Stoinis carries IPL gains into crucial World Cup role

When Marcus Stoinis started his innings at Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Zayed Stadium last night, he could well have been in Southampton 13 months earlier.

Just like the game at the Rose Bowl against England last year, Australia's first since the pandemic had upended their plans for a home World Cup, Stoinis was faced with the latter stages of a run chase that had appeared to be a formality until a late cluster of wickets.

And just like last year, Stoinis began slowly against an emboldened fielding side suddenly sensing an unlikely win, failing to score off his first two balls and creeping to nine from 10 deliveries as the required rate ballooned beyond 10 runs an over.

But unlike last year, when Stoinis was unable to connect with a handful of powerful swipes in the final overs as England escaped with a two-run win, this time he seized his moment.

The powerful right-hander muscled 15 runs from the final six balls he faced, including three boundaries, to secure victory over South Africa with two deliveries to spare.

There were some notable differences between the two occasions, not least the input against the Proteas of Matthew Wade, who also played an impressive late cameo to ease the burden on Australia's No.6 and lessen the scrutiny on himself as a late-order hitter.

Image Id: BB3CF659F32C44B6A3C11C0FBA188AE9 Image Caption: Stoinis couldn't get Australia home in Southampton last year // Getty

But the most noteworthy difference was Stoinis himself, perhaps emboldened by some similarly ice-cool performances in the past two Indian Premier League campaigns, where he's become one of Ricky Ponting's most reliable players at the Delhi Capitals.

In the past year, Stoinis has come to the crease after the 10th over of a run chase on nine occasions in all T20 cricket and produced exactly 200 runs at a strike rate of 179.

Six of those nine games have resulted in victories – Stoinis was not out on four of those occasions – and a deeper dive reveals some performances that are worth far more than they appear on a stats sheet.

There was his innings of 10 not out off five balls against the Royal Challengers Bangalore, 14 off nine against Chennai, and 27 not out off 13 against the Punjab Kings, all in wins that were secured with fewer than 10 balls left in the match.

If experience is the best teacher, Stoinis has learnt a lot since that defeat in Southampton.

"I won't lie, there was a bit of a feeling of, 'here we go again, there's a run chase on here'," he said after finishing with 24no off 16 balls against the Proteas.

"It was nice to get that one over the line.

"The main thing for me there was actually just trying to stay as calm as I can – and for a Greek-Australian, that's pretty hard.

"You saw a bit of emotion come out toward the end. But the main thing is Wadey and I were communicating, trying to sort out who was going to bowl each over, make a plan and then stay calm from there."

Stoinis has understandably grown tired of the narrative surrounding Australia's long search for a short-form finisher and whether he's best suited to batting in the middle order or at the top.

The Southampton loss had triggered yet another chapter in that discussion; vice-captain Pat Cummins publicly backed Stoinis to be a long-term finishing option, he was shuffled up the order to No.3 for the final game of the series, before Ponting stated he would prefer Stoinis to open despite mostly batting him in the middle order at Delhi due to the franchise's depth of top-order Indian talent.

Stoinis smiled wryly when he was inevitably asked the question again following the win against the Proteas, and calmly swatted it away just as he had their bowlers only minutes earlier.

"I know there's a lot of questions around that sort of stuff," he said. "But all we can do as players is play the role that we get picked to play."

Right now, the role for Stoinis is to finish the innings for his country at a World Cup, and his success or otherwise over the next three weeks will go a long way to determining their fate.

2021 Men's T20 World Cup

Australia's squad

Aaron Finch (c), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins (vc), Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa. Travelling reserves: Dan Christian, Nathan Ellis, Daniel Sams

Australia's matches

Oct 23:Australia beat South Africa by five wickets

Oct 28v Sri Lanka in Dubai (6pm local time, 1am Oct 29 AEDT)

Oct 30v England in Dubai (6pm local time, 1am Oct 31 AEDT)

Nov 4v Bangladesh in Dubai (2pm local time, 9pm AEDT)

Nov 6v West Indies in Abu Dhabi (2pm local time, 9pm AEDT)

All matches live and exclusive on Fox Cricket, available on Kayo Sports.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL 2021 ICC T20 WORLD CUP SCHEDULE

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL SQUADS FOR ALL 16 TEAMS

Super 12 stage

Group 1: England, Australia, South Africa, West Indies, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh

Group 2: India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Afghanistan, Scotland, Namibia