Going into the last game of Group A, the situation was clear: If Australia won, they would go through to the semi-finals; If Australia did not win, Bangladesh would progress to the knockouts. Arguably it didn’t matter to England, who had already booked their place in the next round. That said, most observers consider Australia the more dangerous team to face and so there was some value in knocking them out.
England named an unchanged team, with Roy getting yet another chance and no rest for Stokes or Wood. Australia were put in to bat first, and the first innings followed a similar pattern to England’s bowling in their previous game against New Zealand. At the 30 overs mark, Australia had managed to get themselves into a commanding position with a score of 172/3 and Smith still at the crease. Ball, Stokes and Plunkett had all taken a bit of a hammering, and Australia seemed likely to post a score in excess of 350.
Instead, Steve Smith chipped a ‘slow’ (85 mph) Mark Wood loosener to mid off, and the whole complexion of the innings changed. Rashid and Wood, who had both bowled economically in the first half of the game, sliced through Australia’s middle and lower orders like a hot knife through butter. Australia barely managed to stagger to the end, finishing on 277/9.
Even with a score that was decidedly short of what was required, Australia weren’t out of the game (and competition). The second innings started with the familiar spectacle of Roy’s wicket falling, this time to an LBW from Mitchell Starc. He went beyond his now regular performance by going full Shane Watson and wasting England’s only review. Hazlewood was bowling incredibly well from the other end, taking the wickets of Hales and Root in his first three overs. He should have had three wickets, as wicketkeeper Matthew Wade dropped a chance from Eoin Morgan on the leg side from Hazlewood’s bowling. Two balls after Root’s dismissal, the rain started falling with England standing at 35/3 from 6 overs.
The rain moved on, and when England came back out to bat it seemed like a different game. Instead of being on the ropes, England dominated the Australian bowling. Stokes and Morgan seemed able to score at least a boundary every over, and often more than that. They both rode their luck at times, but fortune favoured the bold and they smashed England into a winning position. The only negative moment for them was when Morgan was run out after Adam Zampa lit up the wickets with a direct hit from mid off. Buttler came in and continued the dismantling of Australia’s bowlers, while Stokes cruised to his 3rd ODI century. One ball after Stokes reached that landmark, the heavens opened and the game was abandoned with England 40 runs ahead according to DLS calculations.
So Bangladesh go through at the expense of Australia, a result which I’m sure no one here enjoys immensely. From England’s perspective, they are unbeaten in the tournament but Roy’s form continues to worry many fans and pundits. The most worrying aspect for the ICC and ECB is that rain continues to affect the competition, and I’m sure they’ll be hoping that the erratic English weather suddenly becomes dry for the remainder of the event.
As always, comments on the day’s play or other topics welcome below.
Being Outside Cricket 
Surely was a great game to watch from stat to finish. England’s batting was incredible to watch after losing those first 3 wickets. Great match put on by the England unite today.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This from Newman – http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-4591190/England-sail-semi-finals-knockout-Australia.html
Morgan and Rashid get barely a line each, would’ve guessed a bit more coverage if they had of failed. This is really winding Newman up – superb….
LikeLike
What you won’t be reading……..
Rashid & Morgan an appology
Dear Rashid, over the last year we in the media have let it be known to our readers (morons) that you are of a fragile mind. We have absolutely no evidence to back up this libellous claim, however we have enjoyed spreading it at every opportunity. What is more,,we can’t, and wont confirm where we got this information from. Did it come from the team management? The dressing room? Or did we just pull it out of arse? We can’t say……because we can’t reveal are sources. We also work on a herd mentality approach, so we all say the same thing. Saves disagreement in the box. We decide the meme, and then repeat in all publications. Collective responsibility.
Although we won’t retract all those scurrilous slurs we do now accept that you can bowl a bit. You are not Shame Warne so we continue the right to claim that you have a dubious temperament. But we grudgingly do acknowledge that sometimes you can take a few wickets.
