"The best innings of the tournament" - Sanjay Manjrekar on Travis Head's blistering knock in IND vs AUS T20 World Cup Super 8 matchÂ
Sanjay Manjrekar reckoned that Australian opener Travis Head's quick-fire knock against India in the Super 8 match on Monday, June 24, could be the best innings of the 2024 T20 World Cup. The southpaw scored 76 runs off 46 balls.
Head was Australia's lone warrior in the team's unsuccessful attempt at chasing India's 206-run target at the Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium in St Lucia. The swashbuckling batter entertained the viewers, hitting nine fours and four sixes.
Lauding Head for his performances, Manjrekar said during a discussion in ESPNcricinfo:
"This could be arguably the best innings of the tournament. I know Rohit Sharma has played a blinder. But some of the shots that he played, there was one shot off Kuldeep Yadav and he hit one over long-off with a flat bat. Just the difficulty of the shots and with the pressure and knowing that he was one batter who was in and lot hinged on him. The kind of shots he played, he looks a really special player."
Highlighting how Head's experience of playing first-class cricket has helped in white-ball formats, the cricketer-turned-commentator added:
"He's a guy who's played 160 first-class matches. Somewhere even in T20 cricket and 50-over cricket, you get to see that this is the guy who's faced a lot of balls in his career. I just loved that innings and my respect for Travis Head while he was out there was growing."
Australia seemed to be in the game when Head was at the crease. However, the pendulum shifted in India's favor after he got out to Jasprit Bumrah in the 17th over. The Mitchell Marsh-led side finished at 181/7 after 20 overs, suffering a 24-run defeat.
"We saw Australia bowling Stoinis, despite showing that he's not quite having a good time" - Sanjay Manjrekar on Mitchell Marsh's captaincy
In the same video, Sanjay Manjrekar stated that Australian skipper Mitchell Marsh missed the trick by giving Marcus Stoinis his full quota of four overs, even though he looked off-colored.
He pointed out that Rohit Sharma, on the other hand, had the luxury of going to another left-arm spinner after Ravindra Jadeja gave away 17 runs from his first over.
"We saw Australia bowling Stoinis, despite showing that he's not quite having a good time. Whereas, India have the luxury of going to another left-arm spinner. They gave Jadeja one over, realized that it was going to be too risky, didn't go back to him. So, India have those options and Rohit Sharma is using those beautifully. Gave the 16th over to Arshdeep, the slightly easier over to come back into second spell," Manjrekar said.
Marcus Stoinis had a forgettable outing, registering figures of 4-0-56-2. Rohit Sharma took the Australian bowlers to the cleaners in the match, smashing 92 runs off just 41 balls.