Australia v Bangladesh Report Card

Featuring annoying rain at the start of the match, cans of Pringles and annoying rain at the end of the match

Annoying Rain At The Start of the Match
Grade: C 

Rain briefly delayed the toss for Australia and Bangladesh’s first match in the Super Eight stage. Frankly, it was an unwelcome sight. Antigua needs to sort itself out. It should know that the rain is only properly funny when it threatens to wash England out of the tournament. 

But this wasn’t serious rain. In fact, so unserious was it that in the pre-match analysis, Ricky Ponting went umbrella-less, standing in conspicuous contrast to his cowering canopy-clutching co-commentators. 

The whole thing very much gave off a vibe not dissimilar to Ponting’s famous verbal counterpunch to Kevin Pietersen during the 2023 Ashes. 

“What’s brilliant here is the rain,” claimed one of the English commentators on duty (probably Alison Mitchell, but let’s say it was KP for the purposes of the bit). “It’s just owned the game, it’s just run the game. It’s pure quality, and it’s got this lot scratching their heads going ‘what do we do?’.” 

Ponting: “Well, it’s stopped now.”