Sri Lanka stunned Australia to chase their highest total in the T20 World Cup on Monday and almost knocked them out of the tournament. On Tuesday, if Zimbabwe beat Ireland, Australia will be officially out of the mega event in the shortest format for the first time in 17 years. The last time they didn't go past the group stage of a T20 World Cup was back in 2009.
Australia captain Mitchell Marsh didn't shy away from the fact after the loss against Sri Lanka and admitted that they are in the lap of the gods now. They will be backing Ireland to go past Zimbabwe today, but that result won't be enough for the 2021 champions to qualify. Australia must beat Oman by a huge margin after that and also hope that Sri Lanka beat Zimbabwe in their final group stage clash to make it to the Super 8 stage.
"It's a pretty shattered group. It's a devastated bunch and we're in the lap of the gods now. There's a lot of emotion in the changing rooms right now. We haven't been at our best. I dare say we'll all be watching the match tomorrow (Zimbabwe vs Ireland). Whether it's all together or not we'll wait and see. What do you say? The luck of the Irish?" Marsh said after the loss.
Australia were 97/0 batting first ater 8 overs
Australia had themselves to blame for the loss as they were 97/0 after 8 overs at one stage with Marsh and Travis Head getting them off to a flyer. However, they lost all 10 wickets in the next 12 overs and could add only 84 runs to the total. They got bowled out for only 181 runs after such a great start and Marsh feels that is where they lost the game.
"It was probably execution that let us down tonight. That full strength batting line-up has some of the best players of spin in Australia. I thought Sri Lanka pulled it back beautifully, and we ended up a few short after the start we got. We probably needed those runs going into the second innings. I had great belief we would get the job done, but we were outplayed.
"I guess we'll never know what would have happened if we made 220, but as I said earlier, we had a good platform and we just couldn't execute at the back end. I know that in these conditions partnerships are incredibly important. Outside the opening partnership, we just weren't able to find another one to get the innings going again," Marsh added.
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