Many-told Tales

GH on the T20 World Cup semis

Two familiar tales have converged and intersected at the T20 World Cup: South Africa, hitherto unbeaten, losing their way towards the climax of a global tournament; New Zealand playing above their ranking/resources/GDP. The latter, population 5.3 million, proceed to Sunday’s final in Ahmedabad against either England, population 60 million, or India, 1.5 billion. Bring it on, they will say. The Australians, meanwhile, look on from today’s Sheffield Shield round. Wonder what they’re thinking?

Believe me, it’s huge

At Eden Gardens, Mitchell Santner won an important toss, but otherwise relied on his excellent wits, beginning with the deployment of the off-spinner Cole McConchie to overthrow the left-handers Quinton de Kock and Ryan Rickleton. New Zealand dropped both Aiden Markram and David Miller, but Rachin Ravindra made amends. South Africa seemed to pursue what they took to be a ‘par score’, but we might now hear less of these, because Finn Allen and Tim Seifert, who have now added a stupendous 463 runs in this tournament, made a mockery of any such calculations: Allen’s thirty-three-ball hundred, reached off the game’s last ball, is the fastest against a full member in T20Is, and was all the more remarkable for Seifert outpacing him in the power play. He has a rare capacity for making grounds as large as Kolkata look extremely small, not only by the power of his pull shot but with the signature of his nonchalant ramps. ‘I mean, 33 balls for a hundred’s not bad,’ said his skipper with native understatement.