Things could change, of course, come the Super Eight but Australia are a well-drilled side with, seemingly, all bases covered. Pat Cummins was able to have the first game off; there was no need to push a sore Mitchell Starc into this one. Others could now get a rest against Scotland ahead of the next stage, which sees three games in six days for all the teams who make it.
Zampa, becoming Australia’s first male player to 100 T20I wickets, took the plaudits with the Player-of-the-Match award – his second in two games – and from his captain. Like in the ODI World Cup, he has so far operated as the lone frontline spinner, supported by Glenn Maxwell’s offspin.
It took 24 minutes and less than six overs to knock off the target. Run rate was of no concern, or benefit, for Australia (whether they take note of England’s in a few days’ time is another thing entirely) but they were in no mood to hang around. Perhaps they can squeeze in another of Antigua’s 365 beaches before hopping over to St Lucia.
“I think these big games are always gold dust in the sense that you get a physical run out with the best in the world,” he said. “You tend to face different ball speeds, different skills at a very high quality, a very high consistency and whether that’s a game that runs very close or one that you even lose quite far, it’s still gold dust that you need to try your best to take in every moment of that and every sort of experience that you can because they don’t come around often. So hopefully, some of the boys could do that tonight again, even though it was a bit of a runaway.”