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The Grade Cricketer

Associate nation beats Oman | AUS v OMA | T20 World Cup

20 Feb 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What were Australia's expectations before the T20 World Cup?

0.031 - 25.56 Sam Perry

Well, before the Ashes started, they were the second best team in the world. They'd won 16 of their last 20 games. In amongst that, they'd won 9 or 10 games in a row, and that was the most they'd ever won in a row. But let's be right. Oman have had an absolutely terrible tournament, and they've been beaten today by an associate nation. This calls for a bud. Yes, Pezza, that's right.

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25.58 - 44.136 Sam Perry

I do still sound like this. I apologise, but I am sick and tired. of this fucking garbage Australian side. Nah, you know, sometimes T20s are good. Sometimes they have to be played. Sometimes shows need to occur for contractual reasons. And here we are on a Saturday morning, Australia win for the first time in 10 years.

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44.977 - 65.678 Ian Higgins

Yeah, and you sound like you've been crying, and rightly so. I can see red eyes and tears. But, yeah, look, I don't think I can remember a sadder Australian team than... It was a sad, disconsolate Australian team with a sad consolation victory.

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Chapter 2: How did Oman perform throughout the tournament?

67.001 - 95.735 Ian Higgins

It was a game that Australia won much akin to that meme of that young girl dancing while crying. Every wicked and boundary Australia took or struck seemed to make them sadder. It was a detention game. They were in detention and they had to fulfill their obligations and do it well. So that's what we saw overnight.

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96.396 - 109.637 Ian Higgins

Everybody is sad or getting ready for the Vegas game or still talking about AFL Origin. So that's the long and the short of it as far as I could see.

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109.617 - 117.704 Sam Perry

It's also been just an enormous couple of days from people from other countries telling Australians how they should feel and how they do feel about T20s as well.

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118.145 - 142.207 Sam Perry

Anyway, as with Ask TGC, Budweiser are putting this show in the hands of fans and we put the question out there on Instagram and you can follow TGC for the rest of this tournament and indeed into the IPL and for all time if you want to do that as well. But the question out there during this game, Salman said, is this the best time? Sorry, it is the best time to crush them.

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142.668 - 148.516 Sam Perry

Truer words have never been spoken. That was, of course, the captain, Jatinder Singh, saying that.

150.478 - 176.918 Ian Higgins

Yeah, I think they just missed an opportunity, Oman, really. I mean, it does... The mind boggles at what would have happened if Oman had somehow... done something in this game. But it really went to show. I mean, it's been a good World Cup for associate nations or the middle powers or anyone but India. And the narrative that the gaps are narrowing, that doesn't apply to Oman.

177.421 - 191.038 Ian Higgins

they at times looked unsafe in this game and throughout the entire group. So I liked that their captain against that backdrop said, we're going to crush them. It's a great opportunity. That's how low Australia's sunk.

193.521 - 206.938 Sam Perry

Tom said, opting to bowl first is an absolute disgrace to the nation. Anyway, Vicks looked good. Yeah, it was surprising that Australia did want to have a bowl first, but I suppose they were just trying to win the game. But what Australia needed was to score 400.

208.268 - 231.255 Ian Higgins

Yeah, and when you bowl first, you can wrap the game up sooner and commence those sad beers. And sometimes they're the best beers once you get sort of three or four in. I just want to make clear at this point that this has got nothing to do with our sponsored integration, genuinely. This is how Australians talk about loss and sadness. It's like how the beers taste.

Chapter 3: What was the emotional state of the Australian team after their victory?

231.235 - 263.758 Sam Perry

Yeah. Check the hard drive of anyone that requested to put this on in the pub. That's pretty good. Was the cricket on? Yes. And Ruari said, highest grade Oman would give a game to. Yeah. Well, when Xavier Bartlett bowled that bloke first ball, I was thinking... Yeah, where was this? It's a great delivery. Yeah, yeah. All right, well, Omar will roll for 107, 108, something like that.

