World Cup Match 32 – England vs. Australia.

Sir Ronald54 Comments

Today saw another pretty one-sided, turgid affair with Bangladesh comfortably beating Afghanistan on a pitch that was well suited to their spinners. The pitch at the Aegeas Bowl has become consistently slow and low as the tournament has gone on leading to some fairly dull cricket for those watching. At least today’s game is the last one to be scheduled at the Bramsgrove Bowl as England certainly wouldn’t fancy batting on that pitch, which was similar to the one at Headingley and it is quite possible England would have collapsed in a heap for 150 all out playing silly shots and aiming for 330 when 260 is a par score on such pitch. It doesn’t look like this will be the case tomorrow after seeing George Dobell’s earlier tweet:

If England’s game plan is to have a pitch that does something for the quicks and if they do plan to leave some of the grass on this, then their plan is not without huge risks as the Aussie bowling attack of Starc, Cummins and company will be licking their lips at the prospect of bowling to a weakened England batting order with some help from the pitch. Even if they do take some of the grass off the pitch, then it would be a huge surprise if there is much turn for either of the side’s spinners, as England no doubt don’t want to be undone the way they were undone at Headingley. Is this particularly fair to both sides, probably not, but in a way, it piles more pressure on this English team to perform tomorrow in the hunt for a semi-final slot.

We now know that Jason Roy has once again been ruled out of this English side, so we get to have the pleasure of seeing James Vince open the innings, play a couple of pleasing cover drives and then get out at slip chasing a wide one for a pretty but ineffective 15. It was Shane Warne who said that Monty Panesar “rather than having played 33 Tests, had merely played his first one 33 times.” The same argument can be made about James Vince who it seems hasn’t learnt a single lesson in his time in an England shirt and is in the team not on merit, but because he has ‘the right values’. Either that or he has some serious dirt on Ed Smith, naturally the latter would be funnier to see. This absolutely has to be last chance saloon for Vince, another failure would surely make his place in the team untenable and anything less than a serious, match influencing knock should not be tolerated. The so-called ‘put up or shut up’ time has come for Mr Vince.

As for the rest of the side, if there is unlikely to be much turn or some grass is left on the wicket, then you would expect England to rest one of their spinners in favour of playing Liam Plunkett, who has the uncanny knack of taking wickets in the middle of the innings. One would suggest that Moeen is at greatest risk, especially after his performance with the bat in Leeds, where it was suggested rather kindly that he has dumplings for brains at times. Rashid is also bowling well, but as is often the case, England have a history of dropping a bowler every time the batsmen fall in a heap, so Moeen’s perceived superiority with the bat might elicit favour. The England selectors normally have a habit of making the wrong decisions, so expect Moeen to open and Root to be dropped!!

As for Australia, they are likely to stick with the same side that comprehensively beat Bangladesh with their hopes that either Warner or more likely Finch can get them off to a flier whilst the rest of the batsmen bat around Steve Smith who will hope to anchor the innings. I still think Australia’s bowling attack is a little weak, especially if you can see off Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins with the new ball, so ideally, they’ll want the pitch to be doing something or to bat first and put runs on the board to create scoreboard pressure for England.

Make no mistake, this is a massive game for England with a loss meaning that they are likely to need to beat India and New Zealand to progress to the Semi Finals. If England collapse in a heap once again, when the pressure is on, they’ll be a whole lot of red faces at the ECB’s headquarters and some pretty difficult questions coming their way. Not that Geoffrey Boycott seems worried with the upcoming game, after all we won 2 World Wars! What a complete and utter plumb!

What? Someone say he wasn’t talking about England’s chances at the World Cup? I must have misunderstood….

As always, please do leave your thoughts below…

World Cup Match 31 – Bangladesh vs. Afghanistan

Sir Ronald6 Comments

After two hard fought and closely contested games on Saturday, which were a great advert for the game of cricket, it was all ‘after the mayor’s show’ yesterday as Pakistan outclassed a poor South African team who are now officially out of the World Cup.

