ICC Cricket World Cup - Part 4

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Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:

alfie wrote:Good to see Morgan handling the short ball.  Has seen Behrend - orff...now taking to Lyon.

Keep the foot down lads I fancy an "early" night

Alfie I'm afraid this is the worst thing I have seen posted all World Cup.

I do my best

And the ball is doing a bit. Some lateral movement , and the pace changes from Henry have been effective.

YJB collects two boundaries to break the shackles...one a lovely shot...the other a massive stroke of luck !

Though the way he gets that inside edge away for four so often you wonder if he practices it

Good over from Henry and unlucky it went for 9. 1-22 off 7. If that is his spell over it's been a very good one.

Ferguson on for Henry. A bit more pace might help these two batsmen. But he's a very good bowler and could easily pick up a couple.

First one is a play and miss...

If England do lose another wicket soon, I would be tempted to promote Stokes up the order. Like Root, he has that strong mentality and I would leave Morgan and Buttler for later.

Bairstow taking his chances and England seem to have weathered the storm. If only de Grandhomme took that return catch. They could have given Ferguson an early crack at the England skipper with the short stuff, and you never know.

Root gone now. Things starting to not look good now.

At some point Santner will have to bowl . He has bowled well in this WC but might be a risk today in terms of economy : not much in this deck for the spinners.

It's the speedy Ferguson for now. NZ will be satisfied enough with the way this has gone so far as they will feel a couple of wickets puts them back on top...and there have been plenty of near chances in this first sixteen overs. There : Root nearly trapped lbw. And then he has a wild swing ...two wild swings ...and out !

Game on all right...

You may be right Billy but I'm unsure if a captain would drop himself down the order in a final because he felt someone else was mentally stronger!

That's a big one and earned! Such bias from the umpires to give it out.

A dismissal of no real surprise with Root clearly frustrated. Good bowling from de Grandhomme. Echoes of the Sri Lanka defeat, here - too many dots, not enough singles. Now with a right-left combo it's more crucial than before to ensure the strike gets rotated.

But England still ahead!

Root didn't need to do that....Bairstow it was chancing arms....root had to hold one end.
NZ does stay on course and get the second wkt in about 16 overs.....

Ferguson into the body of Morgan coming up

Not Root's best knock.

England simply do not have to get desperate, still plenty of time left.


Santner will be the key for me.

England's batsmen look like they're bricking it. Getting tied down by NZ's weakest seam bowler isn't exactly a good look. Rotate the strike, lads, stop trying to send it to the rope every ball!

Sir Chris Woakes Sir Chris Woakes Sir Chris Woake Sir Chris Woakes

Never forget we have the greatest living cricketer to come ( and yes I know Michael Yardy is still alive) . Although Root has deliberately ruined my pre match predictions the MOM is still to come.

Plus we have Erasmus, DRS and Luck on our side.

Duty281 wrote:England's batsmen look like they're bricking it. Getting tied down by NZ's weakest seam bowler isn't exactly a good look. Rotate the strike, lads, stop trying to send it to the rope every ball!

Bang on, control control control needed.

Aargh...Bairstow plays onto Ferguson!

NZ might just be favorites to win now...

Bairstow, at last, chops on. Kinda inevitable. Someone has to stand up for England and make the match-winning knock.

Jokes aside I do agree that getting bogged down by dG is worrying. It's back to the nervous batting seen against Aus and Sri Lanka.

Whilst Roots slugs were ugly England are always more comfortable striking and not letting the bowlers settle so I'm not fully on board with the keep defending tactic. Sure they dont need to rush but they are currently creating additional self pressure.

It's the sort of situation where Stokes steps in as a big game player and you're glad that Moeen isnt there to prod 20 balls then get out slog sweeping.

Ooph ok bairstow out is genuine trouble.
England cant chase down anything it seems.

Got to say, it will take something special for England to win now. NZ well and truly on top and out bowling England.

Confidence, the big day nerves and the weight of expectation have hit. This is why I said earlier that I would have been more confident for England if this was not at home.

Is Stokes the Botham and Archer the Chris Lewis of 1992 reborn, boult channelling Akram?? 2 wickets in 2 balls?

Well these are the last two of England's batsmen averaging 45+ at this World Cup. Buttler afterwards who's obviously capable of a big innings. Some decent strikers further down.

Unlike India, England do have the depth to turn this around. Mind you, they're making CDG look like McGrath.

Goodness, I despise Lord's. Should have had the final at Birmingham.

Damn it was lamb wasn't it

I see eng batsmen are tooo muhc trying to move around the crease, shuffle, shimmie
They don't need 10 runs an over....but they cannot seem to stand steady & play normally.
Theh rabbit in Morgan quite evident (again) when confronted with short and fast

England making heavy weather of this. Think they have the batting depth to get through. Ferguson v Morgan, the England skipper has to get through this spell from the New Zealand quick. Stokes has been England's crisis batsman this tournament, and so long as he's there, England will still be ahead.

Looking at the way the NZ bowlers are strangling the scoring I have to wonder if we didn't over praise England's bowling effort ? Perhaps the pitch has slowed ; but this is so similar to that Lord's effort against Australia.
Difference is they've not lost their wickets quite as early.

