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Behram, Jarrod & Varun review all the action that unfolded on Day 23 of the T20 World Cup 2026.
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Hello and welcome everyone to Combox Live where the game lives on, it never dies.
I'm Baram Kasi, you can find ad dev mango on Twitter and with me is Varunal Vakonda who
you can not find anywhere even if you try and then we've got Jared Kimber who you can
find absolutely everywhere.
We are here to review India's 5, yeah even if you don't try, you'll find him, but we
are here to review India's 5-wicked victory over the West Indies with 4 balls to spare
at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata and what was a virtual quarter final between both teams
and what a remarkable game of cricket that was, very enjoyable and it was definitely, you
know, all those people who went out there to watch this live, this game gave them their
money's worth.
Yeah, no, I think it was a lot of fun wasn't it?
And I suppose maybe towards the end, it was very hard for the West Indies to get over
the line right towards the end, but up to that point, there was plenty going on, probably
to be honest, that loud noise you might hear at the moment, it's not Baram's microphone
from the other episode, it's everyone trying to backtrack really quickly on Sanju Samson
takes, I think, is what you're hearing, is that the whole internet we're hearing here,
Varun?
Indeed.
Varun has been doing victory laps in the chat all day, by the way, guys.
You kept saying validation over and over again, didn't you?
Oh yeah, just for Sanju, let's go, let's go.
Yeah, yeah.
So Varun, how it works is we're on a podcast at the moment, and if you could say the things
you were saying, off air, on air, what was that?
I don't remember half the stuff I say in the chat, Jared, you got to express it, lots of
things.
Yeah.
I mean, Varun and Shia, I've never showed up in that chat, do they, at times almost get
annoying and try to sleep here.
I mean, he did change his game today, he's, he made a very, like, what do you call a name
for him?
So making 25 or 15 every game, he didn't do that today, so this was the game to not have
that, I think.
He did a good job, I think he did.
Yeah, weirdly, we'd be able to change where he will.
I mean, if you think about it, he did Abhishek's job for him to start with, and then he
actually went on and did Sky's job as well, like he kind of did everyone else's job.
I mean, okay, he's the big question.
The West Indies probably outplayed India today, right?
Yeah, Barring Sanju.
Right?
I mean, it's, you know, it's not like the West Indies also had one player go absolutely
now.
They had lots of different cameos.
I think I might have said outfielded in the main video, but to be fair, they were both
pretty poor.
I did feel it.
But certainly, I mean, you would have to say that, you would have to say all things
considered that the West Indies team probably were the better of the two teams.
It's just Sanju Sanju Sanju was so much better within that, that it didn't make any difference,
right?
And that is why you pick a player like that.
The potential than India did is probably the better way to put it.
I don't know if that's necessarily the better on the day.
Well, they better better.
You take Sanju Sanju out.
They better better.
Yeah.
I thought they moved their balls around fine.
Like, I didn't think India did particularly well.
So maybe that's a draw, but it's not like India were better tactically than the West Indies.
I didn't think that India bowed better than the West Indies.
I thought that was fairly, that's what I'm saying.
Like, Sanju is such a big swing player in this game because no one else really from India
has a great game.
There's a couple of guys that chip in, but West Indies have lots of guys who chip in.
They just don't have a Sanju Sanju, right?
Yeah.
Well, West Indies also had a Shea hoop who scored 32 of 33.
There is that.
Yeah.
To be fair, Abhishek Sharma scores, what, 10 of 10?
10 of 11.
I mean, he didn't choose what 195, which is a bit of a Shea sky and hard-dicking things,
right?
And all it took for Abhishek to start batting like Shea hoop was for Jared to call him
Aero Abhishek.
And he was like, no, no, hold up.
I want to be a proper player now.
I would like to knock the ball around.
Jared, that's the best game I think if you, if someone had asked you, who would make 40
of 25?
Who would make 10 of 11 of Abhishek and a rostin chase?
Well, who would you pick?
My God, we, I mean, happily four minutes and 22 seconds in before we bring up rostin
chase.
That was mind-blowing.
I'm going to be like, oh, honestly, I have no idea what happened to start of this game
because I was just deeply going into, is it possible the rostin chase has ever played
like this before?
And the answer is, once in his entire life, and then you could almost see him go, whoa,
whoa, whoa, I've gone too far.
I'm going to touch this.
I'm like, Icarus.
I'm going to touch the sun and melt.
I've got to come back.
It's just like when he came in, he's like, I'll get singles.
No, just keep slogging, you giant freak.
Just keep hitting the ball.
But that one was a, who was the one to hit over the leg side for six?
Banda was a pundit.
Hardic pundit.
Yeah, I thought it might have been R-steak, I could remember.
That's short.
I don't know.
I've been watching rostin chase my entire adult life, it feels like at this point.
I'm not sure he's ever had a dream of playing that short.
Let alone of actually playing it himself.
Just what a bizarre thing.
But, you know, me and Rob were both saying they should send him pitch hitters.
And then rostin came out, we're like, what?
They actually did send rostin chase hit to pitch hit.
This wasn't, you know, Andy McBride or Imran Khan.
This was proper pinch hitting from a guy who has never hit the ball off the square
and he's entire life.
Never in my wildest imagination or dreams would I have thought that rostin chase
would have scored 40 of 25 coming to open the batting.
You should have seen saddened my faces on the pro sports life.
We were like, rostin, what the hell?
You ramping bumra for four?
Like, what about watching here?
He ended up with a strike rate of 160, which is one of the highest strike rates
he's ever had in his career.
And I feel disappointed because at one stage it felt like he was going to end up
with like 220, he, one stage it was like he was going to do the Sanctuary
Sampson, right, where he was just going to keep going.
But the differences with Sanctuary Sampson is he's done it before it makes sense, right?
So when he was, I can't remember was he 35 of 14 or something like 12 or something
like that, right?
And he had a strike rate above 200 only once in his entire 14 year career.
Hey, how do you ever had an innings of scoring more than 30 runs at a strike rate of 200?
And how do you game plan for this if you're India?
Like, if all the things you think is going to happen, surely the last thing
is rostin chase open.
He's never opened for the West Indies before.
He's only ever opened twice in his 14 year career.
I'm going to keep saying that 14 years he's opened twice before.
There's no way you can game plan for that.
And then if rostin chase comes out, what are you thinking next guys?
You're thinking great.
Well, we don't have to worry about that end because he's just going to block the absolute crap
out of it.
And rostin's like, no, no, no, I'm going to ramp just be bummer.
You guys have never seen anything.
I've been waiting 14 years to unleash hell.
And he is the day.
And I'm Andre Russell for no reason at all.
I mean, it was a good move because it up the volatility, right?
That's what we said is did in the end.
And the gamble paid over it.
There is another timeline as we keep saying that he could have been like 15 or 15.
And he looks like a dumb move is that if rostin chase that did what she hoped
did, everyone would be cursing Darren.
So Sammy, for doing that, it wouldn't I mean, they definitely chose to up the volatility
in a weird manner.
Because when they announced the team, Achilles San replaced Brandon King.
So I was like, okay, they don't have an opening batter, but it maybe makes sense to load
up the spin bowling options because we've seen India falter against spin at times.
It was a bad toss to lose though, because Sky knew that they will be due in the second
inning.
So him opting to feel first does give India a bit of an edge.
And then we did see due eventually.
But some of that I were discussing who should come out and open.
We were like, okay, there is the obvious rostin chase thing happening over here, because
he's listed as number one in this sheet.
But you might as well send Goodakish Modi or Matt Ford, maybe take a punt with those guys.
But rostin comes out and then does his bit 40 of 25, we were all shocked.
No one can still process what we've witnessed over there.
I think that's the incredible thing is that they had three actual pinch hitting options.
And they picked the least like it.
I think I've told this story before.
But there was one ODI game with Jason.
I've never heard Jason Gillespie talk about this before.
But one ODI game with Jason Gillespie was sent in as a pinch hitter.
And I remember as Australian fans all going, isn't this the guy who just blocks every single
ball?
Like he doesn't even have a backswing.
