T20 World Cup: Australia exit, Zimbabwe qualify for Super 8s

Rain in Pallekele eliminated Australia from the T20 World Cup, allowing Zimbabwe to advance to the Super Eights for the first time since 2003.

Kolkata: Rain in Pallekele knocked Australia out of the World Cup and sent Zimbabwe into the Super Eights of the T20 World Cup on Tuesday. The match between Ireland and Zimbabwe was abandoned without a ball being bowled, meaning Zimbabwe—with five points—made it to the second round of a World Cup for the first time since 2003.

Zimbabwe and Ireland team players shake hands after their match was called off due to rain. (AFP)

So little has gone right for Australia that it wasn’t surprising that a rained out match finally put an end to their misery. The last league match against Oman now of academic interest.

Australia were shocked by Zimbabwe before Sri Lanka thrashed them by eight wickets on Monday to leave their fate hanging on other matches and permutations and combinations. For the third consecutive T20 World Cup Australia haven’t made the semi-finals, 2021 being the last time they featured in the last four, going on to win the tournament.

It’s a turn of fortune they couldn’t have envisaged going into this event. Worse still, the elimination came a day after Steve Smith was finally announced as a replacement in the team for the injured Josh Hazlewood, a last ditch corrective measure aimed at bolstering their batting.

By the way, Smith was in Sri Lanka all this while. That the selectors chose to wait till before Monday’s game against Sri Lanka to officially induct him in the squad when they were down to 13 fit players after Mitchell Marsh was injured speaks volumes about the indecision in their ranks.

More puzzling was the decision to drop Matt Renshaw, who had top-scored with 65 against Zimbabwe, to accommodate Marsh, but retain Cameron Green who now has scores of 21, 0 and 3. Green at No.3 reaffirms Australia’s idea of presenting themselves as a side packed with allrounders with power-hitting ability but the scores suggest he is no Marcus Stoinis.

The problems actually start from the top. Travis Head has scored a fifty against Sri Lanka but his average in 12 innings previous to that was 12.83 at a strike rate of 125. Between Josh Inglis, Glenn Maxwell and Green, the highest score in three matches of this World Cup is 37. Tim David—he missed the Ireland game due to a hamstring issue—was supposed to be the middle-overs enforcer but 0 against Zimbabwe and 6 against Sri Lanka scuppered those plans for Australia.