Let’s be totally candid, South Africa have been playing outdated, insipid cricket for the whole tournament with their tactics more akin to those that England were rightly pilloried for after the 2015 World Cup. Once again, many of their batsmen got off to a slow steady start but none of them were able to convert their innings into something substantial, leaving the tail with the hopeless job of needing 12 runs an over plus when they came in. It’s a shame in many ways as South Africa have always been there or there abouts in major white ball tournaments, but a mixture of poor coaching, ponderous batting and strange team selections have left them massively behind the 8-ball. It would not surprise me if heads roll on their return to South Africa and we have probably seen the last of the likes of Duminy, Amla and Tahir (who has bowled pretty well TBF) in their white ball team. Even Graeme Smith was mystified at the approach his team took in trying to chase down Pakistan’s score:

As for Pakistan, this was one of their better days of the tournament. Haris Sohail came into the side and looked a class act with the bat, which has many of us scratching our heads as to why they stuck with Shoaib Malik for so long, with good contributions from the two openers and Babar Azam, who I’m a huge fan of. Their bowlers also offered a lot more control as both Wahab and Amir, the latter of whom is having a stellar tournament so far, bowled with pace and accuracy as well as their spinners bowling with control and good variations. Pakistan are not out of this tournament yet and if they continue to play like they did today, then they are a threat to any team; equally they are also able to fall flat on their face like they did against India, you just don’t know with Pakistan.

As for today’s game, we head back to the Kolpakshire Bowl for a strong Bangladesh team against an Afghan team that were so close to beating India on Saturday. Bangladesh will naturally start as favourites with their star all-rounder Shakib Al-Hasan lighting up the tournament so far, but it will be interesting to see if Afghanistan can maintain the same level of intensity that they showed against the Indians or whether they will be unable to shake the disappointment of Saturday’s result.

As ever, feel free to share your thoughts below:

 

 

World Cup Match 30: Pakistan vs South Africa

thelegglance14 Comments

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!

World Cup Matches 28 & 29 -Afghanistan v India & New Zealand v West Indies

dannycricket34 Comments

A couple of days ago, I wrote about how boring and predictable this World Cup was and how I wasn’t really paying attention to it any more. Well, England managed to reawaken my interest in an unexpected way yesterday.

In some senses, it should have been a predictable result, since Sri Lanka had won the last three World Cup games between the two sides. However, a lot has changed since 2015. Sri Lanka have been unable to replace key batsmen like Sangakkara, Jayawardhene and Dilshan, and their key bowler 35 year old Malinga now has a body more reminiscent of a middle-aged dad than an international sportsman. England, on the other hand, have replaced Ian Bell and Gary Ballance with good ODI batsmen (and James Vince).

Most fingers are being pointed at the pitch, which was quite a bit slower than you’d normally expect from Headingley. That doesn’t entirely explain away England’s poor performance though, since they did manage to win last year’s ODI series in Sri Lanka 3-1 in what must have been similar conditions.

I personally blame James Vince, or at least his (and Liam Dawson’s) selection. England’s surge to number one in the ODI rankings has been powered by their phenomenal batting. Since Trevor Bayliss took over in 2015, seven of England’s current World Cup squad average over forty with a strike rate around or over one hundred. The two batsmen who don’t are Vince (Ave: 26.50 SR: 89.22) and Dawson (Ave: 7.00 SR: 82.35).

There is a batsman with a significantly better record than Vince available: Alex Hales (Ave: 41.28 SR: 96.00). Hales was excluded from the team by the ECB due to his behaviour off the field, but the real cause of his omission is that he isn’t well-liked within the dressing room. For all Ben Stokes has done wrong in recent years, you can see he has been welcomed back warmly by the ECB and the team in general. Whilst Alex Hales is undoubtedly lucky to be available (The punishment for a second recreational drug finding in most sports is at least six months), the primary reason for his removal from the squad seems to be not coming clean with his teammates beforehand or apologising profusely enough after it was revealed.

At the time, the ECB probably thought it would have little impact on their campaign because they believed there was an abundance of talent just waiting for an opportunity at the international level. Eoin Morgan trashed Hales when given the opportunity, saying that, “Unfortunately Alex’s actions have shown complete disregard for those values. This has created a lack of trust between Alex and the team.”

Now England are in a situation where they are missing a world-class opener and they genuinely need to win at least two of their next three games to guarantee qualification for the semis. Those three games are against the top teams in the competition, New Zealand, Australia and India. Three teams who would love to knock a dangerous England team before they can even reach the semi finals. Can England afford to wait another game or two for Roy to regain fitness? Can they afford to keep playing Vince?