Why is he being sent out?
And that's how I felt when rostin chase came out, I was like, have you guys seen your own
batting order?
What are you holding Ford back for?
Like if you get to Ford has to come back.
You mean 26 or 30 jarred Jason Gillespie in that game?
Did he?
Did he?
It wasn't.
I mean, maybe the South Africa, right?
It was fine.
Yeah.
I mean, but I still remember being shocked that he came.
There were some weird people who were, I think there was an Indian player as well that
there's a pinch hitter in one of those games was who's the guy that balls the leg cutters
and Prasad.
I reckon he did.
I did.
I once did it.
I once went looking for the weirdest pinch hit as a cricket and I found a bunch of random
ones.
But the point being that Ford has, has got those sort of skills, a killer sound could do
it.
Good to catch you, Modi.
All these guys can do this and would have, would have been even more chaos and they went
for the one guy that no one expected.
It was a, it was a bold move and it paid off.
The issue was that, shall I hope at the other end ruined all of that forward momentum by
putting in like a, shall I hope of like 2017 innings?
Yeah.
I mean, look, he scores 32 of 33.
So that's 5.3 overs and that's just 32 runs and again, we're Western, he's nearly
touched 200.
So I think that knock did cripple them a bit and it was nice to see cameos from everyone
although Romario is wasted, never gets to bat today and he has been in some really, really
good hitting form.
But that partnership between, you know, Jason Holder and Robin Powell that really set West
Indies up.
It's just that even when we were watching the first innings, I would like 200 is the absolute
minimum West Indies need because this is a flat tech and they'll be due an India or a
terrific batting team.
We didn't know that only Sunju will turn up, right?
Yeah.
I think if West Indies had a better bowling lineup, I actually think 200 was police like
the above part.
It's just not part, above part for their bowling lineup, right?
Yeah.
You know, they just don't have a lot of great bowling options in that side.
And so I think for them, you really have to go above and beyond with that kind of score.
So I'm not surprised that India struggled and you know, didn't do this comfortably because
I did think it was a bit of a tricky chase.
Just, I mean, it's a high chase anyway in a game where you have to win.
So you're always a bit more tense than you are anywhere else.
Then, you know, Abhishek just couldn't work out what to do.
So he set them back a little bit as we said before.
And then Isha and Kishan didn't come off, right?
So it already, it changed the dimensions of the way that India play, the fact that Isha
doesn't make any runs.
Abhishek choose up a lot of dot balls again.
And I know it's a very small thing, but I mentioned this in my video.
Actually, it doesn't face any balls in the power play, guys.
I could be wrong.
And I don't know if I can check this while we're on.
I think there's a ten ball period in the power play where he doesn't face a ball.
It might not be ten.
It might have been eight or nine.
But I remember going, I once said you're looking up going, I cannot remember the last time
this dude faced a ball.
He faces almost all of the killer sands over, right, and smashes that everywhere.
And that's basically all he does in the power play.
I think he ends up with 13 balls in the power play, right?
He just doesn't face anything.
It's so, the one guy who's in form is at the wrong end.
Yeah.
I mean, it was quite fascinating to see how Abhishek only tried for two, three balls, right?
And he was having a shit day already like this was just a bad outing for him.
You could see his face in the dugout as well.
He was tense because he dropped two catches, both of which should have been snapped up.
And then he scored ten off eleven in an innings where no one could make sense of it because
that is not how Abhishek bats.
I think he, both of his boundaries will miss it, too.
There was one over cover and then there was one on the leg side like it didn't have that
sharpness.
And look, these things happen.
You know, I think it's the fact that him and Eishan Kishan both didn't come off.
And then Sanju couldn't get on strike with probably the defining factor of the early
part.
So Gerard, to answer your question, it was from 3.4 to 5.2, he doesn't get strike.
And Abhishek also faces the first ten balls of the public.
How many balls?
It was so wrong.
Did I undercount?
So you're right.
So Abhishek could stand off ten initially in the start.
He doesn't get it.
And there is another period where he doesn't face like ten ball period, but he doesn't get
any strike.
There's also there's almost two streaks of ten balls where he doesn't get a lot of strike
or any strike.
It's crazy.
That's such a weird pattern.
And so if you think about it, India want to maximize the power play, right?
And they've got three guys that maximize the power play.
One can't get going at all.
The other one is out really quickly.
And the one guy who should be maximized, this game could have been over in the power play
if Sanjee Samson had just faced deliveries.
Yeah.
I mean, I suppose it is obvious now that we have to move to Sanjee Samson.
I'm sure they're like ten superchats on Sanjee so we can continue to bring them up as
we discuss him.
26 ball 50 today and unbeaten on 97 off 50.
It was an all-time knock.
You saw what it meant to him towards the end where he thanks Jesus and everything.
You know, montage worthy moments right over there.
It was Sanjee versus the West Indies and he deserved the pair of the match award as well.
It was a phenomenal, chanceless knock.
First up, we've got Vidya Prasad, who says 97 off 50, unbeaten without any risk, was
not a catch-up knock either.
It was not because he scored his 50 of 26 balls.
Why do we imagine the future of T20 batting to look like Abhishek and not today's Sanjee?
Well, this was like the knock of Sanjee's life also.
You have to factor that in.
It's not regular Sanjee.
He really got it out of his skin.
If you want to know the difference, it's because it's 97 off 50 and it's not 97 off
30.
Yeah.
Because the future of T20 batting is guys who could score three runs of all now.
It's not two runs of all.
If you want to know what the difference is.
But this is why you want to play like Sanjee Samson, you know, Vidya's worth going and
having a look at the other video that will be up in the next two hours on the main site.
But essentially, what we are talking about with him is he has this very unique ability
that, you know, and mean, mean, Varan, look at this stuff a lot.
There aren't many players who can basically hit a boundary in every different direction
of the ground consistently, right?
And because he can do that and he's one of the world's best players, what do we have
him as?
I think is he the fifth best player playing the cover drive of the off drive and the seventh
best player through mid off of covers?
It was in the piece anyway, Varan, when we were looking up the numbers.
So for the cover drive and we had a sixth for the mid off and cover region.
Yeah.
So his ability to hit the ball where people don't put the field is next level because no
one has a deep cover field.
And that's where the technical aspect comes in.
But the difference between what he can do and what Abhishek can do is that Abhishek
can just, it doesn't matter where you put the field is for Abhishek.
Yeah.
Right.
And that's that's where T20 cricket is going.
That's the Andre Russell method, right?
But in this particular game, I think Sanju paste is not brilliantly.
And not only was it a chances lock, it was a really elegant and classy knock.
Some of those shots were really, really good to watch.
That's what I mean.
It's the technical side of it that he has.
And that is also, I think one reason why me and Varan really like, I don't know, I'm
putting all these words in, in Varan's mouth, but I think it's one of the reasons.
Yeah.
One of the reasons why we really read him is because he is a technically correct batter
who actually still plays high intent.
And generally, the technically correct batters do not play with high intent, right?
They end up in the came wins and barbarism, right?
And then, and then when they have to score really quickly, they'll score it to runs
a ball.
And we're like, well, why wait until that position when you could have done this earlier?
And I think that's the big issue with that, where Sanju, that's one of the reasons
really like him.
And one reason why he's really hard to bowl to once he's in is because you can only put
five fielders out, right?
And yet he can hit four boundaries in six different areas of the ground at any stage.
And seven, really, if you can't find leg as well.
So he's always got this huge advantage over Varan else.
And I think that's what you saw today was the technical class, right?
Yeah.
And also the ability to once he's, because he hits, forget the killer son over, right?
I think after that, he hit, so he hits three boundaries in that over.
He gets an edge, I think, away in the power play, one of his two power play balls after
that.
And straight after the power play, he hits three straight boundaries to the left of long
off, right?
And once he hits the ball to the left of long off, that completely fucks up your field
pattern, right?
Because that's the gap.
That's that's the hole in the field because teams have a deep point or a deep cover point
along off.
And then they have three guys out on the leg side.
Once you can hit the ball past long off over and over again, two things have to happen.
