 22 (Sunday), the right-armer had a rare off day. He conceded 39 off the four overs he bowled — his third-most expensive spell in a T20WC game — and his off day on a bowler-friendly surface significantly contributed to the team’s shock defeat.
But the 33-year-old bounced back in some style against India in what was a do-or-die clash for the Kangaroos.
On the day, it took Hazlewood only four balls to put India on the backfoot. After going 1 0 0 in his first three balls, the right-armer got the huge scalp of Virat Kohli with a surprise bouncer that got the better of India’s talisman. For over a decade now, Kohli has been Australia’s nemesis in cricket — across formats. The last time these two sides met in a T20WC encounter, in Mohali in 2016, Kohli snatched the game away from the Kangaroos with one of the best knocks in the competition’s history.
But here Hazlewood got the better of his old foe to give the Aussies the perfect start in a must-win clash.
To Hazlewood’s dismay, Australia could not capitalise on his breakthrough. The very next over bowled by Starc went for 29, and, two overs later, Cummins conceded 15.
But such was the immaculate showing of the 33-year-old that, despite Starc and Cummins’ three powerplay overs going for 49, India could only manage 60 runs in the powerplay overall.
Hazlewood, in his three-over spell in the powerplay, bowled 11 dots and conceded just a solitary boundary. He choked Rishabh Pant, who only scored seven runs off the 10 balls he faced against the right-armer, but the lanky seamer also managed to keep Rohit quiet.
In the powerplay, Rohit went at over 250 against both Starc and Cummins. But against Hazlewood, he could only manage three runs off five balls, with him not scoring a single boundary.
In St Lucia, then, amidst the Rohit carnage, Josh Hazlewood did Josh Hazlewood things. No wonder he’s the third-ranked seamer in the world in this format.
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