Marcus Stoinis took inspiration from the pain and angst of not being able to finish off the games for Australia in the past and felt determined to be there till the very end until he won his team the semi-final of the T20 World Cup 2021.
Stoinis played arguably the most important innings of his career on Thursday against Pakistan on Friday night, scoring a well-measured 40 not out off 31 balls. He stitched an excellent unbeaten partnership of 81 runs with Matthew Wade (41*) when Australia found themselves 96/5 in the chase of the stiff 177-run target.
The finish was made famous by Wade’s three consecutive sixes against Pakistan’s ace quick Shaheen Afridi, but it was Stoinis who, for large parts, ensured that Australia never lost their calm and nerves whilst the pressure was at its peak.
The big-built right-hander struck two fours and two sixes during his innings and pushed Australia to a magnificent win along with Wade. Soaking in the victory, Stoinis has said it was his past failures, the occasions when he couldn’t quite hold his nerves in a chase and win it for Australia, that really helped him navigate through the second half against Pakistan.
“You definitely draw on your past experiences. I sort of build that scar tissue. I’ve failed in situations, I’ve been told I can’t finish a game. We’ve heard all these sorts of things before, and I think you need to go through all that stuff and build that scar tissue to go then and stand in the middle in a pressure situation,”
the all-rounder told The Age.
2019 was especially a tough time for Stoinis, who was dropped from the Australian T20I side in October that year after an insipid ODI World Cup. But the experienced cricketer picked himself up via the IPL 2020. In a stint for Delhi Capitals, he made 352 runs at a strike-rate of 148.52 besides picking up 13 wickets and hasn’t looked back since.
Stoinis will be hoping to replicate his performance in the final when Australia take on neighbours New Zealand on Sunday for the T20 World Cup title.
Also read 👉 T20 World Cup final: New Zealand vs Australia – Preview and Prediction