You either have to move your long off really wide, which means you just, there's a gap
straight down the ground, or you have to move your deep point around all the way around
to cover, which means you can slash it all away.
And I think you might have even brought his 50 up with one of those.
And he can do that against pace and spin.
So you can't set a field once he gets going.
It really is a mastery of that.
Now we have to also accept occasionally, it's going to want to ball straight up in the air
because he's trying to score really quickly.
No one seems to accept that, but that is that is a part of what he does.
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Yeah, I think it's totally sorry, go ahead.
No, no, no, you can't speak.
No, I think the one thing I've noticed about him is one of the reasons I think he works
as an open and better than he works as like a middle order batter is.
If any initially loft stable, it's a bit chippy and not full commit, I feel like that's
what I know.
I think today I think was a bit different because the first ball he was like I absolutely
full-cended it, right?
You know what I would call it?
It's not chippy, it's kind of slappy sometimes when he's trying to loft the ball, right?
But that kind of works as well in the power play.
So I do agree with you.
He is just utilized as an opener, but he was also oozing class today, right?
He's really good at it.
He's really good at it.
He really shots on the offside where he pierces the gaps on the offside.
That was high class.
Yeah, I just think what you guys are seeing is that he is a technically correct batter.
And so he doesn't have that full swing through that you see with some of the other guys
coming right who are literally swinging until the back.
It doesn't vibrate.
He doesn't vibrate.
Yeah.
What a serious aren't you?
I think my butcher was talking about it.
If you have a look at his back swing, he literally hits himself on the back.
He swings through.
Whereas players are actually technically taught to chip, right?
Like push through the ball, let the ball hit the bat and stop.
And so that's what you're saying.
But yeah, look, I mean, as Brochi says here, you know, it was an incredible risk-free innings.
But I think a lot of people did not, you know, didn't back in before.
I think that was always a bit silly.
He's always been an incredibly talented player.
Look, a lot of this has to do with the fact how initially when he was brought into the
team in this little spell from the Asia Cup up until now,
India were persistent on having Gill as the opener with Abhishek Sharma and Sanju was
just kind of floating around and did not have a role.
And then he was not in as opener in the New Zealand series.
That was the one series he got a chance to open and he failed.
And then everyone was on his case that kick him out.
He's the worst ever.
And I agree.
Ishaan had done so well that you probably open with him, but over here, he got a couple
of opportunities even before today's knock Sanju had scored some quick 520s.
And today he just cashes in.
So I mean, he could have in this tournament, guys.
Yeah.
And the image just reminds me of is the Mitch Marsh one right in 2021 when Mitch Marsh gets
dropped.
And Australia's like, we have no idea what to do.
Let's just bad about first drop.
I think he just wins the tournament for them.
But people have to realize that Sanju wasn't given a proper role initially.
And then when he gave him his preferred opener role, he didn't hit form as soon as possible.
And that's why he loses his spot.
Other than that, Sanju is perfectly suited to open the innings.
Yeah.
No, I think that's right.
I also think in general, they've had Russia apart, they've had Ishaan Kishan to have
DK.
So that's three other wicked keeping options, right?
So any time he hasn't been informed, they've just brought another wicked keeper in.
Yeah.
And it's the same at the top of the order.
I mean, Schumann Gill was brought in because they wanted him to eventually become a captain
by the look of it.
Like, it didn't really make any sense.
And so he doesn't have the long backing.
And I think if you're going to have a player who you say, we want you to go out there and
whack it, you actually need to back that, you know, we make fun of Brendan McCullum, but
the Brendan McCullum theory, I mean, he broke it with Zach Crawley, but that basic theory
makes sense, right?
If we are going to tell you to go out and really attack, we are going to accept that you
are going to fail more than other players, but when it comes off, we are going to win
the game.
And that's a really hard thing for players to do.
Yeah.
And I think that's super, super exciting over here by Prudvi who says, Sanju played an
excellent anchor innings at his striker at a 194.
I can't think of many shots, which will risky at all.
I just feel like he was a complete command today.
His control percentage is what?
88% today?
Varvant?
Something like that?
Yeah.
So he.
You see many T20 innings like that, especially near two runs a ball.
You'd take anything more than 70 wouldn't be hard, usually.
Yes, I mean, I mean, Abhishek he's quite often in the 60s, right?
Travis Hades is usually low 70s.
Um, to be able to get, to be able to score that rate for that long, that's, that's like
K.L. Rahul and the England test series, level control percentages, right?
Yeah, there are test plays who made hundreds without an idiot.
I mean, don't get me, don't make me go back and check some Rory Burns hundreds.
Every knee-nail earnings.
Yeah.
Those are quite low control percentage.
So, no, just, you know, and that's, as I said before, that's the technical mastery,
right?
He is a proper batter.
Yeah.
And coming through is going to be in the future.
Yeah.
Anyway, Sun Kulp with another Sunju Super Chat asks, do you think Sunju not playing many
deliveries in the power play?
Help him today.
Modern D20 anchovy innings might have been holed out, going too hard to start.
Well, he did make use of some power play deliveries.
He smashed a keyless in in that third over, right?
I think if anything had he played more power play deliveries, India would have been better
off in this chase.
I actually think it was a good matchup for him in that he probably didn't have the guy
who's going to ball back of a length at him and make him play the whole, or the pull
shot over and over again, right?
Because even Matthew Ford, I know Matthew Ford is a swing ball up and he pitches the ball
up a little bit more than those guys, but Matthew Ford's not going to cramp you up the
same way that some, you know, Joffa Archer has done to him before the ball.
He's also not expressed space, right?
That's what I mean.
He just doesn't have, and he doesn't ball quite as short.
So I think that matchup is fine.
There isn't, there is an argument, Sun Kulp, though, that that might have, that not facing
the power play balls.
But it didn't look like he was holding himself back in the power play, right?
Like, also, you know, so I mean, he might have only faced 13 balls, but he was like 25
of them.
So he faced enough to go out.
Plus, if someone has scored a 50 off 26 balls, it ends up unbeaten on 97 or 50.
I wouldn't even call that an anchor innings.
It just seems to be that way, because we know how Abhishek and Tishankinbatch, right?
And Sky.
I don't even think it's that because it was so in control, it looks anchorey.
Yeah.
That's what I think he must.
Combination of those two.
I think you know how we do the cumulative striker thing.
This is basically like a straight line for most of it.
Yeah.
The aesthetics of the knock make it look anchorey, but it wasn't an anchor knock at all.
He didn't anchor.
Yeah.
Anyway, is that it for the Sanju Super Jets?
That, that less, I thought there'll be at least 10 guys.
Let's just keep him coming.
Rukshit.
Keep bringing up the Super Jets.
Let's let them drive the show today.
Ranjit says before this match, the talk was about Sanju not accelerating post power play.
It looks like he's sorted that out.
Also love Combox guys.
Thank you Ranjit.
Much love to you as well.
And I don't even think it was accelerating post power play.
You just kept getting out before he gets out.
I was going to say.
Yeah.
He kept getting out power play.
Every time.
The thing with him is he averages what about 24, 25.
I mean, I might have gone up after today, but I ran that amount with a strike rate of 150.
He was for a long time doing what Abyshek was doing before Abyshek was in the side, right?
And to be fair, Rohit started doing it as well.
And I just think that there was a lot of time to where he would get those sort of 20 off
12s.
And I know Deepak gets really angry with him, but I'm like, that's kind of what is in the
side for me.
Like, I don't think you're going to have a go at him for that, because he doesn't really,
the way he plays for India is actually not the way he plays for Rajasthan all the time,
right?
He bats it first drop to begin with for Rajasthan.
So it's a very different kind of role.
And I don't think he's always naturally fit it.
But the thing is that when it comes off, he's going to score those really, really big scores.
And that's probably why for India, he's been a lot more boom than a boom and bust because
of them trying to make him play a role that isn't quite 100% natural for him.
Even at one point, I remember he had like a series where he had only scored ducks and
hundreds.
Like that, that happened with Sanju.
But anyway, once he gets going as he did today, he's shown everyone how classy he is.
Awesome.