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264.239 - 268.971 Sam Perry

And it felt like, hmm, this is not that fun to watch, but it was kind of fun.

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268.951 - 289.015 Ian Higgins

Yeah, I mean, just, you know, a gentleman never kisses and tells. You don't like to lift the hood on how this show comes together. But my process personally is like, obviously, I'm up at 12.30 a.m. Eastern Time. I will watch the full game and every ball just to understand the rhythm of the game and just to get the little nuances for this 20-minute show.

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289.115 - 309.448 Ian Higgins

And then I'll watch the highlights on Prime. There's 25-minute highlights. And I've got to tell you, the people at Prime were working hard to get 25 minutes worth of highlights for this one. There were a lot of singles in there. There was a lot of singles, a lot of dabs to third. And I was thinking, why is this relevant? And I was like, oh, that's right. The Omanis can't strike a boundary.

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310.63 - 337.279 Ian Higgins

So, yeah, Bartlett gets that first wicket. Another one I saw on the highlights after seeing the whole game. is, um, uh, and I've really, you know, this is a, for Australia, this is a cakewalk. I mean, don't look that up, but, uh, yeah, Glenn Maxwell dropped, has dropped one at second slip, um, straight to him and it's gone through it. Uh, yeah. And, uh, That's not good. That's not a good sign.

339.142 - 364.92 Ian Higgins

And at that moment in time, I thought what was appropriate was his hero, Ricky Ponting, through the week, making comments about Maxwell and also saying that Australia lacked aura and the best way to win the game is to win games. Anyway. Mm-hmm. Yeah, Nathan Ellis gets a wicket with his second ball as well, he goes. Who was on comms? Is Sanjay Mandraker on comms? Is it Sanjay?

366.202 - 385.51 Ian Higgins

Oh, I know who you're about to say. I should probably get that right. I'm not sure who said it. Whoever the commentator was after the first ball has absolutely given it to Nathan Ellis for starting with a perfectly landed back-of-the-hand slower ball, which has gone over mid-on for four, but miscued unconvincingly, probably about a metre from a catch in and of itself.

385.49 - 409.902 Ian Higgins

Cue abuse from the commentator for starting with a back of the hand slower ball, which is then followed up by 135 kilometer on speed ball that is straight through the batter who's slow to it. And the commentator goes on to say, see, that's why you've got to start with that ball. And you think, I like this doubling down.

410.162 - 432.895 Ian Higgins

And I've got to say, I've got to say, DOS and the team were really trying to pump this game up and pump up a couple of moments. And the contrast between... The, like, the pall of dejection of this Australian team and then the excitement of Doss and his friends was comical. But they're just doing their job. This is T20 cricket.

Chapter 4: What did the commentators say about Australia's strategy in the match?

463.056 - 485.666 Sam Perry

So I've enjoyed that. I've also just enjoyed Travis Head later in the piece just hitting a cover drive and DOS fucking blowing out my headphones just as Australia moved to Nunva 88 or whatever. I was like, you know what? These boys have driven four hours in a car from Colombo to Pallikelly, I think it was. And this is their game as much as anyone else's.

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485.987 - 491.651 Sam Perry

And fair fucks to those guys because they had to actually go and watch that game. And no one else in Australia did.

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491.691 - 520.476 Ian Higgins

Let's be right about that. I've got to say, every single wicket Australia took was met with an emotionless response. It was a classic non-celebration of every wicket to the point where I wondered if the entire Australian team had played for Oman in the past and was doing it that way just for class. And I say that as an Omani fan. That's classy. Sorry, that's class.

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520.576 - 537.465 Ian Higgins

I just thought Adam Zampa's clearly grown up in Oman. He must have Omani family or something because he's refusing to celebrate this week. He just goes and gets his hat. I think Xavier Butler took a good catch at long on at one point. Zampa just gave him the thumbs up, and I thought that's about as far as he's going to go. Yeah.

