Pakistan keep their tournament alive as Australia knock England out

Notes on Fakhar, Rachin, Williamson and Zampa.

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Pakistan, and the Bangalore rain, just made the ICC’s tournament. England finally got sent home (although not yet).

New Zealand won the toss and decided to let Rachin Ravindra be awesome again. And Kane Williamson was back, and scoring at a rate. In fact, they all did. New Zealand pushed hard and ended up with 400. A near impossible chase in 50 overs. But Fakhar Zaman is on a one-man mission to embarrass Paksiatn selectors - even more than they do themselves - by scoring all the runs. And the rain came in to help, because chasing 400 was going to be hard even with that start, but 180 in 25 overs, that was a little easier. 

And we had another game, Australia finally didn’t get a boost from their openers as they chipped the ball around in the middle as normal. They were batting like they knew 270 was enough, which says a lot about England right now. England lost wickets from ball one, the dew came in, Stokes stayed in for ages, and the lower half chipped it around gamely. But They still looked like a team with no batting, and they also got swept up by Australia’s greatest all-rounder, Adam Zampa. With bat, catch, and ball, the man could do it all. 

How bad has England been in this World Cup, well Adam Zampa just slogged them home. 

Fakhar Zaman is brutal (SAK)

Fakhar Zaman batted so well that he might have saved the World Cup. Or at least, saved some bad PR if the finalists were in permanent ink this early. 

We talked about him at the start of the tournament. If Pakistan thought he was good enough to start the tournament, they had no reason to remove him. And he has proved his worth in the last couple of games. He is not the usual run accumulator at the top. He now has 18 sixes from 3 games, though playing in the Chinnaswamy definitely helps. Think about it this way in hindsight, what if he was available for the clash against Australia where they were chasing 360-370 odd? Now, he may have still failed. But this is the same batter who was scoring a truckload of runs at the start of the year, and then he had a horror slump. 

Also, should be pointed out, he really likes playing against New Zealand. Zimbabwe really ruin this graphic, but in his career, he has only made runs against four teams. New Zealand, South Africa, India and Zimbabwe. It’s a freaky record. 

Look at this by the way. I don’t really trust all the win predictors, and I don’t use them all that much. This is Cricinfo’s, which they kept up after the game. And while the numbers aren’t quite right, the truth is, as good as Fakhar was, a 400 chase is really unlikely, if there is any game you want the rain to come, it’s in a score like this. 

If you are old enough to remember, Pakistan had a slow start to the 92 World Cup before some rain helped them there too. Dare to dream. 

Pakistan’s bowling (SAK)

A major reason why Pakistan’s bowlers have looked ineffective is down to Shaheen’s performances with the new ball. He has only taken 4 powerplay wickets in this tournament and the ball has not done much of the talking for him. The gap in the averages is staggering, and they do not have the services of Naseem as well. The rest of the Pakistan bowlers have been even more awful in the Powerplay.

Haris Rauf has been very expensive. There is absolutely no sugarcoating it. He has been ineffective in all phases of the innings. Usama Mir didn’t play today but he also makes this list. Rauf has the most sixes conceded by anyone in this WC (16) and he also averages 35+ with the ball. He has had a lack of game-changing, impactful wickets since the first game against the Netherlands.

Wasim Jr was the shining light in an uninspired bowling performance against the Kiwis. He bowled challenging lengths and went at an economy of 6 in an 8 RPO par game. Should he have been used with the new ball?

Babar Azam contributes (SAK)

Babar definitely batted with much better intent today than he did in the rest of the tournament. Maybe it was the situation that freed him, but he did okay playing second-fiddle to Fakhar’s madness at the other end. 

So in the Powerplay he played his shots freely, hit a brilliant six off Santner and fours off Boult. Was 22 off 14 at one point, but Santner and Southee slowed him down to 3 off the next 9.

From the powerplay till the rain break, he went at 22 off 28 - this was a bit of a problem. You don’t expect your premier batter to slow down so much despite the madness at the other end. He was 19 off 12 after the second rain break in the innings, and this was much much better.

Rachin creates history (SAK)

Few of us would have predicted that the youngster would have such a dominant run at the biggest stage. Heck, he had only played 12 ODIs (8 innings) coming into the tournament, and he had never batted in the top 5 in this format. He was asked to bat at number 3 in Kane’s absence, and boy he delivered. He opened today, though he practically was an opener on his World Cup debut after Young’s early wicket.

Rachin Ravindra has been one of the best batters in the World Cup. He is currently the second-highest run-getter in this tournament. The most impressive aspect of his batting is that he has multiple gears in his game. He started quickly in the Powerplay, knocked it around for a bit in the middle, and then again pressed the accelerator after the 20 overs mark. He now has 3 100s, only QDK is ahead in this tournament. It is also the most by a batter in their debut tournament.

There are some pretty important names on this list. Bairstow and Stokes were instrumental in England’s 2019 World Cup win. Babar Azam has been one of the best accumulators in ODI cricket since his debut. And Dravid was one of the best batters of his time, though not quite in limited overs apart from this campaign. And they all came into the tournament with a lot of experience, not in this case. Dravid played 80, Babar 64, Stokes 84, and Bairstow 63. Rachin had just 12!

Also, all the players in that list were above the age of 25, Rachin isn’t. And he has already equalled Tendulkar’s 1996 tally, a campaign which is talked of fondly by Indian fans even today. He also has a great shot at breaking the most runs ever by a batter in a single World Cup, 673 by Tendulkar in 2003. But he will have good competition from the likes of de Kock, Kohli, Warner and Rohit at the business end of the tournament.

Williamson is back like he never left (SAK)

What Kane Williamson has done is not normal. Let me tell you that an ACL tear derails the progress of an elite athlete for at least 6-9 months, taking that much time to heal. He surpassed Stephen Fleming after having played 9 innings less. Sure, it’s a different era now but the gap is still commendable, and Williamson deserves praise for it. Today the situation requires him to bat much differently as compared to 2019, when he had to play those anchoring knocks and carry the out-of-form NZ batting unit. And he did. 

I was genuinely shocked to see this. He has the highest average for any player in World Cups. Now, obviously, there are batters from the previous era with similar averages but much higher strike rates, forget the current era. But much of it is because of the match situation. He has played some terrific knocks in World Cups for his team. This doesn’t mean he is the best World Cup batter, but to be averaging more than ABD, Rohit, Warner and Virat from your own era definitely means something. 

Kane Williamson also covered a lot of ground for the catch to dismiss Abdullah. This was commendable athleticism despite his injuries.

Trent Boult in the Powerplay (SAK)

Much like Shaheen, Boult has also struggled with the new ball in the World Cup. He was basically averaging nothing in the lead-up, but he didn’t play too many games either.

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Australia flabby middle (JK)

The Aussies were bound to lose both openers for cheap eventually. And you could see how much they struggle after. Now in this game, it is fair to point out that Maxwell and Marsh are not there, so it was a bit different from their matches. But there is little doubt that Australia has been carried by their openers so far. 

The opening position averaged 50, and that is two batters of course. So the percentage of runs from up top has been incredible compared to all the other spots. But you see here just how much it towers over the others. 

You look at the partnerships this tournament and you can see how many of these Warner is in. So even when the middle is making runs, it is with an opener.