What was it?
Something like that, yeah, yeah, I remember this.
RP asks first, Jimmy and now Sanju need to start actively dropping quality players before
big tournaments, then bringing them back in grand situations.
Also, right winged roles will have a tough day to day.
I mean, India is one.
Everyone will have a good day today.
But Sanju, you know, he has gotten a lot of undue hatred recently.
For no reason at all, just because fans tend to be very reactionary.
He's also not from a particularly big power base fan group busy.
Do you know what I mean?
He doesn't have the Mumbai fans behind him or the Delhi fans behind him or the Kolkata.
And I mean that kind of doubly Varun, right?
Like he's not from a big IPL team and he's from an even smaller region in India, right?
Like, I mean, it's very rare.
I get the Kerala online, you know, but he's got a very loyal fan base, though, Jared.
It's not that they're incredibly loyal, but I've been there.
They're not a lot of them.
Right?
Yeah.
They are very very loyal.
And I'd say the same if Rajasthan actually, Rajasthan has very loyal fans, but there's
just not as many of them as there are for some of the other fan bases.
And so I do think there was an element of that, you know, still, it's probably one of
the things that India eventually needs to get beyond a little bit, which is that sort
of the local side of things, you know, which is, yeah, this has caused problems for all
cricket nations around the world.
I do think at times he gets worse press for failing than another very good player from
a bigger market might, if that makes sense.
Yeah.
All right.
Next Super Chat then.
Pretty sure we have a few more on Sanju.
Super G.
Dean says, Sanju Samson, the new chase master kept his school handy knocks from Suria, Thelik
and Dube, OG boom rise back, Ashdeep had a bad third over, but a great nine teeth.
Yeah.
Funny and linear off when Ashdeep was bowling that third over, I was praising him.
I was like, he's been so phenomenal in the super eights.
I was in a live show.
He goes for five wides, then a six, then another wide, then another six.
He goes for 22 runs in three balls and I then start to question my jinxing powers because
that was just wild.
But you know, Thelik scored India second best knock today.
I don't think Suria was good and Dube came right towards the end, had the West Indies
held on to some of those catches, maybe things could have been different.
It was really more fielded.
I mean, to be fair, India drops of catches than that run out from Bore and Track of
Arti.
I think if you're looking for deeper analysis here, I think there's two questions.
The fact that Ashdeep doesn't look like a lock at the end and it can go very, very right
of a very, very wrong is an issue.
I don't know what Hardy Pandey's plan was today with his bowling at all.
I think Jasper Boomer is still getting hit for sixes and Jasper Boomer doesn't get hit
for sixes.
So that's certainly something you would have a look at.
I'm very track of Arti was unplayable for one over and we're like, oh, wow, he's back.
He's ended up with one for 40, right?
So there are still boxes left.
He missed a lot.
Oh.
Yeah.
Horrible.
And his legs.
And Naili did him.
Well, I think Deepak was saying, you know, that this was the wrong over and it should have
been Boomer.
And I was like, I think he could make that case.
But the issue here is not the matchup.
It's a fact that he's bowling half trackers outside of stump, like it was just the wrong
deliveries.
He, I mean, I don't know.
It's really hard with spinners, Varan.
And I know we don't have the full Hawkeye data.
But my guess is he has missed his length more consistently in this series than we have
seen before.
Yeah.
I mean, Hirschstein did come back well, right?
White Yorkers in that 19th over, he barely goes for any runs.
There's good things happening.
There's good things happening.
Yeah.
India have some things going for them and some things haven't quite clicked.
So there are questions going into the semis, but England is a team that you think that
they should be able to beat.
I mean, the two favorites of the tournament today did not massively impress me in India
and South Africa.
That's very nice.
South Africa might say, well, they rested a couple of players and also there was a bit
of a let down because they knew it wasn't as important player and they always beat Zimbabwe.
Like I get that, but I wasn't watching that game going.
This is the team that everyone thinks should be their favorites in this tournament.
But the issues, the problem was with the batting and not the bullying and the batting
was basically full strength, right?
You mean today?
Today?
Yeah, yeah.
For today.
I mean, Shakanda is the only, what's been it went out?
Shakanda's the only international player that they had to go up against and he bit slapped
them everywhere.
I know we'll talk about it a little bit later, although I've got to go soon.
So I've got to go for a minute.
No.
But you have to stick around.
I have to go today.
Everyone has to go soon.
Yeah.
Varun is going to be on his own.
I'll be on that one.
Yes.
But yeah, so I think I think both of the, you know, there were, I think there was some
question marks there with the way that those teams played a little bit today.
Also just shout out to Sakanda Raza, what a tournament he's had.
Not the best captain seat tournament, but today what, 73 or 43 and 3 for 29.
He was the best batter of the game, best bowler of the game and Zimbabwe still lost.
South Africa is still unbeaten in the competition.
And since both of Africa, do you want to just run through the Superchats then?
Yeah.
Let's just run through the Superchats.
I think we've not taken this one.
Actually, Akagra, the Superchats has disappeared.
It says not a fan of Sanju, but today's match shows there's a place for both Abhishek
and Sanju.
You need an Abhishek going berserk when you are settling or setting a total while you
need a Sanju surgically chasing one.
If Abhishek comes off in a chase, the chase is dead.
Why do people not understand?
Yeah.
I mean, people also like, I don't, as Sanju hasn't done this consistently.
It was a great ending.
He's not like a reliable chaser, right?
I mean, I don't just because he's got someone.
If anything, he's the Abhishek Moldov.
He's better in the first tennings.
Exactly this.
I remember looking this up years ago, the best chaser in T20 cricket was Chris Gale, right?
And no one ever called Chris Gale a great chaser.
And it's because if he got going, it didn't matter what you'd set, right?
So Abhishek can absolutely do that.
And there's going to be other times when India lose three wickets in the first
tennings and Sanju is going to be able to get them through, right?
So, look, I think they have three guys at the top of the order who,
all if they face 50 balls can win you a game.
There aren't that many teams in the tournament,
even at this stage of the tournament that have that available to them, right?
Yeah.
They just have the ability for all three of the guys at the top of the order to,
if they face 50 balls, it's almost impossible to beat them at that stage.
Hmm.
Anyway, next super chat, we've got a lot of them to run through now that everyone has to leave early.
Andy B, 2021 says India travel to Mumbai tomorrow and play Wednesday.
England have been there for a week.
It's almost a road back to back.
England should be an easy bet.
No, I think that there is some turn on offer at the one kitty.
Yes, the fastballers are going for plenty, but that pitch has turned.
I've seen it turn.
It's not that.
Let's bet.
Definitely helps.
Yeah.
I mean, the only way I would bet on England if they were like five or six to one.
Otherwise, India is a better team at the moment.
Look, England's so unpredictable who knows what is going to happen with them.
And that might cause some issues and India's not in great form.
But no one is there is not a single bookmaker of the world that will ever give you England
as favorite for that game.
I mean, also, the 50 balls and winning things are England's top three is like that too,
right?
If usually one of them faces 50 balls is basically game done, but yeah, I don't know if
it's probably not with this tournament, but I mean, probably not, right?
I mean, Butler and Bethel could face 50 balls and you would still be.
I mean, I assume Brooks, the three now, oh, yeah, sorry, Brook is the three.
Yeah, no, but I certainly salt and Brook.
Yeah, I would be that.
Yeah.
I mean, Butler, I don't know.
I mean, I don't know.
I guess the 50 balls at this point.
The one thing you could possibly say is that for both West Indies and England to defeat
India, they have to out bat India.
West Indies were a bit short today, even though holder and Rovman were phenomenal in that
last partnership, but England also need to out bat India with a slightly better bowling
lineup.
You could say that.
Yeah, anyway, corner taken quickly says, why is Sky dropping so many anchors off it?
Is there less intent or is he not able to convert?
So maybe he's trying to, yeah, shoulder responsibility as captain, no, to sum it up quickly,
Sky needs the bolts for the spinners to bolt him at the stump, so you can sweep.
If the spinners are bowling wide, he has a new boundary option, so he has to get stuck
a bit.
