ICC favors India, life after David Warner, Afghanistan’s unfair tactics: Australian media after team’s exit from World Cup

The downside of a historic rise is always the fall of a powerful force. Most often, it is built on the remains of one of the strongest. Afghanistan’s first entry into the T20 World Cup semi-finals came at the expense of Australia.

In sport, there are very few forces like the Australian cricket team. Six World Cups, a World Test Championship, an ICC Champions Trophy and unrivaled dominance over most bilateral teams: Australia’s success is unrivaled over the past three decades.

They started this World Cup in similar fashion, beating their opponents to top their group and entering the Super Eights as one of the favourites to add another title to their glittering cabinet.

But it only took one day of rest on the field for them to find themselves on the brink. The courage, determination and intelligence of Afghanistan, which knew how to exploit the conditions in its favor, were at the origin of the fall of Australia. Rashid Khan’s men beat the Kangaroos by 21 points to open Group 1.

Australia, however, still had matters in their hands. All they had to do was beat India. Easier to say, it’s done, right? Of course! But when Australia’s back is against the wall, they usually come out on top, especially if it’s a World Cup. But this time they come up against a possessed Indian captain. It was like Rohit Sharma being told that the only way to express his anger was to bash the Australian bowlers. His incredibly brutal yet elegant onslaught and Kuldeep Yadav’s exceptional wrist spin sounded the death knell for Australia.

The team led by Mitchell Marsh were now hoping against hope. They needed Bangladesh to beat Afghanistan in the final match of the Super Eight, but not by a big margin. Glenn Maxwell struggled to remember the last time Australia found themselves at the mercy of another team to qualify for the next round of a World Cup. Captain Mitchell Marsh did not hesitate to openly say: “Go Bangladesh”.

But nothing worked. Afghanistan produced another spirited display to beat Bangladesh by eight runs (via DLS method) to enter the semi-final and the record books.

Australia suffered an unceremonious exit. This was the second consecutive T20 World Cup where Australia could not qualify for the semi-finals.

How Australian media reacted to their team’s exit from the T20 World Cup

Discussions in the Australian media have revolved around three things: life after David Warner, who played his last match in Australian colours, the alleged “unfair” actions taken by Afghanistan in the match against Bangladesh and the schedule of the ICC.

“How a mind-blowing program fascinated Australians and pampered India” was the title of an article published in the Sun Herald which talked about how Australia played consecutive day, night and day matches in the Super Eight stage, while all of India’s matches in the tournament were day matches tailored to their viewers.

The Syndey Morning HeraldThe headline in the cricket section read: “Drama and farce reign, but Australia don’t deserve a World Cup semi-final.” He discussed the shortcomings of Australia’s T20I team, but also criticized Gulbadin Naib’s ‘fake’ injury, which was used as a delaying tactic during the Afghanistan vs Bangladesh match.

“Warner underlined his value to the Australian team in their final tournament, scoring half-centuries against Bangladesh and Oman. But his most significant contribution came against England in Barbados, where he slammed four six in a Powerplay blitz with Travis Head,” wrote Cricket.com.au.

Fox Cricket cited Mitchell Marsh to indicate the need for a change in Australia’s T20I setup. “Australia’s T20 captain Mitch Marsh says some of the veteran squad members who failed to qualify for the World Cup semi-finals will have to “make decisions” about their future in part of the review of the failed campaign,” they wrote.