In a long overdue victory, Australia has captured the T20 World Cup in front of their home crowd. The team’s record-breaking performance was not without controversy with some questioning whether they had been offered unfair advantages from governing body ICC
The “t20 world cup winners” is the title that Australia have won. The final was a close game, but Australia came good in the end.
Cricket. Twenty-two individuals tossed a ball about, and Australia emerged victorious.
Never mind that they had lost 15 of their previous 21 Twenty20 matches and five of their previous five Twenty20 series. They were left holding yet another trophy when it counted the most.
Australia’s men added the one piece of limited-overs silverware to their collection by winning the T20 World Cup. They have won eight world crowns in different forms, more than any other team.
Furthermore, Australia’s women are the current T20 global champions and are expected to win the 50-over World Cup this spring. Both men and women hold the Ashes, and it would be surprising if that changed in the coming months.
The Ashes, of course.
On the one hand, there is a case to be made that Test cricket and T20 cricket are so unlike that the World Cup’s conclusion will have no influence on what occurs when the first Ashes Test begins on December 8.
But, given the animosity between the two teams and the fact that England seemed to be sweeping everything in their path to become double world champions, it seems like it signifies… something.
England was so open about their desire to win the World Cup that Test cricket was sometimes overlooked.
Australia had scarcely known their strongest players, had openly questioned coach Justin Langer’s methodsexternal-link, and were thrashed by England in the group stage, yet still won the World Cup.
Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please
Imagine the difference in attitudes when the two teams flying to Australia for the Ashes meet on the same aircraft on Monday.
England bowler Mark Wood remarked on his Good Pace For Radio podcast before the final that an Australia victory would be “unbearable.”
“You can look them in the eye and say ‘well done,’ but the last thing you want when you’re ready to travel out for an Ashes series against them is for them to feel confident and wave a trophy around in your face before you’ve even arrived,” he remarked.
The fact that Australia was not supposed to win the event is consistent with the competition’s unusual history, which has produced six different winners in seven editions.
Australia has stumbled across the winning recipe at the opportune time, much as England did in 2010, when they were so uncomfortable that they altered their starting pair after a Lions side upset the senior XI, only to go on to win the cup.
T20 World Cups aren’t about being the greatest side; they’re about peaking at the appropriate moment, which may be a specific over or even a single delivery – remember Carlos Brathwaite’s attack on Ben Stokes in the final five years ago, or Australia and New Zealand’s semi-final surprise victory this time around.
Despite Kane Williamson’s spectacular 85, Australia bullied their smaller siblings in the Trans-Tasman final on Sunday.
Even though Mitchell Starc gave up 60 runs in four overs – a stretch so bad that we were perfectly justified in thinking he bowls to the left and right – the remainder of the game was pure Australia.
Josh Hazlewood, the human metronome and Glenn McGrath’s successor, dominated with 3-16 from four overs, a frugal session in which he put down 18 dot balls.
David Warner, a villain so fitted to pantomime that he might be King Rat in Dick Whittington, led the canter of a pursuit.
Warner, who was dumped by his Indian Premier League team Sunrisers Hyderabad because he was not performing at his best, will enter the Ashes with his tyres pumped as the World Cup’s second-highest run-scorer and player of the tournament.
Langer even managed a grin. During the drinks break, he threw an arm over Warner, stood in the dressing room and cheered, and in the moment of triumph, he distributed out bearhugs.
Even yet, it’s possible that it won’t be enough to keep his job or give him the opportunity to defend his championship on home soil in a year’s time. Despite having the Ashes and the T20 World Cup in his back pocket, his contract ends in the new year, and it’s possible he won’t be kept.
Langer was the one who brags about his players’ “tight connections.” Marcus Stoinis went even farther, claiming that they “really adore one other.”
When it came to New Zealand, everyone’s favorite second team, it was a meek surrender when the stakes were highest.
Yes, they lost the toss, but the Black Caps would have been trounced even more thoroughly if it hadn’t been for Williamson’s smooth flip between piano movement and piano playing. Even their fielding was a letdown.
Still, it’s time to stop being surprised when New Zealand wins, as if being nice guys from a little nation is a barrier to becoming a great cricket team.
Williamson’s side are the global Test champions, were one match away from winning the World Cup in 2019 thanks to an incredible ricochet off Stokes’ bat, and are just one match away this time.
They are smiling assassins, not good men who finish last. Stallions ready to mate, not dark horses. Big dogs, not underdogs.
But tonight was all about Australia. In 2021, they lost a tough home Test series to India, as well as devastating T20 series defeats to Bangladesh and the West Indies.
It’s only fitting, therefore, that Australian cricket has been resurrected just in time for the Ashes series.
The “t 20” is the top level cricket league in Australia. The final of this league was between Australia and New Zealand. Australia came out on top, winning by 6 wickets.
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