Let's move on.
Yeah.
Let's move on.
Sky and I says, given teams known strengths, how do I see security as balanced pitch prep
to avoid even unintended bias in a final, thinking 2023 to a final as an example?
I don't know how to answer that one.
I mean, they're not really trying to stop the pitches helping different sides.
What they're trying to do is make sure that the pitch isn't changed towards being very
helpful for one thing.
Does that, I hope that makes more sense.
So for instance, England would never have ordered the pitch at Cardiff in the 2017 Champions
trophy, right?
Yeah, that was a home game for them.
India, I mean, there's obviously rumors that India was involved in that pitch in 2023.
It still didn't go their way, but when it comes down to it, that's actually what the
ICC are trying to do.
They're trying to make sure that the pitch makes sense.
And then the other interesting thing is that for whatever reason, the ICC only seem to
like wickets.
They don't seem to like any runs.
And I think again, they're trying to make sure the bounce.
So they're not trying to stop it being biased for any one team because every pitch could
be biased towards any one team.
What they're really trying to do is make sure that it's a wicket that is very normal for
that surface, that it isn't biased to if there's a home team.
And also that bat and ball play apart.
That's what they are trying to do.
Yeah.
All right.
Next super chat.
Got Akshu, who says, feels like the West Indies overcompensated for the collapse against South
Africa.
And we're two cautious at the start.
Made the difference in my opinion.
I did feel like Shay Hope really crippled them and West Indies were what, 45 for no loss
in the power play.
That was all rostin chase, right?
I can't say.
He was the one.
I'm not sure that you would say the West Indies overcompensated because rostin chase
was sent into slug.
Yeah.
So the West Indies did not.
I'd be really interested in he would, Darren Sammy says about the show I hope innings,
which I mean, obviously publicly he probably won't say anything, but it would be interesting
to know because my guess is actually that the idea was something to go harder than they
did.
And one of them didn't.
So I didn't feel like they were trying to overcompensate for what happened against South
Africa.
I felt like Shay Hope couldn't get away.
I think what he's trying to say is that throughout the course of the first 15 overs,
West Indies were behind, right?
45 for no loss in the power play.
Oh, they did.
And then there were 82 for one.
And then 15 overs, they were 125 for four.
This course, 70 runs for the loss of no wickets in the last five overs.
That's what gets them to 195.
Yeah.
Well, a lot of that is Shay Hope batting forever and not making any mistakes, right?
So if you take him out, the second thing that happens that slows them down is,
that Hetmeyer is absolutely on one when he comes out, right?
Yeah.
And Ross and Chase stops.
So there is an element of, at times, they weren't going from, they were probably never
going from both ends until Robman and Jason Holder were batting at the end.
So there is probably an element of that playing a part as well.
And then they also had the two set badders go out well within the same over.
Was it the same over when Paul was at the belt like the same over, right?
Was it boomerow?
Yeah, boomerow was the boomerow.
The same over, right?
Yeah, I remember the boomerow.
And then you're going to have a natural sort of slow down after that.
So there's actual reasons for it, but no, they did the opposite of slow down.
They were trying to go quickly, but Shay Hope got trapped.
And look, Abhishek Sharma made 10 off 10 today.
People can do that, right?
And it happens.
There were lots of plays who actually didn't score that quickly on this surface.
Yeah, true.
And India hadn't didn't have the best of power plays.
They were 53 for two.
But they were ahead in every single phase in the sense that they never needed more than
10 runs and over.
They kept it over there.
Anyway.
And for Kuldeep, says Koshal Talpadi, or he asks, well, not Alvakonda, he's definitely
has to play.
No, you don't know.
No, definitely not the one Kare.
If you had to, this was probably the pitch, but not the one Kare.
No, I guess you can.
It's just if he came in to this woke up as the best baller in the world, and you drop
him now and Kuldeep gets smashed, you don't deserve to win woke-ups.
No, I would keep going.
And I would keep Abhishek as well.
Hey, Jared, can you ask your friend a quick visit to drop Abhishek's power slash timing?
My 10 to 15.
That would be lovely.
Seems to have worked wonders for Thilak.
He's smiling.
Oxbin doesn't know.
So clearly worked.
It was 17 or something.
Wasn't it?
Then it went.
Yeah, for those who don't know.
It was put up on the screen at 97 for Thilak Varma, for which one was 97?
And it was 97.
97 was the game in which he doesn't do too well.
And then when it's 17, he's trying to remember what he means to have a power.
Yeah, and then it was supposed to be 79, so they flipped it over.
But they got two of his numbers wrong.
They got one of the other ones wrong as well.
I mean, look, these things happen.
And I don't know if that's Crickfiz's fault or Sunset and Vines fault or whoever.
But someone put it up on the screen incorrectly.
As I said, we, me and Varma make these mistakes all the time.
It's all in a broadcast.
I mean, Varma makes these mistakes all the time.
And I never have.
Also, like, did you see Romariah Shepard being 92-threadjard?
Yeah, I did.
I was like, damn, one less than Jimmy Nishim, Romariah.
All right.
Still couldn't get.
There's one or two.
The great Jimmy Nishim's record.
I mean, to be fair to Romariah Shepard, he does get wickets.
It's just that they go at 95 runs and over.
Mm.
Ross Taylor couldn't see at night or when the clouds were in.
Eventually, he had to see an eye specialist who would fix his eyes up.
In the two years before the change, he's still averaged more than 50 in international
credit.
The top level of batting talent can basically see in the dark.
That is who we are talking about in our new book, The Art of Batting.
Head over and order your copy today.
Well, the only test playing Nation that defeated was England, but that was a really
good win at the one kiddie.
They could have won this game.
Had they scored maybe 15, 20 more runs, perhaps?
I think I played good cricket.
I don't think they're a great side.
I think, you know, we saw something we could have performed this tournament, right?
Yeah.
I thought they both really well.
And then they occasionally batted well.
I found the West Indies fan.
If I'm in West Indies fan, I'm pretty happy with this tournament, I think.
Yeah, they're definitely good.
Good campaign like that.
If he had time, I'd be going my resources rent.
Yeah.
Well, you know, Moti was bold for two overs and they went for 18 and Matt Ford, bold three
powerplay overs, none for 22.
Maybe some more overs for those people, but that's it.
That's the only bit of criticism I can come with respect to the goal in the past today.
In a chat, that Moti should build one of the death hours, right?
Rob loves to up the volatility.
He's rubbed off on you so much, Varun.
You've started to use that phrase.
I definitely have, yes, 100%.
Yeah.
He's got him.
He also is fielding being, oh no, answer Subaru.
Oh, I really hope there's a fielding super chat somewhere because I want to talk about
that stuff.
I don't have Jindal over here says, given the trend of the flat pitches and all T20s outside
world cups.
So how can teams prepare when they know ICC spices, the pitches, almost all the time?
Don't prepare flat decks in preparation for these events.
I mean, wow.
Who would have thought I mean, yeah, that's basically, they also don't want to do go Bangladesh
yet and go only one thing.
No, there's a bad one.
You don't want to Bangladesh ever.
Yeah.
You never full Bangladesh.
Yes.
Go on and take it quickly with another super chat says, taking into account tournament form semi-final
venues and matchups.
Who are your favorites for the two semi-finals?
I think India versus South Africa should be the final if both, if the two best teams make
it.
I'd be surprised if those teams don't make the finals.
Yeah.
Final.
Okay.
Well, if you have, next we've got Mr. Stone Cold, one, one, two, two.
West Indies, both some good yorkers today, which was a pleasant surprise.
They should be proud of their campaign generally.
Isn't that why they have Shamar?
He's just a york emergent, isn't he?
Face on, yorkers.
I don't know what Shamar is to be honest.
I'm not sure.
Shamar always knows what he's about to ball, which does make him very hard to plan against.
Yeah.
But anyway, let's move on to the next one.
We've got Shrinath SV who says what the hell are the odds of India winning this tournament
now.
So before the Zimbabwe game, when they had to win four in a row, the odds of India winning
it all were 35%.
I don't know what they are now.
Chad probably knows.
