Image Credit- AP
There is one tale around Australia and the World Cup
that sticks out on its own and may not even be true.
The aura they bring to ICC competitions is not nearly
as effectively represented by the five gleaming gold trophies they have in the
cabinet as it is by seven brief words that may or may not have been uttered
right before the year 2000.
“Mate, you just dropped the World Cup”
Another excellent middle-order batter struck the ball
directly to the fielder twenty-four years later, and this one also ended up on
the ground.
A peculiar thread was developing in Lucknow on a warm
evening. It initially appeared in glimpses a few days ago in Chennai. Australia
missed the catch and spent the rest of the evening pondering what might have
been if their opponents were at 20 for 4.
That never occurs. Not during World Cups, for sure.
More than other countries, South Africa is familiar with this emotion. They
stand out among all the teams who have been victim to the Australian juju.
One of their own has referred to them in 2023 as
“a side put together at the last minute.” They are only 0.061 net
run-rate points away from finishing last in the 2023 championship standings.
They have the poorest fielding unit in 2023 with a 54% catching effectiveness. Their
juju has abandoned them as of 2023. Even worse, it appears to have changed
sides.
After hitting South Africa’s greatest bowler for
back-to-back fours, Australia’s top hitter was given out lbw, leaving him and
his partner at the other end speechless. Kagiso Rabada struck Steven Smith in
the pads, appearing to be missing the wickets. Or at the very least, the
umpire’s call, which in this instance was not out. However, all of a sudden,
three red lights appeared on the large screen, and all that was visible was the
last still HawkEye projection of the ball striking the leg stump. The
ball-tracking component was no longer there. Smith was forced to leave the
pitch and shook his head. A full replay of the shot with ball tracking that had
sufficiently hit the target was eventually televised.
With their seventh-wicket partnership at the crease
and a meagre total of 70, Australia has twice found themselves in a World Cup
contest. But that was between 1975 and 1983, before juju. One of the greatest
rivalries in the game, featuring moments like Mitchell Marsh essentially
tripping over himself and letting the ball sail over him for six and Sean
Abbott palming a relay catch to thin air, has received a lovely, neat little
twist with South Africa moving them back there.
These fielding mistakes can be fixed in practise, and
they should be, but what should worry us more is how Australia misunderstood
the conditions and wound up fighting them at every turn in this campaign—a
self-inflicted wound because they won both tosses. There is still time for Pat Cummins
and his team to launch a comeback with seven games remaining. The only
difference is that it no longer seems likely. It once was. but not anymore.