ICC Cricket World Cup - Part 3

First topic message reminder :

Table

Australia	8	14	1.00
India	7	11	0.85
New Zealand	8	11	0.57
England	8	10	1.00
Pakistan	8	9	-0.80
Sri Lanka	8	8	-0.93
Bangladesh	7	7	-0.13
South Africa	8	5	-0.08
West Indies	8	3	-0.36
Afghanistan	8	0	-1.42

Remaining Pool Fixtures

Tue, Jul 2 
10:30 Bangladesh vs India (Edgbaston)

Wed, Jul 3 
10:30 England vs New Zealand (Riverside Ground)

Thu, Jul 4 
10:30 Afghanistan vs West Indies (Headingley)

Fri, Jul 5 
10:30 Bangladesh vs Pakistan (Lord’s)

Sat, Jul 6 
10:30 India vs Sri Lanka (Headingley)
13:30 Australia vs South Africa (Old Trafford)




Knock Out Fixtures


To Follow

The Indian middle order does look better today with Pant in. He's rather unproven in this format and doesn't have much experience, but he certainly can't do worse than Vijay Shankar, who is benched reportedly due to some injury concern!

Bairstow currently resembling, well, me batting. Edges, shanks, nothing out the middle

Shami rather unfortunate. He has bowled some fine deliveries today, more than Bumrah who has been steady rather than spectacular so far today. But Shami is proving to be more expensive as the good ones are being edged away for 4 by Bairstow who seems to have worked on his French Cuts in recent days.

Early spin test for England, but Virat has gone to Chahal. Bairstow has finally got one away, he has moved along to 21 already, has to be his day by the look of it, if he were to go early, he should have done already.

47/0 after 10 - a good first power play for England. Slight quibble that maybe they haven't rotated the strike enough and needed a bit of luck, like Warner/Finch the other day, but this is a good platform upon which England can build.

Well, Roy has a major stroke of luck...

India should have had Roy if they reviewed, instead he escapes and smashes 10 off the next two balls.

Poor umpiring is actually become par for the course. It helped England but it’s getting a bit embarrassing. ‘Elite panel’ my ***

Having Roy back has changed the whole feel at the start if the batting innings. First platform we've had since his injury, other than when chasing that low total against West Indies. It allows us to punish the change bowlers, rather than letting them settle.

Having Archer fit is also big. Wood has been bowling so nicely as a change bowler, and if we can get 5 from Archer first up then we can bring on Wood to play the same role he has been bowling and keep 90+ bowling on from one end for longer.

The bowling attack has a nice look to it. Woakes and Archer to open, Plunkett and Wood as our change up options for wickets in the middle. Rashid the leggie hopefully with runs on the board. Root can come on if the ball is turning and Stokes can come on if we need something a bit different or they don't want to bring Archer back because of the side strain.

India's need for a wicket starting to become desperate. Five bowlers used and nothing yielded. Roy and Bairstow starting to unfurl the full repertoire of shots. 350 is on at this rate.

49 off the last four overs. Powerful.

Yes, even 400 plus could be on the cards at this rate. India desperately need that breakthrough... Chalal, Pandya and Yadav being slaughtered by these two. Just doesn't seem to be India's day thus far.

Good start, but England need one of these two to go big - not sure the pitch is the complete flat track some on twitter have it to be, we’ve had our fair share of luck so far

Jonny seems happy with this pitch lol

Kuldeep getting smashed out of the attack, which presents huge problems for Kohli.

Kp_Fan said the only way England could win this game was by being scrappy and being satisfied with a 260 score. That's exactly how England sides of the past would have played after a few knocks to the confidence - safety first - I'm glad this England team are not abandoning their usual, natural approach at the first sign of trouble.

145/0 after 20. Can't waste this platform. Must put 350+ on the board and bat India firmly out of contention.

India need quick wickets or they'll be looking at 400+

That is an absolutely magnificent catch

Super, super catch from Jadeja. Wow! Fantastic innings from Roy.

Special catch, that

The best fielder in the world is Sir Ravi

Had some luck by the sounds, but what a huge difference not having James "walking wicket" Vince stinking out the team, plus the other walking wicket Moeen is rightly dropped

Great catch from Jadeja to keep India alive. Trouble is, they should have had Roy out about 45 minutes ago.

Bairstow 100

Good lad, Jonathan! Great innings.

