BENGALURU: Inscribed onto one of the many hoardings at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru is the Cricket World Cup’s campaign slogan — ‘It takes one day’. For both Pakistan and Australia, that one day, the day to make or break their World Cup, might just be Friday.
The Chinnaswamy, on Thursday, did not give off the impression of a stadium set to host a vital World Cup clash — the few street vendors, who had set up shop early, were only selling blue India jerseys, while the odd fan casually walked up to the ticket counters to buy a couple of the many tickets that were still available on the eve of the match. Nevertheless, there is an undeniable air of significance over this one. Both teams might only be three games into their respective campaigns, but a loss at this juncture will not be easy to recover from.
For Pakistan, it is not that they lost the game against India, but how they lost it. The meekness of their surrender reeked of an absence of grit, a quality that no world champion has ever lacked. Tough questions are now being asked of a team that was pegged as one of the favourites for the crown before the tournament began. Another day without satisfactory answers might just start off a downward spiral.
Australia were drowning after two losses in their first two games. The decisiveness of their victory against Sri Lanka have seen their critics back off for now. A failure to get past Pakistan will push them down beneath the surface again. A win, however, might just be enough to inject some much-needed adrenaline into their campaign.
They, however, will need their big-name batters to come good. The batting trio of David Warner, Steve Smith and Mitchell Marsh have failed to get going so far, with all three batters aggregating less than a hundred runs over the first three games. All three of them have had games where they got starts but then threw away their wickets. The Aussies will be hoping that Smith and Warner, in particular, will rediscover their touch on a Chinnaswamy track that is rarely short of runs.
Australian captain Pat Cummins said as much in the pre-match press conference. “You know, especially at a venue like here in Bangalore, I dare say it's going to be high scoring, smaller field,” Cummins said. “Pitch is always really good here. So, yeah, batting is super important. I think the way the guys started last game really set the tone. You know, Mitchie and Davey up front from the first over taking the game on. That's what we want from our players. And, you know, they're working really hard. They're doing all the right things. I'm sure plenty of runs are around the corner.”
If batting is what needs to click for the Aussies, bowling — rather unexpectedly — has been the factor letting Pakistan down. Their win against The Netherlands was easy enough but the Sri Lankans plundered 344 runs off an attack that appeared to lack discipline. Then, in the all-important game against their biggest rivals, the likes of Shaheen Afridi and Hasan Ali were only able to cause India the slightest of inconveniences while defending a low total.
“Obviously the games here are very high scoring,” said Ali. “But this is not an excuse. We are not making an excuse that the games here are high scoring. You have to find a way. Our effort will be to perform for our team.”
Pakistan have an extra hurdle to jump past — a number of their players were down with a flu in the days leading up to the game. Ali confirmed that all players had recovered and were available for selection. But fatigue and energy levels will count in a match that has every chance of lasting the full hundred overs.