You would think that potentially failing to reach the semi-finals in a home World Cup, the format of which was designed to make such an event extraordinarily unlikely, would be enough to make the selectors and team swallow their pride. Unfortunately, as most of our readers know, that isn’t how the ECB works. Having spent the last four years devoting most of their resources towards winning this competition and hiring a white ball-centric head coach, they are still prepared to see it collapse in flames rather than admit they might have been wrong.

All of that said, England should still have enough to limp into the knockouts. Just one win from their last three games should be enough to ensure qualification unless Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, or the West Indies manage a truly remarkable run of form. England’s aura of invincibility has completely disappeared though. Australia are the only other team in the top four to have lost a game so far, and that was against fellow top team India.

The England team will be watching tonight’s game nervously, because if the West Indies can win the game against New Zealand then they could potentially mount a charge for the fourth spot. Given the form of India and Afghanistan so far in this World Cup, I’m not expecting an upset in the morning game. That said, they did tie their last ODI meeting in last year’s Asia Cup so perhaps Afghanistan can pull out another big performance.

If you have any comments about England’s performance, todays games, or anything else, please post them below.

World Cup Match 27 – England v Sri Lanka (But More Discussing Other Things)

LordCanisLupus53 Comments

Why do you/I watch sport? I’ve been asking myself this question for quite a while now. Why do I spend so much of my non-working, waking life, watching sport? Obviously the major sports like football and cricket will dominate my attention; I’ll watch the big events in sports I have a vague interest in, like rugby, maybe tennis. There’s golf, especially the Majors, and a staple of my Sunday nights during the summer, especially. Then there’s the NFL, NBA and MLB, all interest me to some degree, quite often depending on how my team is doing. The Tour de France, the Olympics, all that jazz. Sport has been my thing all my life.

If it wasn’t there, what would I miss? Would I miss the cut and thrust of competition, of two equally matched teams fighting it out for the major prizes? The best individual talent pitting their wits against each other. Thrilling finishes. Exciting matches. Highest level quality. How would I feel if I missed the modern day equivalent of the Edgbaston 2005 test? The 2004 FA Cup Semi-Final (the most emotional sporting event I’ve been to)?

There was a question posed on Twitter by Nasser Hussain:

In many ways this got me thinking. Did you prefer a close contest between two earnest teams, with some high quality mixed in, or did you prefer the battering of a lower ranked team, playing in alien conditions, with some extraordinary individual performances? Simple, eh? You would think so, but when push comes to shove, is it really?

Then ask yourself whether you would watch Real Betis v Valencia battle out a 3-2 win, or whether you want to watch Barcelona batter Getafe, or some such team, 6-0 and watch Messi, Suarez and in the past Iniesta and Xavi weave beautiful patterns, showing genius at every turn?

The answer is more people watch the bigger team, and want to be “entertained”. It’s not about competition, it’s about domination. Golf was never more popular than when Tiger was in his pomp, yet arguably it was more entertaining without him. Men’s tennis rode a peak of the top three, with a Wawrinka or Murray butting in here and there, while women’s tennis may have a Serena, but is, sadly, largely anonymous to many when she’s not there. Men’s tennis still depends on that top three. Who can replace them? Who is going to replace them?

Sport needs competition to survive. It needs the unexpected to thrive. It needs the champion to be knocked off, say like Spain were in the Brazilian World Cup Finals (and then Brazil in turn), and like Germany were in 2018. It needs to thrill the punter, who will pay more for the thrill. But sports teams, especially, are like businesses. And businesses crave certainty. What was the reaction to Leicester winning the Premier League? The big clubs are going to do their damndest to make sure that doesn’t happen again. They want to get more of the revenue, more than they already do. They want to rig the Champions League to make it so big clubs have to be relegated out of it, and actual champions of mid-level leagues, have to fight for four spots.

I’m beginning to contemplate my own stupidity and naivety. I saw the EFL fixtures came out today. Salford City are on live the first weekend, picking up another nice little, and it will be little, cash bonus for the pleasure. Why? An astroturf club… Of course I know why. It’s not about your team it is about their designated teams.  Before they’ve kicked a ball in the league, their curiosity factor wins them one of the rare League 2 live game honour. Spare me the “it’s their first game in the football league”. Never showed Forest Green’s opening game. Any others get one? Media judges who you want to watch, judges that that is the best sporting contest to watch, and it’s more about who than the what. And I’m as guilty as anyone else.