If he chins Vaughan as he walks off the field we can enshrine him forever

Strange tactics by India, burning through Kuldeep’s overs - despite Kuldeep pretty much trying to bowl darts

Chahal seems a more intelligent bowler compared to Kuldeep. Both have been collared but Chahal still seems to have a plan

Bairstow goes for 111. Nelson strikes again. Great knock from the lad.

Big wicket

Bairstow seemed to lose focus after his 100, was getting frustrated

Scratching around like he was, Morgan either needed to hit or needed to go.

Morgan was struggling there. Interesting that they seemed to target him with the short ball.

England not safe yet. Need a typically stylish and aggressive outing from Stokes and/or Buttler.

Morgan bounced out. Looked clueless

England will struggle to get 300 from here now.

I know I will get slated for this but this is what Happens when Root comes out in these situations. The positivity stops and pressure gets built. That is what done for Bairstow for me, he felt he had to push harder. Root is brilliant coming in when an early wicket fall to steady the ship but when on a flyer, he is the wrong man for me.

Morgan, as good as he is, is simply not comfortable with the short ball and instead of working on that, he continually falls into the same trap.

Stokes has a very big job here to get England a competitive total because the way they are going, they will not post one.

Credit to India's bowling but England are a bit of their own worst enemy at times.

Blimey, England are still on for 320, and that should be enough!

Kuldeep saves his figures somewhat 10-0-72-1, when it looked like he was set to go got a 100

Duty281 wrote:Blimey, England are still on for 320, and that should be enough!

If Root, Stokes and Buttler get the runs. Don't fancy the lower order against Bumrah tbh

Oh, and I would have brought Buttler in ahead of Stokes.

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Good start, but England need one of these two to go big - not sure the pitch is the complete flat track some on twitter have it to be, we’ve had our fair share of luck so far

As I pointed out earlier, pitch isn’t the flat track twitter would have you believe. Pandya and the spinners have shown there is some grip, and the slower balls have been tough to get away. Promising for Plunkett

England do need to have a good final 10 here though and get upto 310-340

Root now either has to go hard and put pressure on the bowlers or get out and allow Buttler to come in if England are going to post a score over 300. Picking up singles and going at a SR of around 75-80 is not putting the Indian bowlers under any pressure. It puts his partner under pressure.

The dip in the England innings came when he came in and did not continue to put the Indian bowlers under pressure.

I would like to clarify that I am a huge fan of Root's, just not in these situations.

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Good start, but England need one of these two to go big - not sure the pitch is the complete flat track some on twitter have it to be, we’ve had our fair share of luck so far

As I pointed out earlier, pitch isn’t the flat track twitter would have you believe. Pandya and the spinners have shown there is some grip, and the slower balls have been tough to get away. Promising for Plunkett

England do need to have a good final 10 here though and get upto 310-340

Agree with all that , Olly. The Roy/Bairstow stand made it look more of a road than it is. Even so they've lost their way a bit lately : against some fine bowling , it must be said...Shami

Looks like a predetermined plan to consolidate and go hard in the last ten ? Certainly have their platform now...

245/3 with 10 left. Stokes starting to loosen those shoulders. 320 minimum from here. Could still exceed 350, if Stokes bats through the 10, but Bumrah does have 5 overs left.

Anything under 350 will be disappointing for England

Duty281 wrote:245/3 with 10 left. Stokes starting to loosen those shoulders. 320 minimum from here. Could still exceed 350, if Stokes bats through the 10, but Bumrah does have 5 overs left.

320 would be good from here, need Buttler in and firing to get 350.

Stokes going very well though.

AlciG wrote:Anything under 350 will be disappointing for England

Well they won't get that. Bumrah way too good at the death.

Maybe this is a day when Buttler should have moved up...but I guess if he comes in and gets out at thirty overs it dampens things down. Think they are conscious of the need to have proper batsmen in at the death against Bumrah and Shami...tailenders tend to get blown away...

277. Six to go. All from the good ones.

Possibly not an awful wicket to get there. Root has done very well to get some runs when there was a possible wobble, but 6 overs where Buttler, Woakes and Plunkett (the latter two hopefully not needed) could produce some fireworks

Buttler in now...

Perhaps not Root's best innings of the WC ; but we will see later how easy or hard scoring is on this pitch.

Root gone, that's a bad wicket for India to take. Pandya should have deliberately spilled it!

England would have taken anything over 300 pre-match, but they might be slightly disappointed not to cross the 350 margin after being 202/1 after 30.

Just one ball to settle then, Jos