We're winning the tournament.
Yeah.
So winning it all.
They were 35% before the tournament started.
Yeah.
I would have thought they would go on up early and come down.
I would have to work it out.
But yeah, I would know if I would have thought they'd still be favorite.
I'd be shocked if South Africa is going beyond them.
Hmm.
Okay.
Maybe you can check in the meantime.
Till then, I'll take the Super Chat, Strypple Stroke says, man of the matches, hope, Romario
didn't even come to bat.
Yeah, we talked about it.
How hope really crippled the West Indies and when Romario or a guy like Romario Shepard
has wasted with the bat, you do feel it a bit.
But then you can tell either of Holder or Rovman to go out when they're striking it big,
right?
There's that as well.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I don't really know when people expected him to come out and bat.
They sent Holder out because it was early in the innings.
And he didn't.
And that made sense.
And they both scored around two runs of ball as well.
So I don't, I don't really understand how they should have done that differently for
people.
Mr. Stone called as another Super Chat here.
He says India tactically, Mr. Trick, when they bow Lashthee for the 16th, when they could
have gone for a wicket with Varun, Powell couldn't handle him.
That is kind of true.
Rovman Powell was struggling versus Varun, but then again, not a very, very grave mistake,
I would say.
I'm sorry.
I'm looking up the other thing.
I wasn't listening to him.
He said that.
It probably is because he is set by the time he faces Varun again.
Well, right.
Yeah.
So it's easier for him to hurt him.
Fair enough.
And I mean, we didn't know Ashthee would all of a sudden bowl five wise then go for
six.
Then bowl another wide.
That's also correct.
Yeah.
That was kind of weird.
And if you were on the pro sports live, it was hilarious because I was talking him up.
Ashthee, I was like, he's been so good in the super rates and all of a sudden, bam.
Bro T with another Super Chat says India is not winning this tournament with that outfield
catching.
Though, finally, finally, someone has given me an opportunity to go over the drop catches
because that's one of my favorite segments on here.
Before we talk about the catches though, the Varun run out chance was bad.
Chase should have been run out.
He hit or, you know, sent the ball down the wrong end.
So that run out chance after which Abhishek drops Rostin chase on 14.
Then Rutherford is dropped on one by Thiluk.
Although that was a bit of a tough opportunity.
Rob Barron will say it was easy, but it was tough.
Rovman was dropped on 27 by Abhishek again.
So that's three drops in a missed run out chance.
And India have not been a good fielding team in recent times.
I've watched them quite closely.
They get the odd, really good game, but their fielding has been all over the shop and
that could be one of their weaknesses.
But then the West Indies weren't too far behind where they.
Rutherford on headmire was amazing.
He took three catches out of his two catches was spectacular.
And Rutherford held on to a diving catch as well, which was really good.
But Moti dropped Sky off his own bowling when Sky was on 17.
Didn't hurt them.
Holded a drop, Pandya though when Pandya was on 9.
And if Shivam Dubek comes out to bat early, things could have potentially gotten spicy.
Right?
And there were plenty of missfields for the West Indies as well.
Rutherford might have taken a great catch, but the missfield was bad.
And there were a few, two or three missfields that went for four.
And that sort of stuff is going to cost you versus a better team.
So you could say India maybe made the more mistakes.
But West Indies being sloppy is something they couldn't have afforded
because they're not the better side.
There's been to a pretty shit fielding in this tournament.
I doesn't seem to have held back the teams who've been to a fielding shit so fast.
So look, I mean, you can easily drop an important catch and get stuffed in this tournament
from here on in.
But it seems like at the moment, people have done it a lot.
I mean, Robbie was also talking about the other day.
Not the other, like, the cricketer rob, not Rob Baron.
He always talks about it.
Good username doesn't exist says I do not care who won.
I'm just happy that Shema was hit like a drum at heavy metal concert.
Yeah, I can feel the sentiment.
Yeah, lots of people.
I think when they watch you now, feel that way.
Yep.
Rippu Ganguly says at what point do we start saying that Abhishek Sharma has been found out,
have analysts seen any signs or is he still sick or L.O.A. excuse?
I don't know what L.O.A. means, but it's the nature of the beast,
the way he bats is going to have to be used.
Oh, L.O.A.
L.O.A. is what I am making of this.
Maybe there's a bit of a weakness with his offspin, perhaps, but that's about it, man.
Abhishek is an old in the last game.
India, Zimbabwe.
Yeah.
Didn't he make runs in that game?
He did make runs.
It was a slow 50 for Abhishek, but a fast 50 for everyone else.
A strike right to around 200, though, wasn't it?
Yeah, 55 of 30.
Yeah, I mean, he's allowed to have bad form.
He does look more cautious versus spin, if anything.
Also, he doesn't look at this as.
He doesn't look in great form at the moment, but that's not, you know, I also,
you're copying great form.
No, it's basically bad like Abhishek and him not having the same power thing.
That kind of makes sense to me.
He does look like he's not getting lost.
They could be a bit of tournament pressure as well.
Today, I felt there was a bit of it, right?
Dropping two catches and then going block block, which we never see from him.
It's his first ICC event.
He'll get over these nerves eventually because India is a really good team at managing
that.
Now, to bring out their best on big occasions, as we've seen so frequently these days, I need
Rob Baron coming on, hit my wickets, his Muhammad Bilal.
So a fair few of us don't think that was out.
I didn't think it was out at all.
Yeah, I didn't know either.
I watched the replay.
I watched the Twitter images.
I saw some daylight between ball and bat, guys.
Yeah, I mean, this is the thing of I don't think Ampah is a really very good.
I mean, I'm not going to go into my normal third Ampah around here, but I don't think
the Ampah is a very good at once.
They see a spike.
They're like, oh, I must have hit it.
And it's like, no, you then have to make sure the ball was near the bat.
And it was a macroom did this on the commentary yesterday.
We talked about it, right?
Where he was like, oh, there's a spike.
He's out.
And I'm like, that's not what that means.
That means it was a noise at the right time.
Now we have to investigate.
And I think too often Ampah is probably make that mistake.
To be honest, I also, you know, the LBW that Chakravazi had not long after that, I thought
it was absolutely plumb and I can't believe there's any Ampah in the world that would
not give that out.
I swear.
That's why it's my thing.
I've seen that where I've just been like, and then it's like clipping leg.
I was like, yeah, but if you move, Robman just moved across his stump, so it was hit
in front of his stump.
You have to give that out.
He looked stone dead to me.
I thought he was even going to get out on DRS, but he didn't.
It was pretty funny, though, that like everyone's like, the game is being cheated for India.
They're two seconds later.
Everyone's like, oh, we thought that was hitting.
Superman, you Sen Gupta says, was this the fourth best Indian T20 knock after 2007 UV
in semi-final versus Australia to 2016, Kohli versus Australian Mojali and 2022 Kohli
in MCG?
This was one of the best knocks of this edition of the T20.
I rate, Robman.
92 or 41, very high too.
Versus Australia?
Previous World Cup?
Yeah, last one.
Yeah, really good knock.
I was thinking about it.
I don't remember.
It was a big game.
High stakes.
Quarter final, essentially, right?
Virtual quarter final.
I think Sanju will definitely make my top three.
I have to think about it.
I had to have a drink every time someone called a virtual quarter final today.
You'd be fucking hammered.
Yeah.
Well, that's like Rob, you thought passing patchy on comms, right?
Patchy patchy patchy.
You're getting it.
I've never heard that.
Yeah, really?
It was like five times in the same breath.
But yeah, no, I'd say I'd take, I think I'd take Sanju's knock slightly ahead of Harry
Brook because it's the knockout element in this tournament.
Okay.
Pass.
What?
Suspect, Oson asks, do you think left, right hand combo up top has made any difference
for India?
They've gone, they've gone left, left, left though initially and now Sanju's back, so.
Look, it plays a part.
It makes it harder for teams to scheme against you with their bowling lineups.
So West Indies had to make a big, take a big risk today bringing in two left arm finger
spinners because of that.
So whereas you, you know, when you had two right handers opening the batting from the
West Indies, they could use Aksharp a terrible force.
