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Good to see the Aussies make the Poms sweat for most of their win over Scotland today....gutted for Scotland, as their last few overs were the worst they have played throughout this tournament.. So close but no cigar sadly for the Scots.

 

It was a pretty sloppy effort by the Aussies particularly in the field. They would want to improve on that for the encounters against India etc

England flexed their muscles against the West Indies today and are looking pretty scary all of a sudden. Archer is a real point of difference for them and he stopped a promising West Indies batting performance in its tracks with one brilliant over.
Does anyone else think this super 8 concept is overkill?  You could get the situation if the results go a particular way that the last few super 8 games may be irrelevant as the semi finalists could have been decided.
I reckon it would have been better just to play knockout games after the group stage ( i.e Quarter finals then semis)



 

Mikey i was thinking that with the super 8's I reckon they could have just had two groups and everyone plays more games in the first round then the top 4 from each division goes through to cut throat for the later part of the tournament.

If the Aussies bat well they will have a good result shortly

Agree that system would be much better. Case in point is that if Australia beat Afghanistan and India beat Bangladesh in the next round of games, this will make the last 2 matches completely irrelevant because the semi finalists will have already been decided. Australia did what they had to do today against an opposition that had no real belief in themselves. Afghanistan could be a different proposition particularly on a turning pitch with the quality of their spinners. Mitch Marshes form is becoming a bit of a concern.
The England v South Africa game tonight is massive as the winner will be the first into the semi finals. England are certainly coming good at the right time and will be hard to beat

The WI self imploded in the field with dropped catches, and Shepherd coughing up 30 runs to Phil Salt in that Eng win. I think SA will challenge Eng when they meet, as SA batting line up hasn't clicked yet and Rabada, Nortje and Jansen are a huge step up than that WI bowling line up.

Aust and India for me to gp through, it looks like Afghanistan have tapered off from their bright start to the comp.

Fantastic result for Afghanistan. Outplayed Australia in all 3 aspects of the game and wanted to win so much more. They are now in the box seat to qualify as they may only need to beat Bangladesh to make the semis. Even if Australia beat India it could come down to run rates.

It was a disasterous day for the Aussies, from strange team selection ( Agar for Starc was mystifying), choosing to bowl first when all the history of this ground pointed to batting and then a sloppy effort in the field.
The batting was abysmal apart from Maxwell and once Afghanistan got him, it was all over.

I detected a touch of arrogance in their play and they didnt like the way the opposition got in their faces. It almost seemed like they just rocked up expecting to cruise home and got a nasty shock when Afghanistan had other ideas.

Lazy effort by Aust.....kudos to Afghanistan for the win, fully deserved. I reckon if Cummins had of been captain, folk would of butchered him for batting first, but since it's a WA boy in Marsh, no doubt it was the Victirian's fault.....anyway dumb decision to bowl first, whoever's decision it was. Agreed mikeh, Aust reeked of arrogance in this match....you reap what you sow I guess.

I think they have inflated opinions of their ability in this format. Don't forget Scotland scored 180 a week ago against their bowlers and they only just scraped home. Apart from the win against England they have just been beating up minnow teams. Many of the players are living on their past reputations. A number of them were sitting on the bench for their IPL teams. The only players who have played consistently through this tournament are Warner (ironically), Starc (still can't believe he was dropped today) Cummins and Zampa. They will play better against India but I doubt it will be enough to beat them and squeeze into the semi finals

TBH Australia have never been a great 20/20 team apart from that one unexpected title in Dubai but thats fine as long as they continue to be competitive in tests and ODIs..

Time now for a total refresh looking towards the next T20 world cup with Fraser -McGurk, Bartlett, Johnson, Matt Short, Sangha, Hardie etc to get more opportunities in White ball cricket

I think you are right Mikey - unless we do something amazing against India this will be the end of a generation of T20 cricketers and a chance to bring in a whole new batch with a view towards the 2026 championship in India