So what does this have to do with cricket? Everything. We have a structure for the World Cup of 10 teams in a round-robin. It’s the format the pros wanted. The ex-pros in the commentary boxes, dependent on TV revenue for their burgeoning recompense, and other opportunities – big time in favour of it. But it simply has not worked. The problem is, nothing will work. From its moving away from the 8 teams, 2 groups of 4, semi and final, we’ve had nothing but gripes. The Super 6 and Super 8s were too complicated. The 2007 tournament, with 4 groups of 4, and a Super 8, went on longer than most wars. The 2011 and 2015 tournaments meant they played 42 games to eliminate 5 + 1 of the weakest “proper” test teams (and in 2015 it was England instead of Bangladesh). Now we have the dead zone that is the next two weeks.

But the authorities aren’t going to be fussed. England, India and Australia, the Big 3, are still there, and their games will be watched avidly. Both England and Australia have also to play New Zealand. England have India and Australia. Plenty to get excited about. Plenty of talent to watch, with no real jeopardy. TV companies get their 9 games for each of them, and stuff the rest. There’s none of the thrill of 2007, when a defeat to a “lesser nation”, like India and Pakistan managed to do, could mean elimination. We know that from that point, the world’s largest market switched off. It’s a business man (as Jay Z once said). That simply can’t happen. Wishing it away is to believe sport is more about ideals and the triumph and not about money. It’s all about money.

England play Sri Lanka at Leeds tomorrow. England go in as massive favourites. Sri Lanka look pretty down and out. With three strong fixtures to come, England know a win pretty much seals their spot. A loss means that they probably have to win one of their remaining games against India, Australia and New Zealand to qualify. But let’s be hones. We’re expecting more like a Messi and Barcelona show, rather than a Betis v whoever it was again, aren’t we? We’re only worrying because it’s England and we can stuff it up, aren’t we? We’re worrying because Sri Lanka could always do what Pakistan did, and put a score on the board we fail to chase, aren’t we? We’re only nervous because this is England.

I guess that’s why we still watch. And when we watch, the adverts, and the subscriptions, and the online “engagement” persists. I guess we are fools. We love what we love, and we really don’t want to give it up, even when our minds are trying to overcome our hearts, and tell us that this is a rigged game, that we’re being milked by charlatans, they’ll never stop, and wowzer, what a shot that was! The greatest ever…

This World Cup has been rank. But, it might get better. It really might…….please, make it so.

How would you  have voted in Nasser’s poll?

Comments below.

[Post-Script – Yes, Bangladesh were spirited. Yes they are probably the 5th best team in the tournament, but even I don’t really believe they could overhaul England, even if we lost from here out. Then there’s net run rate….]

World Cup Match 26, Australia vs Bangladesh

dannycricket8 Comments

There are currently nineteen games until the knockout stages begin. N-n-n-n-nineteen. (Got to get song lyrics into the piece somehow, even if it’s not Public Enemy) To put that into context, the Champions Trophy in 2017 had a total of 15 games, as did the Champions Trophies in 2013, 2009/10 and 2004. The competition in 2004 even had twelve teams, compared to ten in this year’s World Cup format.

All of which is to say I’m bored, and just wish the group stages were over. Last night’s heroics by Kane Williamson put another nail in the coffin of the teams outside the top four, making it incredibly likely that there will be no surprises over the next three weeks. I’m honestly not sure I’ll even be paying much attention. Am I supposed to care whether England finishes first or fourth in the group stages?

Today’s challengers, Bangladesh, on paper have the best opportunity to disrupt this slow march towards the inevitable. They’re fifth in the group table, just three points behind Australia and England, and they have the world’s best ODI allrounder according to the ICC’s rankings in Shakib Al Hasan. The main problem is their lack of depth, I feel. Shakib is the top runscorer in this World Cup so far, but the next best Bangladeshi batsman is ranked 22nd. By contrast, Australia have three in the top ten and England have four. Likewise in the bowling, Starc and Cummins or Wood and Archer offer a far superior threat in English conditions when compared to any of Bangladesh’s bowlers.