And I came in.
So it's things like that that you probably don't always notice as a fan, but make a big
difference when you're, when you're in, you know, as an analyst for people at Meen
Hemi.
Hmm.
Okay.
I mean, I definitely think left right combos to help in T20s more than the other formats.
I, he says, drop up, you shaking semi-final need to penalize bad feeling.
What is wrong with you guys?
I'm not sure anyone could play in the finals at this stage, but based on some of the fearing
we're seated this toward, but do you remember when the women played the World Cup?
It was like, women's field, it's really bad.
And then the men's World Cup's come and it's just like, oh my God, he would go again.
Shiva Subramanyam asks, showed has Abhishek been found out or is it just a mental thing?
Will he come good in semis and finals?
Do we need to repeat ourselves?
Can I just say one thing?
He had, he was probably in the form of his life a month ago, guys.
Yeah.
Right?
How can we be a month later saying he needs to be dropped, right?
How can we be saying that he's found out a month ago, he was the most discussed battle
on the planet?
Hmm.
All right.
Gargi with the Super Chat asks, what point, at what point do you select, could he be
other over Warren Chakraverty, a semi-final?
I don't know, man.
I might even consider playing them both because spaces go for runs at the one kiddie.
We have seen some turn for spinners, though.
That's how I'd be thinking.
What what a cool NBA ad absurd is in this tournament because everyone keeps asking, am I
missing it?
You know, he hasn't played much, right?
The Pakistan game, he was really good, but he came into the game when the game was over.
Because I remember not that long ago, Darryl Mitchell dumping him back over the boundary
over and over again, and everyone telling him that deep was done, right?
Yeah.
So how have we gone from a position where cool deep is done, to a position where cool
deep needs to be able to have a Warren Chakraverty?
I just feel like as fans, we do not learn any lessons from watching cricket, right?
I think, as I said, it would be a craziness to drop Warren Chakraverty, right?
Now, the game that you might drop it before is the final.
If you think that whatever reason he's a bad matchup against South Africa, and you have
better matchups that you can bring in, but I will go back to what I said yesterday or
the day before, whenever it was when people brought this up, South Africa dropped Alan
Donald in 1996 World Cup, so they could play a better matchup against Brian Lauer and
Brian Lauer, Shishka Bob, to pull Adams, right?
Pick your best bowlers.
Honestly, I think that is in your best two bowlers.
Yeah, I feel like England's suck versus spin, so you might as well play both spinners
at the one.
Yeah, I'm with you.
I have no problem with cool deep coming in.
Yeah.
I kind of would play cool deep quite a bit at the moment, but also a hard, bold, weird
today.
So maybe, I don't know.
Yeah.
Not bad, but just weird.
It's good to have two different kinds of really good spinners when you're facing England
on a surface, which has shown us some turn.
Vyshaks says, India always had a Malu luck in their world champion teams.
The reason is he is referring to, I guess, I think so.
Yeah.
I don't know about the ethnicities, guys, a general intent to stray away from those conversations.
Just Jot Singh with the Super Chat says, another India versus England semi in third in a row
in T20s.
I feel India's under pressure.
Chase and semi's will be difficult against better bowling lineup.
I love the idea that England's not under pressure.
It's a World Cup semi final.
What are you guys missing here?
Everyone's under pressure.
There is not a human being who's going to go out on that field that is not under pressure.
India play under pressure in bilateral games.
Yeah.
That's how much better is the bowling, England's bowling attack than with Cindy's Joffra's
the best Seema.
Joffra's the best Seema.
Joffra's the best Seema.
Joffra's the best Seema.
Joffra's the best Seema.
Joffra's the best Seema.
Joffra's the best Seema.
Who are the best Seema?
Who are the best Seema?
Who are the best Seema?
Which West Indian Seema?
I can't imagine a verse when you fathered in one karaoke.
Oh, West Indies.
Yeah.
You're comparing England with the West Indies.
You can't actually work out.
Yeah.
I think England is, we'll probably have him back, Jared.
He was out of the last game, wasn't he?
Yeah.
We're on play, then.
He wouldn't probably come back in there, I think.
How do you drop Rehan now?
England has a bowling attack.
Yeah, exactly.
And Rehan will get hammered by India, probably unless the pitch is massively in his favour.
England have a bowling attack that can go for 250 very, very easily.
They have a batting line up on paper can score 250, right?
Yeah.
In the game, then India win it easily.
If it's not, and it's a gritty game, anyone from either of these sides can tense up,
right?
Just butler.
Yeah.
Could you end up playing the show?
I hope innings.
Yeah.
Oh, Josh Butler could finally come into some form, right?
England will be hoping that happens.
Are these a bug catcher?
Thank you for the super chat, buddy.
It's a generous one.
Says, watch the cricket game after two weeks today was worth watching Sunju bat like
this.
When he bats like this, it's fun to watch.
Also, Abhishek still hasn't fired yet, so good news for India, I guess.
I like your way of thinking.
All the averages inevitably he has to fire literally, but runs into the last game.
Yeah, I did.
But I want that at least it's a positive way of looking at it.
Yeah.
All right.
Do we have another super chat?
Mm-hmm.
Or do we not?
We have Shriya, Josie who says, love your analysis, guys, just a suggestion.
Bear on, please get a mic.
There's the mic.
Yeah.
Jofra is going to run through the top three in the semis.
Yeah, we think so.
If he has a Samsung, we'll be fun though.
I think that's the one I can see.
That's a good one.
That's up for England.
I'd be happy with that.
Yeah.
The team made something.
Yeah.
But Jofra knows how to bolt her, and we saw that about a year ago, right?
Yeah.
So that will be fascinating.
Yeah.
All right.
Next, super chat, please.
We've got Isaac Koshy, who says, are we not one bullet short, especially since we are
not looking to get one all-rounder to ball.
I don't think India need to use this explore.
And he knows India.
He didn't say which team.
That's also fair.
I do think the West Indies is one all-rounder short.
Okay.
Maybe so or perhaps in bad way.
Maybe.
I mean, don't say this out loud, because it's very possible that Gambit will bring Washington
to the room for Baron Chakra about the next game.
Yeah.
You never know.
Just to add more batting.
I didn't want to bowl a short though, because Harry Pandey is a fifth baller, right?
Yeah.
I don't think so.
I think I get it a little bit more iffy when, and I understand why they do this, because
I think the three best bowlers are probably desperate, cool, deep, and a very attractive
party.
But I get a bit iffy when they go in with that liner, and they have Aksha, and then suddenly
they end up with Hardik as the second Seema.
That's probably when I look at it as light, but I don't look at it as light.
I mean, my God.
Australia had Marcus Steuiness opening the bowling.
I take Hardik Pandey out.
I'd million times out of five with that option.
I think India went unchanged today, which was like, what are we talking about here?
Everyone's a bowler short.
I'm not even doing it.
And the man gets wickets every time I watch him.
I don't know why you do not like Corbin Bosch, by the way.
I quite rate it.
No, I don't like his batting.
Talent, a trick or two.
If they do bring in cool deep, who misses out though?
Because you wouldn't want to get rid of our sheep, I guess.
That's a tough one.
It has to be him.
Unless they get rid of the river, cool deep.
They're not going to sacrifice the eight three formation.
That's what Gambu does.
Anyway, mid life Mazaz says, why our overthrow runs a lot of a fielder hits the wickets
on the ball ricochets.
Can boundaries be standardized to 75 to 65 to 70?
Ballers need the help.
Why ballers need to have the balance actually scored that many runs in this tournament.
Like, if you make pitches that have helped, that's fine.
Otherwise, it would be you would just hit the stumps every opportunity you get to stop
people ever taking runs and it just doesn't make any sense.
Right.
The balls would just be flying around all the time with it be long pauses while we wait
for the ball to be picked up from the boundary.
It's not a good way to have a dead ball.
The ICC, I'm sorry, not the ICC.
The MCC have looked at this before.
There are so many unintended reasons why that can't happen.
The boundaries can't all be 65 to 70 meters because there are many stadiums that have
been around for a hundred years that do not have the space.
