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2019 Cricket World Cup, Game 29, New Zealand v West Indies
About 80 per cent of Carlos Brathwaite’s international career has involved impossibly dramatic finishes in world tournaments. We’ve literally no idea what he does the rest of the time.
Carlos has a method in these situations. That method is to have a monumental and colossally effective slog.
It doesn’t all make sense.
This one went for six.
That made sense.
Spoiler alert: this one went for six too.
Again, that made sense.
But then look at this. Look at this classic ‘I’ve just hit a six’ follow-through.
That does not make sense. It was clear at that moment that Carlos Brathwaite was no longer operating in the terrestrial realm.
Now choosing to operate within the celestial realm was a great move from Brathwaite in one respect because it allowed him to hit sixes that would not have been possible under normal physical conditions. However, the flipside was that some other normal, everyday rules about how things work no longer applied either and this is what finally did for him.
Earlier this week, someone – we forget who – dollied a piss-easy catch pretty much directly at Trent Boult.
Boult gently trotted round to gather it and then, at the last moment, completely inexplicably jumped into the air.
The catch was not above Boult. It was about chest height, so jumping meant he had to jab his hands downwards. He deliberately unsteadied himself for the catch. It was demented. It didn’t work. He dropped the ball.
Earlier in the match against the West Indies, he dropped another. Boult has taken some unreal catches in his time, but very occasionally he can also seem like he has lubricated golf balls for hands.
With the West Indies needing just six runs to win, with one wicket remaining, Carlos Brathwaite did what he does best and pongoed the ball towards the boundary.
This is how Trent Boult made contact with the ball.
And this is where he ended up, having successfully caught the ball.
With literally the whole outcome of the match on the line and Brathwaite defying physics, Boult skirted the boundary and caught a cricket ball.
Seeing what had happened, Brathwaite sank to the floor and visibly retreated into hibernation until the next world tournament.
I’ve got West Indies in a sweepstake. Fair to say I’m probably not going to win the money.
Ps every great catch just reminds us that Chris Jordan should be playing in this tournament.
Given that our extra seamer doesn’t seem likely to get a game anyway, Chris Jordan as a specialist fielding sub seems a reasonable shout!
Justin Langer on Tuesday’s match: ‘I literally can’t wait.’
Is he going to try to play the game on Monday?
IZATULLAH DAWLATZAI UPDATE
I don’t remember exactly why I was looking up this year’s Germany v Jersey score in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Europe Region Final but some part of my brain must have known that Izatullah Dawlatzai would naturally be involved.
Not only did he open the bowling for Germany and put the pressure on Jersey with 0-15 off his four overs, he only went and tonked the winning runs in the chase. Coming in at 110/7 and requiring 26 for victory, he smashed 24 (10).
Good ol’ Izatullah Dawlatzai.
In are you haven’t seen this a few threads back, you can watch his entire innings online – good fun though he didn’t quite hit the runs fast enough in the end! They were just a couple of balls away from going to the main World Cup Qualifier with the likes of Zimbabwe, Ireland, Scotland, UAE, the Netherlands and Kenya. Germany have a very strong squad at the moment (four County players by birth or ancestry/passport, plus Dawlatzai who played a couple of full ODIs for Afghanistan) so might well have picked up a few scalps.
The pivotal Jersey v Germany match is available to watch, with commentary and graphics (often a few balls out of date) and occasionally wind-shaken camera-work at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsSEdkbC4PE
Richardson (Durham) and Meschede (Glamorgan, ex Somerset) open the batting in Germany’s reply at about 2:09. It’s interesting to see how they cope with a team of amateurs (mostly – Jersey’s Jonty Jenner plays for Sussex, usually in the second XI, and was a sub fielder for England in a Test against South Africa a couple of years ago).
But the passage of play from 2:52 is the best. Fascinating, entertaining and genuinely tense as Germany try to chase the runs down in an ambitious 14 overs to potentially overtake Jersey on NRR and reach the main World T20 Qualifier – sixes, wickets, everything in between. I probably enjoyed it more than I have most World Cup highlights. The complete confusion at the end of the game is surreal and rather wonderful.
In case* not “in are”…
I wish pak/bgd/wi had pongoed even a couple of games in their favour, and this would’ve been a very different tournament. Happy to see SA off, they’re kind of useless at this, though this time they caused a different kind of heartache.
This reminded me of ‘bongo’ which meant everything from cash, drugs, general equipment, luggage, to desirable woman, when I was in congo (the relatively good bit) for work. Not joking, ‘bongo’ is slang for each of these, depending on the context.
Wait, so you could go to an ATM for some bongo and come back home with a desirable woman?
Certainly, my friend, most certainly.
Shakib! Player of the tournament so far. If Bangladesh get into the semis at England’s expense, at least we’ll still have Shakib.
A probably(-or-definitely)-won’t-qualify XI:
Karunaratne
de Kock (wk)
Gayle
Babar Azam
Shakib
Brathwaite
Nabi
Tahir
Malinga
Thomas
Amir
Add Root and Archer to there.
Is this the Through The England v Australia thread?
If we lose this game I might cry.
*Probably*
How’re those hankies looking Sam?
That’s a bit of a personal question.
I presume the ‘England are better chasing 350 than 230’ theory will be tested today
Smart move to bowl so badly really.
It’s clear that Jason Roy needs play the next game even it’s with a runner. Failing that open with Moeen/Woakes and get TC or Plunkett in down the order. Anything not to have to hear about how Vince is too talented not to come good eventually.
Have Australia been match fixing for the past 3 years?
They’ve spent this four-year World Cup cycle using their losses up in a more efficient way than England.
See, you lot have no idea. There you all were thinking England were going to come up well short of Australia’s impressive 340 or so, whereas instead they have opted to fail against a modest 285. There is literally no total too small for this England side to fail to chase.
Can I go home and start crying yet?
Why do you have to go home to start?
Good point. There are perfectly serviceable toilet cubicles right here.
Looked like the delivery that got Buttler was a no ball to me, but Sky haven’t shown a replay :/