So whilst Bangladesh certainly have the capacity to beat Australia, and few things give me more pleasure than watching Australians being ground into the dust, it just doesn’t seem likely. A win for the Tigers would at least inject some life into the competition, which is the best we can hope for at this point.

I guess what I’m saying is that Australia must lose this game for the good of world cricket.

As always, please comment on the game or anything else that happens below.

World Cup Match 25, New Zealand vs South Africa

thelegglance25 Comments

Into the second half of the tournament, and for the sake of the competition, South Africa need to win this one. The Big Three are fairly clear, and the prospects of them being turned over sufficiently to open up qualifying seem remote. And thus, while the concept of all playing each other is not inherently unreasonable, if there is a huge difference in resources that translates into playing success, we may end up with up to a quarter of the games rendered irrelevant in the latter stages.

There were some who pointed this out long in advance, and fair enough too, but the format in general can work passably so long as there’s competitiveness and hazard between the sides, and barring Pakistan’s win over England, that hasn’t happened. And that above all is what makes for turgid viewing, and would do however it was structured. Nevertheless, it’s fair to make the argument that structure can determine the jeopardy and that this one actively works against that.

England’s demolition of Afghanistan’s bowling yesterday was not unexpected, but it is still worthy of note, given their propensity to do it to anyone if it’s their day. The absence of Roy might be a blow, but Morgan’s tour de force emphasised that come the business end of things, England can destroy anyone. Whether they go on to win the World Cup or not, they are an extraordinary batting side.

Comments on today’s game (and whatever else takes your fancy) below:

World Cup Match 24: England vs Afghanistan

thelegglance24 Comments

England will need to be careful….potential banana skin….talented Afghanistan team…

Let’s be honest, anything other than a thumping England win will rank as a major surprise.  Afghanistan’s World Cup experience has been a miserable one, riven by internal dissent and unable to compete adequately on the field.  It doesn’t mean that their story over the last few years is any less extraordinary, but it does mean that in the here and now, the one nation the ICC could point to as representing growth in the game looks rather out of its depth, and pretending otherwise to try and kid prospective watchers that this is  vital game would be dishonest.  It’s not to say that it’s impossible for Afghanistan to win, or even for it to be a close match – sport can throw up the unexpected after all – but not impossible is a limited sell as an event.

However, only a few years ago, the Afghanistan national team were playing village cricket clubs in Sussex, and losing.  That they are in a World Cup is something to celebrate, irrespective of how it’s gone for them so far.

For England, the loss of Jason Roy probably isn’t so important for the next couple of games, but the reported hamstring tear doesn’t sound too promising, despite England’s hopes that he’ll be back before too long.  Naturally, this injury led to speculation about whether Alex Hales would be brought back if it proved to be serious, speculation that was fairly quickly damped down.  There has to be some amusement here, England never seem to learn that making definitive statements to try to appear strong gives no wriggle room later on.  It’s not that England were wrong about him, it’s not that England should have kept him in the squad then, or bring him back now.  It’s that by using loaded phrases like “lack of trust” (again with the trust thing) and now “stigma” they give themselves nowhere to go.

This may be deliberate on the part of Morgan, to ensure there is no possibility of Hales coming back, but if so that would be a fairly unhealthy state of affairs in itself.  There are different views concerning how Hales was treated, and how he behaved.  He’s hardly the most sympathetic of characters given his recent conduct, and brought much of it on himself. But England’s continuing ability to end up selecting sides for reasons other than cricketing ability remains an irritation, as does the inconsistent application of the rules depending on whether a face fits properly.  In each and every case a justification can be found either way, but there remains institutional favouritism within the ECB.

Comments on the game below!

World Cup Game 23 – West Indies vs Bangladesh

thelegglance6 Comments

We’re nearing the half way stage of the World Cup, and while yesterday’s India – Pakistan match gained the headlines in advance it turned out to be a relatively one sided and ultimately disappointing game, provoking amusement only in the absurd DLS target Pakistant were left with.  That’s not a criticism of the system, a target of 136 from 5 overs reflected how far behind Pakistan were effectively enough, but it add to the air of pointlessness around the closing overs.  Perhaps, given the frustration that so often applies to cricket’s management of poor weather conditions, praise should be given for getting back out there even in such circumstances, but a feeling of farce persisted nonetheless.

