A more or less dead rubber game today, one that technically still might matter, but in reality won’t. Perhaps it will be as good as yesterday’s two games, that both went the wrong way in terms of results to breathe life into the competition, but were still objectively thrilling games of cricket.
For Afghanistan, the feeling persisted throughout that they weren’t quite going to get across the line, and if Mohammed Shami’s hat-trick was a spectacular way to finish it, it was the loss of Mohammed Nabi’s wicket that finally killed off the run chase. What an effort from him. And what a shame it didn’t quite happen. The 2015 Rugby World Cup was lit up by Japan’s victory over South Africa, and cricket had its own edition in 2011 when Ireland beat England. This would have been just as notable, and in a tournament where such teams have been excluded from the party, a reminder that it’s not all about the big three.
In the other match, a Brathwaite causing batting chaos is not so rare, it being a Carlos doing so is. That last wicket, caught on the boundary, and his reaction to falling inches short of winning the game was the highlight of the World Cup so far, and one personally watched by half a dozen people huddled around a phone in the pub. Offer people drama, they’ll watch. But even with England’s defeat to Sri Lanka, even with two terrific games yesterday, the end result was to re-inforce position of the top four.
Comment away!
Being Outside Cricket 
First time in three years that Brathwaitte did something of note for the West Indies. Most West Indians I have talked through in that period don’t want him in the side.
Nor do they want Allen or Nurse in the side (Allen is an allrounder who averages less than 20 with the bat and 55+ with the ball (that is in List-A cricket). There are better options available in the West Indies, but non-cricketing reasons seem to exclude the alternatives.
Anyway, practically speaking the West Indies are eliminated.
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Did something happen in the cricket yesterday? I was a bit busy making some stew…
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Dead rubber? Maybe, maybe not…..
With NZ winning yesterday, and moving to 11 points I think England will be very keen to see SA win today. Pakistan still have the potential to get to 11 points. That could be the end for England as they would have to win two of their last three matches.
Real shame Afghanistan didn’t get home yesterday. It would have been a great story, and If England should beat India would have have put India in quite a bit of trouble. The TV rights people would have been leaping out of their office windows.
The weather forecast is now for a hotter and humid period this coming week. With perhaps some odd thunderstorms. England might have taken a washout against Aus, and a guaranteed point such has been their inconsistency.
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Spare a thought for Sri Lanka. If the rain had fallen on different days (and Sri Lanka had won their washed out games, they could have been 2 points + tiebreak AHEAD of England instead of 2 points + tiebreak BEHIND.
But since the rain benefited the Big 3, the ICC will be in no rush to attend to this.
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I was thinking the same, when mulling it all over last night. Great point 👍.
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Serious question. Is there a worse commentator than Alison Mitchell?
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Michael Clarke.
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Finally South Africa eliminated. Took 3 weeks longer than it should have.
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What happened to you guys? You used to be really good.
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Age caught up with Amla. Have been pointing it out for years, but the selectors knew better. I am sure that the evidence is overwhelmingly in support of whatever the selectors thought.
Best ODI bowler was poached by Hampshire (Abbott). No idea why they think Rabada is a good ODI bowler. He is not. Might have something to do with the quota targets.
Faf hopelessly out of form for most of 2018 and 2019. Only starting to get back in his groove right now. Too little too late.
Selectors remained wilfully blind with regards to Duminy and Miller. Markram has been batting everywhere for one or two games, only to be dropped ad infinitum for Duminy / Miller, so never established himself in the side as a result of that. I was not wildly charmed of say Behaardien, but he was definitely a better option than JP Duminy, who on the basis of stats alone ought to be considered unselectable.
The only batsmen who were not affected by selectorial incompetence were de Kock and van der Dussen. But that is too little batting for a World Cup, and van der Dussen barely played a dozen ODIs now, and you can’t reasonably expect an opener and a new #4 to carry the team to 300 scores each and every time.
No idea why they even picked a second spinner (Shamsi), who is really nothing special. Even by South African spin standards. If you are going to use an expensive second spin option, pick a batsman who bowls a bit. It is not like South Africa have been churning out decent scores with the bat in the last couple of years.
Pretorius has not even gotten a game, because 8 failures between Miller and Duminy was clearly not enough for the selectors to entertain the idea that if either of those are the answer to a question, you are asking extremely silly questions.
Honestly, if the selectors don’t resign over this disgrace / display of wilful incompetence that they displayed, I don’t know what would cause them any form of embarrassment to be honest.
The only player who really performed up to standards was Tahir. Not going to be harsh on van der Dussen, but the rest of the squad massively underperformed. Although in the case of Duminy, any average above 0 seems to be considered a success by the powers that be.
As I am not in South Africa, I have not seen too many cricket articles from those shores about the cricket / World Cup. The few that I have seen seem to be in complete denial about the state of the team.
For instance on the Daily Maverick (a sort of online newspaper in South Africa), the (seemingly regular cricket writer) is complaining about the fixture draw, the weather, the fact that AB was not picked, Steyn injured, Amla got hit by a bouncer and what not, rather than entertain the ludicrous thought (P6 W1: L:4 A:1 at the time of writing) that maybe this team is completely over the hill, unbalanced, and that copious amounts of incompetence have led them here – he spends just one line saying that South Africa have not looked good.
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Sorry, that is also a bit harsh on Chris Morris. Who had a decent World Cup, but had little support from anyone else, barring Tahir with the ball.
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Wow, pretty damning rap sheet.
Hopefully the low will be low enough to trigger some changes.
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Let’s hope so. The problem is there are quite a few issues in the domestic setup as well, never mind the gaping holes in the budget due to a shortened tour by India in 2013/2014 (it might seem long ago, but that meant serious cuts to the budget had to be made, which impacted later budgets) as well as the failed Global T20.
Money is tight, massive investment is needed to broaden the appeal to the mainly Black population (make no mistake, Rabada’s and Ngidi’s parents are not representative of the economic realities most of the Black population have to contend with). Too much to do, with too little money.
So if anything it is likely to get worse over the next few years. Expect South Africa to go the route of the West Indies (T20 mercenaries), rather than thinking this is just a temporary setback.
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Only 10 wins for the team chasing out of 30 matches so far. Only one team has chased down over 250 to win, and that was 322 by Bangladesh Vs WI. The next best was 248 by NZ vs Bangladesh. The next best was 245, again by NZ vs SA. Most of the successful chases have been low scores.
Not sure its completely definitive, but runs on the board, under pressure seems to win.
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