MATCH STORIES
Follow UsPrior to June 15 (Saturday), Antigua had hosted three full games in this T20 World Cup with there not being a single ounce of rain in any of those matches.
But when it’s not your tournament, it’s not your tournament. And so out of nowhere, the rain gods made England suffer — for the second time in this competition.
Heavy rains prior to the game delayed the toss and inevitably the contest. That was still fine, but what killed England was what unfolded in the three hours after the ‘official’ start time of the contest.
Heavy rain. Drizzle. No rain. Heavy rain. Drizzle. No rain. Heavy rain. Drizzle. No rain.
It felt like an endless loop at one point. Every time there was some movement on the ground, the rain returned. And everytime the game looked like a gone case, the rain stopped. It was truly an afternoon in which the weather gods were full on trolling.
Either way, three hours of this circus later, around 3:00 PM local time, England were mentally preparing for the worst possible outcome. The skies looked dark and gloomy, as did their own future in this competition.
But as if they owed the Three Lions one after what happened in the Scotland clash, the weather gods pulled out one unexpected final twist and made the rains completely disappear to give the ground staff just enough time to get in a 11-over contest (which was later shortened to 10 due to a mini bout of rain late in the first innings).
It was Namibia who won the toss (opting to bowl), and, for quite a while, it looked like Gerhard Erasmus’ side had ended up winning a very, very good toss.
The surface, thanks to having been under covers for an extended period, was super tacky to start off with. Not only did the ball literally stick to the surface, there was excessive seam movement up front too.
England would have entered the field hoping to get as many as they could in the 11 overs they were allocated to bat, but their plans were completely upset by the first three overs.
Ruben Trumpelmann had been Namibia’s designated first-over bowler for quite a while, but, on the day, Erasmus, due to the nature of the surface, decided to open the bowling with the experienced David Wiese. And the move proved to be a masterstroke as the veteran set the tone for the innings with a one-run first over that was close to flawless. Wiese, in his over, went outside-off and into the surface and both the in-form England openers couldn’t touch it.
Trumpelmann, in what was a rare occurrence, had to wait for his turn but he backed up the good work done by Wiese in the first over by removing the big fish, Jos Buttler, in over number two.
Trumpelmann took a leaf out of Wiese’s book and began the over by hitting a hard length, and Buttler was sort of expecting the left-armer to keep doing the same. But the 26-year-old surprised the England skipper by going full and seaming one back in viciously to castle him.
2/1 in 1.2 overs, England had made a nervy start.
Things got a lot worse for the Three Lions in the next over when Wiese removed Phil Salt with a perfectly executed knuckle ball that held in the surface and caught the outside edge of the right-hander.
13/2 in 2.1 overs, it wasn’t looking good for England. At all. Not just because of the score but due to the fact that they now had to rely on an out-of-form middle-order to dig them out of a hole. And they had to do it without the services of the extra batter Will Jacks, who had been left out in order to accommodate an additional bowler due to the game being a shortened one.
Prior to Saturday, Bairstow hadn’t crossed 20 in a game in his entire T20WC career. He entered the contest having played a borderline match-losing hand (7 off 13) against Australia. Harry Brook, meanwhile, had only batted thrice in T20 cricket since December, with him, too, struggling immeasurably against the Aussies in a failed chase (20* off 16). And then there was Liam Livingstone, who by his own admission had not ‘been himself’ for over a year.
England had to rely on these three and the long handle of Moeen Ali to take them to a winning total and keep them alive in the competition.
A far from ideal scenario, but, on the day, against the odds, it was the undercooked, out-of-form middle-order that stepped up its game and powered England to victory to keep them alive in the 2024 T20WC.
It all began with Bairstow. At 19/2 after 3.3 overs, the Three Lions were going nowhere. This is when Bairstow injected some much-needed momentum into the innings with a six and a four off the left-arm spin of Bernard Scholtz.
Bairstow then collected another boundary in the next over bowled by Erasmus, and suddenly the Three Lions found themselves at a decent position on a tough track: 39/2 after 5 overs.
At the other end, meanwhile, Brook fed off this confidence and smashed the young and inexperienced Jack Brassell for 10 runs off 2 balls to firmly put England on the front foot; they were now 52/2 off 6 overs.
A 17-run seventh over, bowled by Erasmus, in which Bairstow smashed yet another six, meant that England were flying at 69/2. YJB departed the next over but it didn’t matter for the Three Lions as they had reached a point where they could simply go for broke as they already had a score on the board.
Namibia would have hoped for Bairstow’s wicket to bring them some despite, but Scholtz’s second over still ended up going for 13; it took the new batter, Moeen Ali, just two balls to hit a maximum.
At 82/3 after 8 overs, a brief shower halted England’s progress. The break should ideally have proven to be a blessing for Namibia, but it instead turned out to be the beginning of their end.
For, in the two overs after the rain delay, England ended up smashing 40 runs, with all of Brook, Moeen and Livingstone inflicting pain on the Namibian bowlers.
Brook began the restart on 29 off 15 balls, but it took him only five balls to move to 47. He went 2 2 4 6 4 against a rattled Brassell to take England past the 100-run mark with an over to spare.
Erasmus banked on the experience of Trumpelmann to limit the damage in the final over, but the first four balls reading 6 W 6 6 meant that England pretty much ended up batting Namibia out of the contest. Moeen began the over with a six and departed, but Livingstone showcased his x-factor to smash two maximums off his first two balls to all but seal Namibia’s fate.
Chasing a DLS adjusted 126 was always going to be a near-impossible task for a woefully out of form Namibian batting line-up, particularly against an England side with an extra specialist bowler. Unsurprisingly, they fell well short. 41 runs short of the adjusted target, to be precise.
So, England have to now bank on Australia to get the job done to progress to the next round, but they’ve controlled the controllables.
But with their misfiring middle-order showing signs of coming back to form, I guess we can say this: watch out for the Three Lions if they end up making it to the Super 8s. Put your jokes aside, because they will be a menace.
If you’ve not downloaded the Cricket.com app yet, you’re missing out — big time. Play Fantasy on Cricket.com NOW! Download the App here.
