Tomorrow an England cricket team will play a major World Semi-Final and it provides us with a chance to move towards a second world title in this format. It will be played out, the drama, the big hits, the slower balls, the yorkers, the running between the wickets behind a pay TV wall. As far as I am aware, there are no plans to share the coverage with those not in possession of a Sky subscription. Oh well. Internet highlights it is.
Has this game registered on the public conscience here? Has anyone outside your normal cricket circle expressed any sort of interest? Not with me it hasn’t and all my colleagues and friends know I’m that blogger.
But there’s not a problem.
New Zealand are unbeaten in the competition, have a game plan, or several plans, and yet if we could choose a team to play at this stage of a competition, we’d probably be grateful to be playing the Black Caps rather than Kohlishire. But again, they are not to be underestimated.
From a misery guts point of view, England are probably playing with house money now for the powers that be. They’ve reached the semi-final so even if they go out here, the ECB have some tangible progress to report. In many ways they have, but this still looks a flaky team to me. It could chase down pretty much anything, but it could also be chasing pretty much anything. It definitely looks more comfortable chasing rather than setting.
Comments on the match below.
Being Outside Cricket 
It’s all going to depend on the pitch, isn’t it?
If the Delhi wicket is anything but a turner, England’s chances must surely improve a point or two. Agree that they will want to chase.
Can’t comment on the feelings in the UK, but in the UAE, people know it’s on.
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If it’s a turner England are probably gonna come second. If it looks like it’ll seam they’ll wheel out Boult and Southee and the last time England played them in a tournament things didn’t go too well. Yeah, we need to bat well.
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Yep, they batted well. And fielded well. Top drawer.
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I quite fancy England for this game. New Zealand are obviously the form team but i feel England are facing them with I hope their worst performances in this tournament behind them and should I hope out bat them no matter what happens at the toss
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NZ are a fascinating team. Whatever side they pick will depend on their reading of the situation and the pitch – and I would expect them to get it right. Also, I was going to say that the result will depend on the toss and who bats last, but I realise that NZ may well opt to defend a total, because they’ve done well with that strategy before. All in all they are very admirable and interesting and so, yet again, I’m torn as to who to support if it’s a close game.
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I would think it fair to say that about 90% of the English population are blissfully unaware that an English team are in the semi final of a World competition. Very few of the remaining 10% will be watching it!
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Unless they use Google? I’ve got a cute crossed-bats design as the Google Doodle today… is this just because Google has some sinister algorithm that knows I’m a relentless cricket churl?
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Australia women beat England 😦
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Sounds like England Women beat England Women. 67-0 after 10 then 7 wickets for 50. Having seen the group games that Sky deigned to show, it’s not a great surprise.
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The coin tossing competition has moved to the semis, where the toss will probably be crucial due to dew.
England won the toss, and choose to bowl. Big surprise.
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NZ would have batted first as well. They’ve opted against the spin trio with Milne in for McCullum. Hold on to your hats!
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Guptil gone, caught behind
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Jordan and Ali keeping England into it. Strange enough, it seems Moeen only gets to bowl two overs.
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The fielding has been better than the bowling so far.
I reckon we could chase down 150-160.
I always teach my juniors that a low full toss is one of the hardest balls to hit in the air… Easy to smash along the ground, hard to get underneath.
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Some very good death bowling, only 20 conceded of last 4 overs. Gettable score but NZ have defended worse scores. How we play the spinners could well be key here.
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Roy and Hales off to a flier. Much more of this and may well be game over. Surprised they haven’t tried a spinner yet.
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I reckon that only a choke level to what the women managed this morning will do for England now. Roy has blitzed it and Hales has playedhis part.too.
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Run a ball needed. This is England’s to lose, Roy 50 off 26. First inane giggle from Ebony!
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Roy is just fantastic at this role – to go out there and blitz away at a SR or 200 is not easy. He takes all the pressure of his partners, who can just nudge it around at a run a ball and get their eyes in for the middle overs.
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Just a few jitters now?
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Bloody marvellous!
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Great result. Superb death bowling by England and then a run chase that in the end was made to look easy.
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Wow. But who will also be in the final?
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Brilliant performance from England today, winning in style. Just when I thought we were going to nudge singles to victory, probably losing a few wickets and giving us that peculiar mixture of boredom and fear, they blitzed 28 runs off the last seven balls. Winning in style is something that just comes naturally to this England side. England really dragged it back in the last four overs of the NZ innings, but you have to say the way the Kiwis holed out against some pretty ordinary balls from Stokes, they might have choked a little. But that doesn’t make the England all-round performance any less impressive.
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I actually managed to watch the whole thing without a Sky subscription. (If anyone at the ECB monitors this blog I’ll obviously now need to move into a safe house, before undergoing extensive plastic surgery and adopting a new identity…)
England have finally put in something like a complete performance, but my concern is that they’re too inconsistent to repeat it in the final. Regardless of losing so badly to the Windies earlier in the tournament I’d still marginally prefer them over India as opponents in Calcutta.
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Fantastic!!!! :)))
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