Yeah, lords, right?
Lord is one of the main reasons, but there are heaps of grounds around the world that
are just, we'd have to move grandstands.
It's like, you're talking about a multi billion dollar thing.
And also, isn't it more fun that they're not, I always think that's one of the great
things about baseball as well, right?
If you have the ability to actually have something that's non-regular, you have to adjust
to it.
All right.
Shresht has a question.
What pitch would be Wankide and Eden for semis?
I don't have the answer to that.
I think Wankide might offer spin, but I also have to drop guys batteries dying.
You have to finish the super chats on your own.
Yeah.
Cheers, guys.
Okay.
Congratulations to all Indian viewers and listeners and let's hope we get some cracker
of knockout games.
All right.
Bye, bye.
See you.
Bye.
I don't know what the pitch is going to be.
I don't know what these two games today, if we're being honest.
So he says, any of these can't consistently bowl defense, even after South Africa showed
the template, baffling with the amount of experience, isn't it?
Do you feel they bowl defensive today?
No.
I don't.
I think I actually bowled his normal lens, right?
Yeah.
Are you not supposed to bowl the length of the public, are you?
Yeah.
I thought he was supposed to do.
Yeah.
So I didn't see anything in there that was massively defensive.
I mean, I think Chakravati is more of a defensive bowler at his best, but I don't know what
he was bowling at times today.
And Hardik, I still don't know what Hardik's plans were.
So I wasn't sitting there going that they were bowling defensive.
Wesley says, if any of the World Cup is the greatest T-20 side of all time, yeah, I don't
know.
It would be interesting because it's not because the teams don't overlap a lot between
2024 and 2026 if they do win it.
It's also, yeah, that is actually quite fair as well.
I think that's a fascinating question to ask.
I don't think it's wrong, but I'm not sure I could give you a perfect answer to that
one.
I don't have to say this, Jared, what do you think is South Africa really a better team
than India?
Oh, it was a good day.
I don't think South Africa is a better team than India.
I've been very clear on that from the beginning.
I think India is the best team in the tournament.
He's been so clear on it that South African fans think Jared hates them.
And when, despite the fact that, yeah, anyway, S-Fish says, the last time someone
knew came into the team against the arms like Sanju and set the tournament light with
Shammi for Pandia in 2023.
And he's not really new into the team, is he?
Though Sanju?
He's been around.
I think it means he was in the bench and he comes in and wins your games like that.
I guess that's what he means.
I'm not sure.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, I can see that.
I mean, you see that a lot with fans there.
Once you start doing well, people find parallels to other times you do well.
It happens all the time.
And vice versa says, do you guys think we're saying more drops because there are more
opportunities in a game that plays attacking more nowadays?
You guys know the numbers, but curious why all teams seem to be worse.
There's a lot more games we've played at night.
It's a much harder to catch at night than it is in the daytime and people never, ever
factor that in.
Also, maybe player in the world about what it's like when the ball goes down.
Yeah, maybe teams are hitting the ball harder.
That's one thing we don't really track.
I would also, I think that that's also fair.
I think players cover more ground now so they get to more balls than they have I've got
to before.
Also, they can check something is can they could check is the other balls going higher
than they usually do because they do have the data for that on there and great.
Only for world cups.
And I don't know if anyone keeps doing that data, so not 100% sure.
What's wrong with hotspot?
Too expensive.
I'm reliable.
So, Prakka, you can game hotspot.
You can actually put Vaseline on the side of your bats.
It also, if the bat hits the pad, it's really hard to check or if the bat hits the ground
and all these sorts of different things, it can be a little bit tricky.
If we actually were realistic though, we would have Snicko and we would have, sorry, Ultra
Edge.
We would never have Snicko.
We'd have Ultra Edge and we'd have hotspot.
It is quite expensive and it should be used and I don't know why it's not used.
It's probably the best one, but it also would make it slower because there'd be another
thing that we'd have to go through.
Ritum says, said you played 12 4s, only 4 6s, 3 in the power play and the last in the last
over with fielders in the circle, requiring 7 of 6.
Fast outfield and even trusted placement, ultimate confidence to not soak 6s.
As we said before, he doesn't actually play through the line in order to hit 6s.
He's actually quite a traditional player in the way he hits the ball, so yeah, that's
one of the reasons why you see that with him.
Ah, Sivia says, what about Jason celebrating in partial much?
I mean, is that the worst celebration we've seen recently?
What about Cash Patel with the USA?
I think I'm the skis.
I think I'm the skis.
He's the FBI director, is celebrating with the men's hockey team when they've won,
but also, I was like, you didn't fucking win, Dickhead.
Get the fuck out.
Let them fucking, you go when you say, congratulations, guys, really beat, and then you fuck off.
You don't sit there, anyway.
Um, I think it's good you said, Liam Dawson, man of the match in the semis, put money
on it.
Well, we'll talk to Rob about that.
Why don't he buy it?
I have better odds for you.
Um, I think he says, why did he kill, not ball, more bad captain, see?
Is that a match-up scene?
I think he got hammered in the power play, right?
Well, they won it, I think that's why I think they got spooked when some just smashed him.
Yeah.
Probably that isn't it more than anything else.
Uh, vague says, notice the tiny marker movements in that he's technique.
Yeah, he was shivering, uh, I think I said he was shivering like a crackhead in the
chat.
And now you said it out loud.
Yes.
Did crackhead shiver?
I feel like I really would pray from withdrawal, right?
Yeah.
Oh, we draw.
Yeah.
Abby says, serious things for a conservative as a captain in the field.
I don't think he's a very aggressive captain, but I'm not sure I, I'm not sure conservative
is the word that I would use.
I think it's also very creative, I think that's fair.
Yeah.
I'm not, I think it's fine.
I don't hate him or I love him.
Yeah.
He's a captain.
Uh, Mick Lebowski says, just want to say, enjoy the converse and con box more than
the games themselves, most days.
Keep up the great work.
Uh, wow, that is very, very nice.
And unfortunately, the conversations would be crap if we didn't have the games.
Actually, that's not true.
Our best podcaster about such random stuff, especially when it comes to me and Barron.
Uh, we'll be back.
I think we're going to try and do some semi finals previews.
Uh, we'll be back for the semi finals and the finals as well.
We've got a bunch of other content.
If you want to hear more about Sanju Samson, yeah, I'll get to that and say, uh, if you
want to hear more about Sanju Samson, we are on the good areas channel.
There's a video that I've just made that will come up in the next few hours, um, so
have a look at that.
Our TM King says, what's up with the ICC preparing solo pitches in the last three or four?
Not much pace or spin, but slower off the surface.
They've been, but just producing baller-friendly wickets with any way that you like it pace
off, um, are all sorts of things for a very long time.
I don't really understand the ICC wickets and I, I don't know who I need to talk to to
like have a conversation with them.
Well, I do feel this little cup has been a lot better for batting than the last one, right?
Last one was horrible.
Yeah, but the last one was it went from CPL levels to really bad.
This one's gone from IPL levels to like a world cup level.
Like there's always a drop.
Isn't there?
Like every time you watch the 9.6 versus 8.9, if I remember correctly, I want to say in
the, in the, for us, for over 0.7 runs, yeah, but like what was it?
New York was like, you remember from like, what was it eight to like, what was it even
a pitch?
New York was cow shit that they paid billions of dollars for.
Yeah, that's what he is.
Come on, guys, he is not looking at you, I think I suppose it all rounder.
DuBait a ball, a single over more.
I, DuBait should open the bowling, open the batting and do everything that he needs
to be, I don't think he balls enough.
I think she should be a rule in this world cup that unless you can DuBait a ball five
overs again.
That's foreign.
Do we want you to do it?
I want six overs again.
Seven overs again.
I want you to do that ball from one end.
My dad always tells me that before they brought in regulations for limited overs cricket,
he, him and his mate, which is open to bowling from each end and just ball and change.
That's what I want to see from Shivam DuBait over and over again.
Thank you to everyone for your chats, your super chats and your love.
We will see you again very, very soon here on Combo.
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