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537.765 - 550.366 Sam Perry

Mate, I've got to say, I really enjoyed the anger with which the Australian team played this game. Like, you know, we've been – I think everyone in Australia has been talking about – There's, like, a delineation of things, right?

550.386 - 571.033 Sam Perry

There's, like, there's the underperformance of the team and then there's also this happens quite a lot to Australians in T20 World Cup, maybe not exit this early, and also the separation of care factor for Australians' fans in this format compared to others. And, like, that would have really hurt the players. It would have really hurt the players, like, hearing all that stuff.

571.553 - 594.542 Sam Perry

And I wouldn't be surprised if we don't get to talk to them for, sort of, six months as punishment. But, like... But I really enjoyed how fucking angry and I wouldn't say like it wasn't didn't want to be there because they executed their skills well and for the most part and they played well and they smashed a fucking third grade team. But I really enjoyed how there was no smiling.

594.942 - 617.946 Sam Perry

There was no laughing. The appeals were muted. I think Zampa got a DRS decision and they were in the huddle and it was overturned, it was out, and no one said anything. I like that. I like that they're fucking angry and pissed off because the performance in the World Cup has been so bad that I've actually been surprised by how many people have cared about it. It actually has been in the media.

618.706 - 633.106 Sam Perry

Now, if it was a week after the football season had started, then that might be a different case. But the fact is that people have been talking about it. And that surprised me. So I've enjoyed that they've been hurt and are clearly angry. So I thought it was good.

Chapter 5: How did the Australian players react to their performance?

747.995 - 766.979 Ian Higgins

Travis Head tries to hit it back to Colombo at top edges. And the keeper and Shaquille are both going for the ball. Basically, they're playing markers up, which is in honour of the thing that Aussies are talking about in the southern states at the moment. The bowler... And typically the keeper wins these battles, but the bowler wins the battle today.

0

767.019 - 775.508 Ian Higgins

He knocks the keeper over and then does the Ronaldo-Sue celebration. And that's pretty much the moment of the match.

0

775.943 - 800.822 Sam Perry

Yeah, I wouldn't say it's necessarily the worst thing Ronaldo's ever done, allegedly, but giving mid-rate professional athletes a reason to celebrate like they're one of the greatest athletes of all time is tough to take, but you've got to take your licks in these moments, I suppose. I completely agree with you that Mitch Marsh could have ended his tournament in jail.

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801.463 - 827.419 Sam Perry

That would have made it a really difficult tournament, but... That would have been pretty tough. And then my last thoughts on this game as a whole, Pezza, is when I've thought about Associate Cricket Nations in the past, I have thought about this Oman team. Every other test-playing nation, they've had a couple of test matches, your Zimbabwe, your Ireland, etc.

0

827.899 - 855.122 Sam Perry

And then your World Cup twos have performed really well in this tournament. Everyone has given one of the top nations a game, and Omana the only side that have not come close in any game. And that's what I've always associated nations with, that style of cricket. So, you know, I guess Australia's been knocked out of a group when they had a team which was a literal free hit.

856.667 - 864.393 Sam Perry

But I think it makes me feel better that Zimbabwe's topped the group. Sort of. Actually, nah, I don't really care.

864.994 - 878.884 Ian Higgins

No, because what that means is that Australia's focus on losing to a team that we consider a minnow is also not based in fact. It means that we've been...

878.864 - 903.842 Ian Higgins

like roundly defeated by two teams that deserve to progress it's not even a kind of a a one-off shock it's like no they're just they're just better at cricket in this format um and let's all point fingers at everybody else i would like to know what steve smith was thinking as he was watching that game um i'm a celebrity get me out of here

905.797 - 924.531 Ian Higgins

Did you notice that, yeah, I mean, the last point here is sad beers, but did you notice that Josh Inglis came in at three? I think Green's been coming in at three, hasn't he, for this tournament? Or am I just being another Aussie with a casual connection to this?

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