Still well in this but it's looking as nervy as we feared in our worst nightmares

Think Williamson should bring Boult back on for an over and try and knock one over. De Grandhomme has done a decent job of containing, but one more wicket can put England under huge pressure.

All over, Morgan gone now.

Oh dear ...Morgan brilliantly caught in the outfield...

NZ very much on top now. Not over but heavily in their favour . Going to need something big from Ben and Jos.

A fine, fine catch. England struggling with the pressure and the tight bowling.

Key partnership now!

Well, Neesham on and Ferguson converts his first ball into a wicket with a fabulous boundary catch.

New Zealand's 4th seamer combination of de Grandhomme and Neesham proving to be the not the easy bit of 'junk' that was expected by some.

KP_fan wrote: I see eng batsmen are tooo muhc trying to move around the crease, shuffle, shimmie
They don't need 10 runs an over....but they cannot seem to stand steady & play normally.
Theh rabbit in Morgan quite evident (again) when confronted with short and fast

Those words in bold are symptoms of choke.......when you cannot stand steady and play normal cricket and feel the need to manufacture strokes every where

Morgan unfortunately can neither hand pacy bounce nor pressure

Butler needs to do a Jadeja....else Eng ain't crossing 200 either

England really need Jos Buttler to turn up for the World Cup now! Has been quiet all this while for this moment?

Why is Williamson easing the foot a bit? He should attack with one of his main bowlers and try and separate these 2. He's opted for a few cheap overs from his 4th bowler combo instead.

I think a lot of people have rather foolishly disparaged the NZ back up bowlers. They aren't world beaters , perhaps. But they are honest professionals well capable of exploiting helpful conditions.
And they are doing so today , just as they did against India.

I doubt we will see Santner bowl today now. , unless things turn around a lot...

Four singles off the over - that's exactly how to do it!

Anyways 9 of their overs are done already. Williamson perhaps would want some flexibility with Santner here, not a track that are best suited for his skill sets... With Neesham set to bowl a few towards the end, he may not need to bowl Santner out.

msp83 wrote:Why is Williamson easing the foot a bit? He should attack with one of his main bowlers and try and separate these 2. He's opted for a few cheap overs from his 4th bowler combo instead.

don't go by the tag-6th bowler for CDGH...look at his bowling and figures
Look at how Neesham split stokes into half
Ii think Williamson is thinking don't bowl santer if he doesn't need to

Stokes on to double digits and has looked alright. Buttler seems to be comfortable too. If these 2 bat another 10 overs, all the hard work that New Zealand managed could quickly unravel. Williamson needs to be smart here, if set Boult or Henry or Ferguson won't make a difference to Buttler.

And I do have to say that England have been badly let down by their leaders in this innings. Root and Morgan both basically gave way to panic and threw away their innings. Should have played with a lot more proper cricket shots instead of going silly just because of a few tight overs.
In truth the bowlers have had it their way for most of the innings. Bairstow was the only man to look remotely at home and even he was less than fluent . But a bit of calm was needed once the run rate started to climb. If the fours aren't coming , get some singles !

Praise the NZ bowling. But some very unintelligent England batting has contributed.

alfie wrote:And I do have to say that England have been badly let down by their leaders in this innings.  Root and Morgan both basically gave way to panic and threw away their innings. Should have played with a lot more proper cricket shots instead of going silly just because of a few tight overs.
In truth the bowlers have had it their way for most of the innings. Bairstow was the only man to look remotely at home and even he was less than fluent .  But a bit of calm was needed once the run rate started to climb. If the fours aren't coming , get some singles !

Praise the NZ bowling.  But some very unintelligent England batting has contributed.

Agreed. Joe Root's innings was particularly infuriating as he lost all sense of composure and started going after everything; contrast that with Williamson who remained patient as he tried to build his innings and establish a score.

Anyway, Buttler and Stokes rotating nicely for now. Odd boundary thrown in too.

De Grandhomme into his last over. He has had an excellent outing with the ball so far. Can he finish well?
Stokes though, has decided he has had enough of Neesham. Has KW got the memo? Else, things could get out of hands soon.

De Grandhomme has done brilliantly. Has really exploited this pitch to make stroke making extremely difficult. If NZ win this his spell will be seen as the crucial factor...no English bowler came near his economy rate

Match winning, world cup winning 10 over spell there from De Grondehomme

Buttler lucky on two balls there. One skied edge misses the fielders; another ball misbehaves on the pitch but narrowly misses the timbers.

What a spell from de Grandhomme. Outshined Plunkett's fine effort.

CDG does indeed finish well, but Stokes and Buttler, while not looking entirely in control, have brought a sense of calm to the English innings. That ball from de Grandhomme that missed the stumps not by much suggests that cutters might play a bigger role from now.

Boult back on, but at least 5 overs too late in my book.

If you don't care who wins then the match can be far more enjoyable. This would be the first World Cup title for either NZ or England. Whoever wins would have deserved it. Currently it looks like NZ are on top.