da esoccer bet： The scenario for Australia to stay in the tournament beyond the group stage is pretty simple according to captain Steven Smith, with a win needed over England to qualify for the semi-finals
da dobrowin： Alan Gardner at The Oval 06-Jun-20172:14
What do Australia and Bangladesh need to do to qualify?
“I guess we’ve just got to beat England.” That was Steven Smith’s matter-of-fact conclusion after Australia were denied an almost-certain victory over Bangladesh at The Oval by the English weather. Having been saved from a potential defeat to New Zealand at Edgbaston in their previous match, Australia were left with two points from two games – but with destiny still in their own hands ahead of their last Group A fixture against England on Saturday in Birmingham.Smith was frustrated but understanding after rain ruined Australia’s attempts to chase a target of less than four an over, which was set up by Mitchell Starc’s four-wicket haul that saw Bangladesh dismissed for 182 in 44.3 overs.”Disappointing not to get a result but we can’t do much about the weather,” he said. “The equation is pretty simple for us now. We have to beat England and I think then we’re through.”This fixture was the first day-night match of the tournament but rain was forecast to arrive during the evening, which it duly did with Australia four overs short of the 20 required to constitute an officially completed game. Although the showers did relent long enough to allow the umpires, Nigel Llong and Chris Gaffaney, to inspect at 8 pm and schedule a restart for 8.30 pm – with seven overs lost – rainfall returned almost immediately, causing the groundstaff to cover the pitch again, to desultory cheers from the remaining Bangladesh fans in The Oval.Australia’s sense of frustration was compounded by the fact that at 83 for 1, they were well ahead of the 20-over Duckworth-Lewis-Stern par score of 48 despite having only batted 16 overs. Smith had blocked five balls from Mashrafe Mortaza with rain falling as he tried to hurry the innings through but, with the umpires appearing to signal for drinks, the downfall intensified and the players were taken off for the first time.Although the Bangladesh innings finished early, at around 4.40 pm, play couldn’t restart until 5.30 pm due to drizzle during the interval. The umpires then took the players off at 6.43 pm, meaning Bangladesh were only slightly behind the required rate of four-minute overs. The rain then stopped for around 45 minutes later in the evening but Llong and Gaffaney felt there was too much mopping up required to get the game going straight away and any chance to get in the four overs required slipped by.”A little bit frustrating,” Smith said of that missed opportunity. “The groundsmen perhaps could have shown a bit more urgency, being a big tournament, but I think they did the best job they could and the umpires said it was an 8.30 pm start, so you’ve got to do what they say.”Of course I didn’t want to go off, I was happy to keep batting through the rain. But the umpires are there to make a decision and I think drinks was at the end of that over, which probably didn’t help. If the game had just carried on, perhaps they may have had a different opinion. But to be fair it was raining reasonably hard when we came off.”The no result means that Australia will likely have to beat England to go through to the semi-final, although they could still theoretically go through with as little as two points – if England win all of their games and New Zealand-Bangladesh is washed out – either on net run rate or due to having a higher seeding than the other teams in the group. The high chance of rain affecting the England-New Zealand match in Cardiff on Tuesday may add to the intrigue.The computation for Bangladesh is slightly simpler, with a win required against New Zealand at Cardiff on Friday in their final match to stay in the hunt for a semi-final spot. A win over New Zealand combined with a pair of England wins over Australia and New Zealand would guarantee Bangladesh a place in the semis. Yet, Bangladesh could still miss out on the semi-finals on three points, having suffered a hit to their run rate in defeat to England last week. They would also miss out, regardless of a win over New Zealand, if England beat New Zealand on Tuesday and Australia beat England on Saturday in which case both England and Australia would end the group stage on four points.Mashrafe Mortaza, Bangladesh’s captain, was nevertheless happy that his team remained alive in the tournament and referenced the point gained from a similar abandonment against Australia in the 2015 World Cup – when they qualified from the group stage at England’s expense – as reason to be optimistic.”I can remember in the 2015 World Cup, we got one point from Australia and it really helped us go through,” he said. “This time we’ve got a straight chance, even though we have to beat New Zealand. So our job is to play hard against New Zealand and you never know.”If you look at today’s match, I think Australia was far ahead of us. But in the last match, against New Zealand, I think Australia were in the same position. You can’t do anything with the weather so, as I said, both teams are now in the situation where Australia has to win against England and we have a great chance to beat New Zealand and go through.”
