Aust home with a ball to spare.
England and India and New Zealand and West Indies will lose bugger all sleep before playing either of these two teams
England win the toss and bowl against WI. Will be interesting to see how well these two teams bat.
errata.
Aust home with 2 balls to spare.
It’s past my snooze time. I’m crashing out bur will look forward to your observations on ENG v WI tomorrow.
WI 31/4, in all sorts of trouble after 6 overs with two batsmen on 0.
Wow.
Adil Rashid finished with 2/4 (4 wickets, 2 runs) off 2.2 overs, as WI collapse to 55 all out. Lots of shots over the top early on that didn’t actually go over the top but found the fielders. Chris Gayle top scored with 13.
I like to think this won’t be close.
Hmm, after these 2 matches, I assume the next few toss-winning captains will elect to bowl first.
India vs Pakistan is at this ground tomorrow
Sri Lanka beating Bangladesh may or may not be an upset these days, but at least a relief for the Lankans.
Bring on the worst rivalry in sport!
Good comeback from Pakistan. If they keep this under 140 they should be confident to chase.
Oh dear. I spoke too soon…
If Pakistan lose by under 10, I’m going to be very annoyed.
I’ve got no dog in this fight, particularly, but it looks to me like Pak are starting well to chase this down!
Looking easy at this point. And India now have a whole week to think about it.
Just watched a replay of IND v PAK.
We don’t get to see PAK often, and they are notoriously fragile when they travel, but this Babar Azam rooster can really bat, eh?
What interesting about the India-Pakistan-NZ group is that they are the only 3 teams that have a serious shot at winning. And they all play each other in their first 2 games. They all will be heavily favored in their final 3 games, so the 2 that advance will likely be the ones that avoid that big upset. I suppose it wouldn’t be a huge shock if Afghanistan win a game against any of the 3, and that might be the decisive loss that pushes the others through. Of course, if Pakistan beats NZ tomorrow, then it might just be a 2-team race for the 2nd semi-final qualifying spot.
Likely due to the pitches, and IPL experience, we are seeing that 150 becomes a defendable total rather than needing 180-200.
To get 200 you need the bulk done by your top order because you can’t lose momentum.
Setting or getting 130-150 you can lose your top order for diddly and still be competitive.
So the capability to “go hard and go big” strategy that made ENG favourites in previous tournaments (and won it for WI) might swing back to the more conservative “nudge and noodle”.
That said, Afghanistan have just posted 190-4 vs Scotland at Sharjah. Which means nudge and noodle won’t quite do it for us.
We do have some big hitters (and the off-side boundary is short), but Afghanistan have some world-class spinners, so…
Scotland aren’t going to chase this down.
Though they are off to a good start. Dot, four, six.
Ouch.
All out 60 off 10.2.
Nudge and noodle for 120 off 20 starting to look a reasonable alternative? 