Just a week out from the Twenty20 World Cup Aaron Finch sent up a warning flare which brought back vivid memories of Australia’s failed home title defence 30 years ago.
“I think the guys are probably a little bit tired at the moment in all honesty,” Finch said last Friday in Canberra after rain washed out what was heading towards a third successive T20 loss to England. “The schedule has been so packed over the last six or eight weeks.”
The sight of Finch, holing out first ball for another low score, brings to mind memories of Geoff Marsh, pushing innocuous off-breaks from Dipak Patel back to the bowler during the second over of the 1992 World Cup’s opening match, on the way to 19 from 56 balls. Marsh was dropped later in the tournament and never play for Australia again.
Here were key opening batsmen struggling in exhausted and unsettled teams attempting to defend unexpected World Cup victories.
In 1987 Australia came from nowhere to win their first World Cup in India.
Likewise, unrated Australia were surprise winners of their inaugural T20 World Cup last year in Dubai.
Australian Twenty20 captain Aaron Finch.Credit:Getty
But as hard as World Cups are to win, they have been impossible to defend on home soil, for men’s teams anyway, whether it be the traditional 50-over format, or new Twenty20 version.
The Australian women have done it, claiming the T20 World Cup against India at the MCG in front of more than 86,000 fans two years after winning the title in the West Indies. But then the Australian women have done just about everything, including claiming a gold medal at the recent Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Of course much has changed in 30 years, including the invention of T20, which has attracted a new generation of fans, just as one-day cricket did during the ’80s and ’90s.
Geoff Marsh in acton at the MCG in 1992.Credit:Getty
And Finch is not the stone wall Marsh was as a great servant of Australian cricket during an era when Australia’s first coach, Bob Simpson, preached that the team which scored the most singles won the most one-day games.
Indeed, Finch is the antithesis of Marsh. Finch’s blazing approach has destroyed attacks around the world, enabling him to carve a career as one of Australia’s finest white ball players.
And after a difficult start to the season, when he retired from one-day cricket following a series of low scores, he showed great signs of his former glory on Monday, making 76 from 54 balls against India in a practice match at the Gabba on Monday.
But Finch’s one official half-century this season has been a relatively sedate 58 batting at number four when young all-rounder Cameron Green, who isn’t part of the 15-man World Cup Squad, opened the batting.
The Australians had played a full and demanding season of cricket when they eventually walked onto Auckland’s Eden Park on February 22, 1992. It had included a five-Test series against India and a full one-day triangular with Australia playing 10 matches before, believe it or not, a full round of Sheffield Shield going into the World Cup.
In fact Queensland played two matches, with Australian spearhead Craig McDermott bowling 54 overs in Adelaide and then managing just five in Perth.
There was just one warm-up match, a 50-over game between NSW and the rest of Australia, which was a thriller in front of a packed North Sydney Oval crowd.
It may be less than three weeks into October but Australia’s home summer began in winter, such was the backlog of unplayed Covid series.
Under cover of football finals Australia staged one-day series in Cairns and Townsville, only to make a dash to India for three T20 matches.
In all Finch and some of his teammates have played 15 white ball games across nine different venues in 53 days with 12 flights.
Australia will be hoping history doesn’t repeat itself, beginning with New Zealand at the SCG on Saturday.
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