As for Mr Morgan, we still don’t respect you, where you come from, and you decision to not tour Bangladesh. However, we must acknowledge, grudgingly again that you can sometimes bat a bit. And captain a bit. You are not a tall, dark handsome man like our favourite captain. You didn’t walk on water like he did at school. You don’t have the film star looks, and strong jaw line, and steely spine that we all so gushed over. But you do make some fielding changes that sometimes work.
We would remind you that you have only reached the semi final, so you could still lose, and then we can start up again with our pathetic campaign. But until then, we admit you can play…..a bit.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Love it Mark, but doubt they’d even be that gracious…
LikeLike
Brilliant Mark. To swap it round, I suspect that many of us could come up with a mail to Newman mentioning that he doesn’t have a clue about cricket and is taking the Mail’s pay cheques under false pretences. Glad I don’t read that rag
LikeLike
Looking ahead to the Ashes, does this suggest that Rashid might get a chance?
LikeLike
Right now, I’d assume Rashid would be in the Ashes squad but Moeen would still be the favourite to play. Barring injury, you’d expect a bowling attack of Anderson, Broad, Woakes, Stokes and a spinner (or possibly Wood as a 5th seamer). Moeen is a better batsman and generally more economical, Rashid is expensive but tends to take more wickets.
Past selections suggest they prefer a tight spin bowler who can tie up an end whilst the seam bowlers at the other end try for wickets. Maybe Bayliss’s aggressive style will change that?
LikeLike
Captain Cook never got the message… I am rather sceptical about what value Bayliss brings to the Test team
LikeLiked by 1 person
If you have a leg spinner on an Australia tour who takes wickets surely you have to play him in some if not most of the test matches?
As I speak SA have just lost their first wicket to a spinner. Ashwin. 77/1 after 18 overs.
LikeLike
Slight rant about idiotic selections, and congratulations to India for qualifying for the semis. Second innings will be a formality.
If this diabolical performance means that JP Duminy gets axed from all formats, this shambolic Champions Trophy was well worth it for SA supporters. They’d be happy to forfeit the match as well if that means they’ll get rid of him (currently on innings break).
The stats:
176 ODIs now:
4 ODI tons. Sounds somewhat decent until you realize that 1 ton (150*) was against the Netherlands (warmup for the CT 2013), and 3 tons were against Zimbabwe (2008, 2010, 2015 WC).
Highest Score (HS) against any team in the Champions Trophy: 97 (Sri Lanka, in Pallekelle 2013)
Highest average against any team in the competition 41.50 (Bangladesh, mostly on the basis of 2008 ODIs – he reverted to his usual form in the more recent engagements against them).
19 innings in England, with a HS of 38*. Which was against the mighty pace attack of Sri Lanka earlier in the tournament.
HS against England 47. From merely 18 innings.
In fact against England (47), Pakistan (64), New Zealand (58*), India (73), Australia (82) and Sri Lanka (97), he has had 15 innings or more to bat. So it is not like he has not had the opportunities, or we’re judging from a limited sample size. 176 ODIs over the course of nearly a decade is a substantial sample.
In tournaments: 28 innings, 1 ton and 2 fifties. Those 50s were 99 vs Ireland (WC 2011), and 51 vs Zimbabwe (tri-nations with Australia and Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe). Someone who on the evidence of the stats does not do much in big tourneys.
Career SR of 83.5 – so even if you would argue that he does better when he gets more time to bat, his SR really does not suggest he has the game to bat lower down the order for the slog overs. Even when batting at six, his career SR is just 87. In other words, even as a finisher he bats SLOWER than the openers. Think about that, and tell me if that actually makes sense for a finisher.
His SR is only over 100 against Kenya and Ireland, 98 vs. Zim, and 90 against Australia, which is his best SR by far against any team in this competition. 86 against India, and against all the other teams in the tournament it is below 80 or even below 70 (Bangladesh and England).
As his bowling average is a massively impressive 43.50, I am not going to dig deep into that, as that would make shooting fish in a barrel seem like a fair contest.
Best bowling average against any team in the competition? 39.70 vs. Australia
Bowling average in England 38.40 (5/192, from 40 overs).
