Best laid plans not enough to ensure Aussies progress

While injuries forced their hand with a couple of changes, Australia have confirmed the other alterations to the line-up for last night's T20 World Cup game against Afghanistan were discretionary and prompted by the search for a tactical advantage.

Although their last-gasp, four-run win made for a thrilling end to the reigning champions' Super 12s campaign, it delivered neither the lift in net run rate they needed to peg back Group 1 rivals England nor the decisive outcomes selectors were searching for.

The decision to omit fast-bowling spearhead Mitchell Starc in favour of specialist 'death bowler' Kane Richardson saw the latter taken for 16 runs in his final over as Afghanistan allrounder Rashid Khan carried his team to within one trademark blow of an historic win.

Australia assistant coach Daniel Vettori said the rationale for making the switch was to utilise fellow fast bowlers Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood with the new ball in a bid to claim early wickets, with Richardson to take on the 'death bowling' role.

"That was a tactical decision," Vettori said at game's end.

"It was more about the effectiveness of Hazlewood and Cummins at the top, and their ability to take the new ball and be wicket-takers.

"Therefore that pushed Starcy into a different role, and he came up against Kane Richardson and it was thought amongst the hierarchy that Kane was exceptional at the death, and so to utilise him there as opposed to Mitch.

"In his first over, he (Richardson) was incredibly unlucky.

"He could have had two wickets and then suddenly the whole game's turned, and that first breakthrough (of Rahmanullah Gurbaz) was a big wicket for us because he played so well and had been so aggressive.

"So we reflect on that, and I think Richo himself would say that he probably missed at the back end of two overs.

"But apart from that, the majority of his spell was what we expected."

In addition, the reshuffling of the batting order in the absence of injured duo Aaron Finch and Tim David similarly failed to yield dividends, with replacement opener Cameron Green falling for one and Steve Smith out for four having been installed at number four.

And it was not only Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott and his players who were surprised by the change in Australia's set-up when they noted Richardson marking out his run-up pre-game while Starc assisted with warm-up fielding drills.

Australia's top-scorer Glenn Maxwell (54 not out off 32 balls) admitted he was preparing to bat in his regular top-order role last night before being advised by assistant coach Michael Di Venuto he would be slotted in further down the list.

"We lost the first wicket, and I came out thinking I was at five and Divva (Di Venuto) gave me a tap on the shoulder and said 'I think you're at six'," Maxwell said in the wake of Australia's narrow win that leaves them needing Sri Lanka to defeat England this evening to progress to the finals.

"I said 'okay, no worries', and left my gear there and went back inside.

"So there wasn't a whole lot of conversation about.

"I knew it was going to be a fluid batting order, and that we were going to put people out for the best time of the game.

"Unfortunately for us, we were at every stage probably just one wicket too many down to go as hard as we would have liked.

"But in saying that, we still had complete and utter faith in our batting line-up to get the job done."

Maxwell conceded the new configuration meant that by the time he reached the middle, with Australia 4-86 in the 11th over and struggling to accelerate, he was forced to play more conservatively then would previously have been the case because of the paucity of batting to follow.

"Batting at six, there wasn't as much behind me to allow me to go hell for leather and try and strike at (a rate of) 250 consistently," he said.

"It was really weird trying to safe slog, or safe power hit."

Vettori said that while Australia understood the need to post a hefty score in order to boost the net run rate that had suffered from their heavy first-up defeat to New Zealand, the loss of Smith's wicket to the final ball of the six-over powerplay meant earlier plans were revised.

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"If we'd got through that powerplay then Maxwell would have been an option, but it's more about his ability to play spin," Vettori said.

"We saw again how effective he was, and (Marcus) Stoinis has been incredible this tournament so there was no desire to move him away from that number five spot.

"Then Smith comes in, and you try to put him in a role that he can be highly effective, so it was Maxy who jumped down to that number six spot.

"We knew that the win was potentially all we could get because of the respect for the Afghanistan side.

"There's huge admiration for that bowling attack, particularly (Fazalhaq) Farooqi at the top and Naveen (ul-Haq) who came in tonight and was exceptional.

"There was no complacency around how hard this game was going to be, so to think of scoring 200 and then bowling them out for 100 to get above the run rate was always going to be a challenge."

The other element that played a significant role in how the game played out was the coin toss, with stand-in skipper Matthew Wade acknowledging if it had landed in his favour he would have taken the option chosen by rival captain Mohammad Nabi who decided to bowl first.

Image Id: https://www.cricket.com.au/~/media/News/2022/11/04Rashidembed?la=en&hash=74E2CA6FC8E59E6A18095B4EFD64663AFB9C7441 Image Caption: A Rashid Khan cameo almost dragged Afghanistan over the line // Getty

As Maxwell later explained, the difference in the Adelaide Oval surface when Australia batted in the late afternoon compared to when Afghanistan began their pursuit of 168 under lights in the evening was crucial to what followed.

"After the first or second over, the ball didn't move much and skidded on nicely," Maxwell said, noting the changed conditions helped negate Australia's plans to attack with the new ball.

"And they played some serious shots as well.

"I thought we responded well to hold them back and kept fighting hard (but) the difference in conditions from first innings to the second was as big as I've seen for a long time."

With their fate for the tournament now beyond their control, the defending World Cup champions reflect on a Super 12s campaign that has yielded a solitary defeat – the costly slip up against New Zealand – yet the very real potential it will end at the group stage.

While conceding it was the hit they took to their net run rate from the 89-run loss to the Black Caps first-up that has effectively nobbled their Cup defence, Maxwell also concedes the highly fancied outfit has been unable to rediscover the form that landed them the trophy in the UAE last year.

"We probably haven't put the complete game together," Maxwell said.

Image Id: https://www.cricket.com.au/~/media/News/2022/11/04Maxiembed?la=en&hash=837B90CCAD5A98E5C97AF23FA784872338CA080B Image Caption: Maxwell’s 50 came up off just 29 balls // Getty

"There was a couple of games last year during the World Cup where we probably did – against Bangladesh, West Indies and Sri Lanka, we played almost the complete games back- to-back.

"We were pretty sharp in all areas of the game, and we've probably missed a few opportunities this year.

"I feel like batters have got starts but haven't gone big, and I don't think we've got any batters in the top ten runs scorers for the tournament and we probably haven't got the high wicket-takers either.

"We've just been chipping away, bits and pieces here and there.

"And it was probably the longest lead-in we've ever had.

"What did we have – 15 games (against West Indies, England and India) in all sorts of places, in some pretty average conditions.

"Once that 15th game was finished against India at the Gabba, the feeling around the group was almost a sigh of relief.

"We got through all the pain and now we can start the tournament.

"We were so excited to get the tournament underway."

However, when they missed the start and fell heavily to New Zealand, it was always going to be tough to catch up from such a long way back.

"It was the New Zealand game unfortunately," Vettori said when asked if there was a decisive moment in the campaign that now depends entirely on Sri Lanka defeating England.

"Those are results in short tournaments that can really effect you."

Men's T20 World Cup 2022

Australia squad: Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Tim David, Aaron Finch (c), Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa

Australia's fixtures

Oct 22: Lost to New Zealand by 89 runs

Oct 25: Beat Sri Lanka by seven wickets

Oct 28: Match abandoned v England

Oct 31: Beat Ireland by 42 runs

Nov 4: Beat Afghanistan by four runs

Click here for the full 2022 T20 World Cup fixture