debtOr a few hours ago, you could feel the heat boiling over as the night drew on in St. Lucia. In Caribbean bars, it rose among tourists watching muted TVs. On the Internet, it rose, albeit slowly, with most of the likely candidates sleeping in Britain, among late-night listeners and expats scattered across time zones. Reflected in profiles with a St. George’s cross emoji in their display names, they bristled at one concern:
A win for Scotland against Australia would mean England would be eliminated from the T20 World Cup. Scotland were not supposed to be strong enough to beat Australia, but Australia dropped six catches and Scotland stormed to 92 in the first nine overs.
Accusations were beginning to be made, either playfully or in earnest, that Australia were abandoning the match in order to get rid of England. Scotland’s innings slowed down in the latter stages but they reached 180, one of the highest totals of the tournament.
Then came a strangely reserved chase, more singles than big strikes, and wickets taken at regular intervals. The fury reached fever pitch in the 14th over, when Australia needed 87 from 39 balls. In their beds across England, newspaper columnists who pay attention to cricket for their once-yearly opportunity to get angry began to buzz. The scene would end in an explosion of self-righteousness, building up the indignation from a fortnight a year ago when Jonny Bairstow was hanging out at Lord’s to match this latest imagined insult.
Then Marcus Stoinis hit two sixes and two fours. Travis Head decided he was ready to let Suffian Sharif hit three sixes in three balls. Tim David ensured the batting didn’t falter. Australia scored with two balls to spare and it was another piece of the Union Jack that left the tournament at the first dismissal. The blame was gone. The resentment that was threatening to spill out had to be reabsorbed. Sales of antacids must have risen like a backflow.
For today’s international teams to lose games on purpose is easy to say but nearly impossible to execute.
Any decision to even try would subject all players to career-ending sporting and criminal sanctions. There must be a clear agreement among most members of the XI. It can only be done by discussion, and then it must be hushed up. Australians know better than anyone that telling investigators exactly what they’re doing never leads to good results.
It’s easy to imagine you’re looking at something specific. A searcher in the forest, turning his head for every twig that breaks. The human brain peers through the noise to find patterns. The country that sets the world’s fielding standard would never drop six catches, right? Except, in last year’s One-Day World Cup, Australia dropped six catches against South Africa, losing a game they desperately wanted to win.
Were they clearly short of strength, resting Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood? If it weakened the team to bring back striker Mitchell Starc, or to use Nathan Ellis, who had only played in three of his four pool matches, or to use Ashton Agar, who had taken a wicket within six balls as an opener. What about Glenn Maxwell’s two return after bowling costly overs? On both occasions he took a wicket and decisively slowed Scotland’s pace. Among the dropped balls was Head’s flight into the air, Adam Zampa’s diving at fine leg and a flash edge to the upturned wicketkeeper, and it was a bad day for Mitch Marsh, who nearly broke a finger while trying to bowl.
After newsletter promotion
There’s still a fair amount of ill-feeling from some supporters over the Australia-England match that lit up last year’s Ashes. There’s a tireless barrage of diatribes about moral victories and sandpaper. The rivalry has always been there but the tone feels cheap. There hasn’t been much of a response from the players themselves, but Bairstow still simmers like a paella of resentment and the Australian players have made matters worse by appearing as thoughtlessly smirking mugshots in the promotional flurry for Jeff Bezos’ latest production.
To claim match fixing after a few overs carries weight. It belittles both the seriousness of the Australian team and the calibre of the Scottish team. A Territory team that nearly beat two of the three richest nations to reach the Super 8 stage should be given credit for its achievements, not used as props in the never-ending psychological drama between the other two nations. Only by showing sincerity can they claim betrayal of sporting sins.
In the final over, David hit it deep over midwicket for a six. If Chris Sohl had caught it, Australia would have needed three runs from three balls for Agar. He could have won the match with one hit. He could have swung twice in the air and chipped the catch. Even if it had been the latter, Australia would have made the same effort, staged the same dramatic comeback, used the same tactics. The effort would have been exactly the same. The interpretation of the result would have been completely opposite.
