Assuming that the weather doesn’t intervene, England have the chance to show that the defeat to Pakistan was nothing more than a blip. There’s a bit of World Cup history, for Bangladesh have defeated England in the last two competitions, and of course knocked them out last time, as skipper Mashrafe Mortaza was quick to point out. It may be a much different England team, but Bangladesh have improved too, their victory over South Africa was a mere mild turn up, not the major surprise some pretended it was.
Still, a team with pretensions of winning the World Cup really ought to win and win comfortably, defeat today would be something of a crisis.
In the later game, New Zealand are of course strong favourites, and have been quietly and impressively going about their business. At this World Cup there are more dark horses than at a point to point meeting, suffice it to say that they look dangerous enough to anyone. Afghanistan’s achievement is their continual and rapid improvement. It’s not patronising to regard them with astonishment and awe, but this looks a tough day in prospect for them.
Comments below, and we’ll do a proper review on the England game later.
Being Outside Cricket 
Events, and the pitches, today might well prove me wrong, but there’s something the ECB may soon have to answer for.
The ICC-governed pitches on show so far haven’t had much in common with the ECB-dictated runways served up over the last few summers (since England started hitting out, in fact). I seem to remember the ICC-managed Champions’ Trophy two years ago had pitches similar to the ones prepared now. And England were eventually found out, to a certain extent.
I reckon it was fairly predictable that the pitches we saw in 2017, which more or less balanced things up between teams, and between bat and ball, would be replicated in 2019.
So, why in fuck’s name did the ECB continue with its run-fest policy, while claiming that winning the World Cup in 2019 was top priority?
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Just to back this up with a small anecdote.
One of my workmates attended Aus v WI on Thursday. Almost the first thing he said on Friday was that he thought Aus would be disappointed with 289: not because of their start but because he has come to *expect* par scores of 350 in ODIs. The evidence suggests that such scores will be rare. And thus I have a certain sense of foreboding as regards England. Not necessarily for today, but I think in general it will be harder going than many cheerleaders have anticipated.
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England had 15? at the end of 5 overs (although they’ve had a little go since). My first thought is that all that “new culture” and “hit it from the off” has been ditched, rightly, after two games.
That said, I think the pitches might get more batsman friendly as the competition continues. They’ll want batting pyrotechnics. Mums and Kidz dig the sixes.
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They like to chase, there is some moisture in the wicket, and both our openers aren’t as keen on spin.
It’s easy when you think about it. The wicket is better to bowl on earlier on.
Oh, and there may be weather about, and DLS favours the chasing team.
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And, according to Shane Warne, “if it seams, it spins.”
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“Events, and the pitches, today might well prove me wrong”
Indeed they might! Looks like I jinxed the pitches.
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Normally I wouldn’t criticize some-one who made 153 but that was a bit silly.
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Yep. Really not a smart shot.
As you say, he’s earned the right in an ODI to go for a big hit, being on 153 with plenty of wickets in hand but it was still walking into the trap.
An interesting contrast with the past is Roy – really he’s a bit of a flat track bully (or bullier of small teams), but while there are negative part to that, it also means England are less likely to succumb to upsets as they don’t get stuck scoring not enough against lesser bowlers. It also means they aren’t going to be worrying about NRR…
Yet, of course, get to the sharp end and Roy looks like a walking wicket against better bowlers, so not the opener you want for the SF on…
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I don’t have even the slightest issue with him going for six sixes. I thoroughly applaud it. It wasn’t a reckless shot at all, it was there to hit, he just got it slightly wrong.
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Not liking Buttler’s injury.
Given the wickets in hand I do wonder if it would be smarter for him to retire hurt.
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Actually, I’m now raging about this – he’s clearly hobbling. This is epically stupid from the medical team.
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Actually relieved that he holed out.
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The collapse is on!
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So, not so much collapse, although Bangladesh did have a mini-spell of good bowling.
Plunkett and some solid support from Woakes = 386-6.
Can’t see Bangladesh getting 387, esp. if Woakes remembers to bowl his normal length instead of getting bouncer happy.
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So, watching the Sky montage about the nadir against Bangladesh in the last WC and the transformation since, I can’t help but weep at the waste that keeping all this on pay TV is.
I’m paying for 2 months via NowTV as I decided I couldn’t bring myself to pay to go to any live games, so this is my cricket treat. But… not sure I’ll be paying to watch the Ashes.
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I’m going to end my Sky contract at the end of the summer. What is Now tv like? Does it come in HD? The idea of just paying occasionally for a few one off sporting events rather than having an expensive monthly contract seems a good idea.
Looks like England have avoided this potential banana skin today. A good crowd by the look of it. Doesn’t answer the question as to whether they can score 320-340 against the likes of the Aussies later in this tournament? But it gets them back on track.
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I use NOW TV via the app on my TV. I’m not sure if it’s HD, but it looks good on our TV (32″ HD) but I believe you can get proper HD if you buy their smart stick or box (£20 – £30 I believe).
The economics are tricky. They charge a full whack for a month of Sky Sports (~£30) so it’s only worth it if you know you’ll be watching a fair bit. I’m working from home through a lot of the WC period so it’s worth it for me. The day pass is like £7 so it works if there’s a couple of things in a 24 hour period, but it can all add up quickly.
(Prices are approx b/c there are different ways to pay and little deals on most of the time etc.)
Where it works for me is I’m prepared not to watch cricket (b/c for a long time NOW TV didn’t work and we couldn’t get Sky in our building) and I don’t care to pay for football very often. So I find it fairly easy to keep my expenditure considerably below contract level.
(NB in case it’s not obvious, you need a decent internet connection, which (eg) is something my Dad doesn’t have.)
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(I wrote a bit of a long comment in reply, seems to have been banjaxed?)
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Went into spam for some reason. Just released it.
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Thanks for that. Yes, you have to be careful as it adds up quickly. I think if you are watching quite a lot then the economics mean a monthly contract is cheaper. However, I find I watch much less than I used to. I have watched a lot less football & golf matches this season.
I think if I have to pay per day for say one event it will often mean I decide not to bother at all. There is a lot of filler programmes that
I just don’t watch. I have a food internet connection so it shouldn’t be a problem.
I won’t be subscribing for the 16.4 that’s for sure.
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Interesting to see the line up. All the wise sages told me Rashid was going to be dropped (the highest wicket taker in odi since the last World Cup I believe), and Ali retained
I personally thought nope, Morgan loves Rashid because he takes wickets and Ali has been a bit ropy with the bat of late.
Nice to see the 4th estate still have their finger on the pulse!
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