Average bowling figures against teams in this competition? 52.19 (41/2140) (for an average return of about 1/52 for a set of ten completed overs). 15 of those wickets were taken against Sri Lanka, and only against Australia has he picked more than 5 wickets
Needless to say, he will be a shoe-in for the Test series (why pick a batsman if you can pick JP Duminy) – I mean if the opposition were to pick the squad they’re playing against, JP Duminy would be the first name on the team sheet.
At this point in time, unless Duminy gets injured it is wise to put money on England comprehensively beating South Africa in the Test series.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah well, BCCI/ECB/ICC/Sky/Star/various cement/oil companies have got their dollar wish…semi-finals, ‘Go Bangla Go Bangla!’
LikeLike
Anyone else get the feeling that this won’t end well, whichever option they choose – http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/story/1102243.html
Also interesting that the MCC are sitting on over £130million pounds of reserves. Nice work if you can get it….
LikeLike
Yes, particularly as they have had lottery money for development in the past I believe.
Whichever plan they go for Lords is going to be a f***ing building site until 2032/4. Lovely! No surprise to see developers sniffing around sporting stadiums. Many are on prime real estate locations in big city’s.
With Lords and The Oval looking to increase capacity with major developments it looks like more and more international cricket will be played only in London. It doesn’t help when people don’t come out in other regions. (I see shinny toy is calling for Cardiff to lose its status if the ground is not full for the semi final on Tuesday.) And there is no cricket being played North of Birmingham in the CT.
I still maintain price of tickets is a huge issue in other areas. If growing the game is as important as they claim then you may have to reduce ticket prices and make up the difference from TV contracts. But we all know making money is now the only game in town. So international cricket could become a South East luxury only. Bit like Wembly is for football, and Twuckenham for rugby.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The state of this Private Members Club.
LikeLike
Can I just interject here and say . . . I didn’t think Jason Roy’s catch was THAT good.
LikeLike
It is, without doubt, the best thing he’s done in his last 6 games though. If you’re determined to praise him (say you’re a pundit or journalist who has previously backed him and don’t want to admit you might have been wrong) then it might as well be for that.
LikeLike
What should they do with Roy now for the semi final? They said at the start he was in for the whole tournament, but he looks so out of form England are playing with a batsman light.
If they drop him there is no reason he can’t come back in the next tournament. England are (as they always are) building for the future so he can come back when in form. Surely in a one off semi final the team needs maximum batsman?
If they play him and he fails again, but England win do you drop him for the final?
LikeLike
I think he’ll play in the semi final (and final, if they reach it) regardless of anything bar injury at this point. I did think they might consider replacing Hales with Bairstow in the last game, just to try him out in the position and basically have a competition between him and Roy for the spot in the next game. They went with an unchanged team instead, so I expect that to continue for the next two games.
LikeLike
I think it was right to give him the group games, but he looks completely out of form. It’s not as if he is making 20 odds even.
They seem determined to stick with him which is admirable.But they must be tempted to strengthen the batting for a one off semi final.
I think you’re right they will probably stick with him. But Bairstow must wonder what he has to do.
LikeLike
Honestly the most worrying thing for me was Roy’s review yesterday. It suggests that he doesn’t know whether he hit it or not, or he doesn’t know where he is relative to the stumps, or he’s so desperate he’ll grasp at anything to try and stay in. There aren’t any good options there.
LikeLike
Nasser Hussain is not a psychoanalyst. The “evidence of a scrambled mind” twaddle get me every time. It’s a cop out by commentators with nowhere else to go. See also Jonathan Trott in the West Indies that time.
Anyone who watches Jason Roy, just as anyone who watches Alex Hales will see a technique that will get exposed from time to time. Roy is now, in a major tournament. Should he be dropped? I’ll trust the team management on this one. They’ve earned it thus far.
There’s a YJB fan club out there, and that’s what causing part of this issue.
LikeLike
Nasser is no position to lecture on using up reviews.
I think Roy may have thought it might have just pitched outside leg stump. But he didn’t even consult his partner. Just called for the review. Just as Nasser used to do.
LikeLike