A World Cup that needs more such Afghan twists

Well, what were the odds of that? Afghanistan playing England, in the World Cup or one-off, at Delhi, Lord's or Timbuktu, always warrants a foregone conclusion. Now we have an upset and a surefire way of inserting some thrill in what has been a World Cup devoid of close contests. But is it good enough to set alight a boring, almost predictable World Cup?

Even India-Pakistan is hardly a needle clash these days. Only last month, India defeated Pakistan by 228 runs — their heaviest till date — in the Asia Cup. Six years ago, Pakistan handed a 180-run thumping to India in the 2017 Champions Trophy final— their biggest loss in an ICC final.

One-sided as it is, their World Cup rivalry hasn't had a close finish barring India's 29-run win in the 2011 semi-final. In fact, you have to go back almost a decade to unearth the closest margin in an India-Pakistan game — in the 2014 Asia Cup at Mirpur, where Pakistan won by a wicket with two balls remaining. So it was hardly surprising when, on Sunday, India won by seven wickets with 117 balls to spare.

We like to be surprised though, and thoroughly entertained. Fed a steady diet of nerve-wracking humdingers in franchise T20 leagues, the average cricket consumer can't be entertained by its middling version anymore, certainly not when the results are insipid.

Till Saturday, only one match out of 12 was alive beyond the 45th over of the second innings — when Pakistan chased down Sri Lanka's 344 with 10 balls to spare. It still wasn't close, but at least it was money's worth, given there already have been three results with margins of 100 runs or more. In 2019, there were only five such instances throughout the tournament. 2015 witnessed 13 such results, but seven of them came against the Associates.

It's a shocking reminder of the format's dipping stocks, largely because most teams don't know how to play one-dayers on even slightly challenging pitches anymore. Year-round T20 has now not only led to skills being recalibrated but also irreversibly changed the psyche of cricketers. Just like in T20s — helped no less by ICC's Powerplay rules — batters focus on the first 10 and the last 10 overs in ODIs and try to bide their time in the middle overs. But this World Cup has shown it's easier said than done. In two out of three matches now, England have been found out on their middle-overs batting ploy. Against New Zealand, they lost five wickets in those 30 overs. On Sunday, they couldn't even make it past the 41st over, losing eight wickets from 52/2.

Equally scarring has been the experience of Australia, who from 100/2 in the 25th over lost the next eight wickets for only 99 runs against India. Even Bangladesh, who were expected to adapt to Indian pitches better, slid from 46/2 after 10 overs to 189/7 after the 40th, leaving them no specialist batter to exploit the last 10 overs against New Zealand.

Most revealing however was Pakistan's implosion — losing eight wickets for only 36 runs after coasting to 155/2 in the 30th over. In hindsight, on a difficult pitch where 270 was probably par, Pakistan paid the price for being too ambitious against a probing Indian bowling attack. But this goes way beyond pitch reading. This is emblematic of the growing apathy towards embracing the more risk-free version — and hence low on entertainment quotient — of scoring.

Of greater worry though is how upsets like these won't hand a lifeline to Afghanistan or change the complexion of the tournament. Had it been a World Cup with two groups of five teams each with the top two going through, England and Australia would have been almost knocked out of semi-final contention by now. But ICC has precluded that probability by pitting all the teams against each other. There are two advantages of this format — making as much money as possible by getting eight group league games of top draws like India, Australia, England and Pakistan; as well as maximising their last-four chances.

For the record, these aren't uncharted waters for England, who back in 2019 had suffered back-to-back losses to Sri Lanka and Australia after losing to Pakistan in their second league match. Once they made the cut though, some pluck and a lot of luck carried England across the line. It was the result England needed to justify their approach of not holding back irrespective of the scenarios, of reimagining cricket on the whole and offering one-dayers a fresh lease of life with a once-in-a-lifetime World Cup final.

It still made many to wonder how England would have fared had it been a different format to begin with. But it wasn't also England's business as long as ICC set up the tournament in such a way that only the favourites stayed in business. Which is the crux of the story. We may have enthralling matches once in a while, upsets that are bound to excite and inspire generations, but they still may not make the ODI World Cup captivating enough.