“Talent wins games, but teamwork wins championship”. That is exactly what happened to this Australian side.
Chasing a below-par total of 119 against South Africa in their opening game, they were reduced to 81 for 5 with 28 balls left. A situation similar to their semi-final clash against Pakistan where they had lost three wickets in quick session to a phenomenal Shadab Khan.
But despite the batting collapse, they managed to finish on the right side of the result, with two balls to spare. Partnership between Marcus Stoinis and Matthew Wade, 41 off 26 balls, was really the key. As it was against Pakistan where the same duo made 81 runs off just 40 balls.
But in the lead-up to the tournament not many had predicted Australia to end up on the podium. This must be a rarity in the history of cricket, yet they finished on the top.
In addition to this, their defeat against England. That one came in a very dominating manner when the English side finished the game halfway through of their innings. To make a comeback from their and finish on top requires something exceptional, both from the management and from the players.
With all due respect to David Warner’s performance in this tournament, which saw him grabbing the Player Of The Tournament prize and finishing as second-most-run getter behind Babar Azam. Alongside Mitchell March’s and Matthew Wade’s performances, they are not the real heroes. Josh Hazlewood and Adam Zampa are. Notably when Starc was not in the greatest form and they only played with four full bowlers.
Remember, batters win you the game, but bowlers win you the tournament. These two bowlers together picked close to 60 percent of Australia’s wickets in this tournament. Zampa finished on 13 wickets and Hazlewood on 11. Trent Boult and Ish Sodhi are the other duo who starred for their side, picking 22 of 38 wickets.
Hazlewood’s excellence and talent saw him setting the game up brilliantly for the Aussies. He grabbed seven wickets in the powerplay, which is most by any bowler. He backed his strength to bowl the test-match line and length which resulted in success.
That was demonstrated brilliantly in Daryl Mitchell’s dismissal where he bowled three consecutive back-of-the-length delivery just outside off-stump. The dismissal delivery sticks to the pitch a bit more, which is all needed to send him back.
Middle over king
Once the powerplay ended, magical Zampa came to the party. He struck 13 times during those middle overs.
“With the team that we have got, the big three will bowl in the powerplay and Maxwell bowling a couple of overs, my job is to get wickets in the middle and make it easy for the guys at the back end”, said Adam Zampa at the post-match presentation, after defeating Sri Lanka.
Since the tournament was played in the subcontinent, spin’s roll was crucial already. But not many experts and pundits expected Adam Zampa to be that good in these conditions. Add to that, he had not played a competitive game since 9th of August, which was against Bangladesh.
In spite of lack of game time, he stood tall whenever his team was in need. Especially in the semi-final against Pakistan where he dismissed in-form Babar Azam. A match which was going at almost 9-runs-per-over and Starc and Hazlewood being hit around the park, he bowled his quota of four overs silently, conceding only 22 runs.
That shows why he should have been the Player Of The Tournament. That also shows how important Josh Hazlewood and Adam Zampa has been for Australia to lift the World Cup trophy for the very first time in their history.
