Bridgetown (Barbados): Defending champions England will look to restitch their T20 World Cup campaign through an improved bowling effort when they face ‘old’ rival Australia in a Group B match here on Saturday.
England’s opening game against Scotland was rained off after the latter made 90 for no loss in 10 overs, forcing the teams to take home a point each.
But even those 60 balls showed the need for England to buckle up in the bowling department, to begin with.
Scottish openers George Munsey and Michael Jones scored freely against all England bowlers, and Australia carry far more lethal guns in their line-up.
David Warner and Marcus Stoinis showed the extent of damage they can do while outclassing Oman in their tournament opener.
Once again, there will be a lot of focus on Jofra Archer, who gave away 12 runs in two overs against Scotland, as the pacer continues his comeback trail into top-flight cricket.
But bowling is just one part, as the English batters under skipper Jos Buttler, who had a good run in the IPL 2024, will have to fire in unison against the Aussie attack.
The Australian bowlers were potent against Oman even without Pat Cummins, who had a reasonable outing for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL.
Nathan Ellis played ahead of Cummins in that game, but Australia might bring back the premier pacer against a much more formidable opponent.
While Australia’s batting looks settled, the misfiring Glenn Maxwell remains a missing link.
After enduring a shipwreck of an IPL campaign with Royal Challengers Bengaluru recently, the ‘Big Show’ got out for a first-ball duck against Oman.
The 2021 champions will be eager to see Maxwell return to his best at the earliest, and a match against England offers him a perfect occasion.
SA face courageous Dutch
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South Africa might have trotted past Sri Lanka in their first match, but they have a tricky opponent in Netherlands in their second group D match in New York on Saturday.
The scars from their 38-run loss against the Dutch in last year’s 50-over World Cup might still be fresh in the minds of the Proteas.
The Aiden Markram-led side would certainly want a reversal this time around. The most encouraging signal from their win over Sri Lanka was the form of Anrich Nortje.
The pacer, who was a shadow of his intimidating self in the IPL, seemed to have regained his rhythm on a spicey New York pitch while grabbing four wickets against the Islanders.
Along with Kagiso Rabada, Nortje forms a strong combination upfront, and SA will require them in full flight against Netherlands, who started with a six-wicket win over Nepal.
They also ticked a few boxes in that match as frontline batter Max O’Dowd made a fifty while leading pacers Tim Pringle and Logan van Beek took three wickets apiece.
The Dutch side will be hoping for another clinical outing from their top players to bruise their fancied opponent once more.
