T20 Cricket World Cup: Rare blunder Mars Australias narrow Victory over Afghanistan

If you thought Australia’s innings went slightly faster than usual on Friday evening, you were correct.

The hosts only faced 119 deliveries in their must-win T20 World Cup match against Afghanistan at Adelaide Oval due to an umpiring error during the Powerplay.

The fourth over, delivered by Afghanistan seamer Naveen-ul-Haq, wrapped up in just five balls, with the umpires prematurely switching ends.

On the fourth ball of the over, Australian all-rounder Mitchell Marsh slapped a slower delivery into vacant space at long on him and veteran opener David Warner scampered through for two before sprinting back for a third following an overthrow.

However, instead of a 3 appearing on the broadcast graphics, a 2 popped up alongside an additional 3 in the fifth ball.

Naveen-ul-Haqs fifth delivery was a dot ball, and the over was called none of the players seemed to notice.

Australia’s score was later rectified on the broadcast graphics, but the reigning Champions never got that delivery back.

Five-ball overs are common in village Cricket but a rarity on the international stage particularly in a World Cup and the blunder didn’t go unnoticed.

The umpiring mistake thankfully didn’t impact the final outcome, with Australia claiming a four-run victory over Afghanistan to keep its T20 World Cup dream alive at least for another 24 hours.

If Sri Lanka defeats England at the SCG on Saturday evening, they are through to the semi-finals. If England wins, their tournament is over.

Australia finds itself in such a precarious situation because of its woeful net run rate, which took a beating after last months massive loss to New Zealand.

Despite recording comfortable wins over Sri Lanka and Ireland, their net run rate never truly recovered, currently sitting at -0.173.

We put ourselves in that situation, been trying to Chase a bit of run rate but it hasn’t gone our way, Australian Captain Matthew Wade said during the post-match presentation.

We were a bit slow out of the blocks this tournament, hopefully it doesn’t cost us.