There has been a shortage of tight, exciting games in this tournament, perhaps four or five out of the 23, and the abandonments and rain curtailed games have added to the sense that the competition hasn’t taken off.  Adding into that the appearance of a gap between the top four and the rest in the table, and the whole World Cup is in danger of becoming a damp squib for the remainder of the qualifying competition.  There will be plenty of told you sos about that, but any tournament requires the teams to be competitive with each other in order to be exciting, and to date that’s been missing – and this is where Dave Richardson deserves the criticism given the rationale for the ten team World Cup.

Today’s game is between the West Indies and Bangladesh, and both will be aiming for 5th place in the table and to be in position in case anyone above slips up.  This World Cup needs those in the top four to slip up.

The Whole Reason For The World Cup – India v Pakistan (Match 22)

LordCanisLupus22 Comments

“The biggest game in sport” I’ve been told. This is a qualifying pool game between one of the better teams and one who has a chance of making the semis. In the context of the World Cup, it will determine if there is a team that has a fighting chance of getting into the top four, or if the last 23 games (I think) will be a procession before the predicted four make it to the knockout phase. As you can probably tell, I’m not in the slightest bit excited for the game. It’s just another fixture between two countries who don’t particularly like each other, whose politicians interfere too much in sport, whose requirement to meet means they always do draw each other in ICC competitions even before round-robin formats.

They met in the Champions Trophy final back in 2017, but no-one in India talks about that. Since that day, India have marched on relentlessly, led by their ton machine captain, Virat Kohli, while MS Dhoni ascends to beyond god-like status, Jasprit Bumrah is now the greatest Indian one-day bowler ever (do they remember Roger Binny? Joke), and Rohit Sharma still can’t beat Ally Brown’s record. Pakistan have gone backwards, and are now a living breathing cliche. Any win against the top 4 will be greeted with “same old unpredictable Pakistan”. Just as it did when they beat England.

In many ways, though, today is special because of the one thing sporting governing authorities hate. If they had their way, India would be playing Pakistan home and away every year, to fill in the space between the IPL. It’s a mixture of sporting rivalry, political clashes and local pride (and pride barely does it justice). Today is special because they don’t play each other. Because less is absolutely more. That’s why there is such focus on the weather forecast. That’s why 700,000 applied for tickets at the inadequate Old Trafford (I’ll bet the authorities wished they could have played it at the other OT, or the Olympic Stadium). This is that rare thing – a local rivalry that’s played infrequently. Maybe this is why it is the biggest game in sport….today.

India are unbeaten and on 5 points, while Pakistan are currently second from bottom on 3 points and with a net run rate destroyed by their loss to West Indies. A win puts Pakistan level on points having played a game more, a loss means England move down into 4th, on 6 points, and three clear of 5th. The halfway point of the group phase will see the split we probably expected. India are clear favourites today.

Yesterday’s games provided some drama, but in the end, not a lot. Australia got a strange start, rode a massive innings from Finch to set up what could have been a monster score, but then faded badly to “just” make 334. This looked less formidable when the Sri Lankans got off to a great start, but Karunaratne clammed up as he approached a century, the rest of the team caught the hesitancy bug, and the game faded away badly. Starc took his share of wickets again, but one was left with a bit of a void. A close finish wasn’t on the cards.

In yesterday’s other game, South Africa skittled out Afghanistan, with a monumental collapse after one of the rain breaks. The man who runs 50 yards after every wicket, no matter the circumstance (and it looks plain stupid with the World Cup South Africa have had) took some more. Then South Africa decided a crawl to the target was better than improving the net run rate, so Amla had a net, DeKock actually tried to score at better than test rate, and the win was achieved in just shy of 30 overs. England took 27 balls more to chase down 212 the other day.

I had a little say on Afghanistan’s loss and what it means for expansion – nothing really, because money drives everything – but those avid proponents of the 14 or 16 team tournaments did not have a good day. It is also really disappointing to see how Afghanistan have fared. I know the circumstances need to be taken into account, as these conditions are as alien as could be for them, but the horrible fact is that the authorities will never let 2007 happen again, that 2011 and 2015 formats produced too little excitement for the ICC, and TV money drives this. They have a hook to hang it on with Afghanistan’s showing. It’s probably going to be the longest standing consequence of this tournament.

Pakistan have won the toss and have elected to bowl.

Enjoy the game, comments below.