2022 T20 World Cup thread

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

First topic message reminder :

We're now just over a fortnight out from the qualifying round, and team news is ever changing around the teams in the tournament.

Unfortunately today Jasprit Bumrah has been ruled out of the tournament (and a while after) with a back injury. Big blow to India that one, and a World Cup with no Archer/Bumrah (arguably the two best t20 fast bowlers in the world) is a huge shame

[KP_fan]

AFG needs to preserve wickets and put a fighting 150 on the board

Has Woakes gained a lotnof weight or just an optical illusion on my phone screen

[alfie]

I am not sure I see Afghanistan scoring too many today. 130-140 is about what i would expect from them if I am going to be honest.

I will have a bit of a look before trying to predict , I think. Interesting choice by England , to load the batting and then choose to bowl first ?

[alfie]

Wood strikes immediately ! 11/1...

[eirebilly_01]

Oh that was a beauty from Wood, unplayable.

[alfie]

Fast too. 154 the second ball ? He's come in well primed...

[eirebilly_01]

So after the power play, i see no reason to change my earlier prediction of Afghanistan not scoring more than 130-140.

Just also saw the fantasy points for the first game. Was extremely surprised to not see Allen up there with the points. He had a big impact on the game, certainly more of an impact that Hazelwood who got 5th?

[Duty281]

Seeing some blinding catches in this tournament. LL with another.

[eirebilly_01]

Livingston pulls off a Phillips style catch

[alfie]

Outstanding outfield catch from Livingstone

35/2 and the Afghans are not finding this easy against the England pace bowlers. Looking at the bounce and carry , I do think England might have missed a trick not including another fast bowler. But we will see what the spinners can do - soon enough , I presume.

Not yet though. Sam Curran time...

[alfie]

55/2 off ten Might be pushing to get to eirebilly's 130 at this rate.

Stokes has bowled three overs 1/12. If he can do that regularly then they really are well placed to be able to stack the batting...

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

37 dot balls in the first ten overs - Afghanis neither rotating strike, or going boundary heavy here...just kind of existing.

[eirebilly_01]

Starting to think I may have been optimistic with that predicted total as well alfie...

[eirebilly_01]

I would say that Najib is Afghanistan's last hope of posting a score above 130 now.

[alfie]

Didn't see what caused Stokes to start grimacing in apparent pain. Did he step on the boundary sponge I wonder

Hope he hasn't done himself any serious mischief.

Rashid still not exactly tearing up trees with his bowling.0/25 from three. Would like to see him get some wickets for his own confidence. Have a feeling those nagging injury issues have taken a bit of the edge off him.

[Duty281]

Do the Afghan players speak 11 different languages, because their communication at running between the wickets is schoolboy level?

[eirebilly_01]

That is the 3rd stunning catch this innings

Afghanistan may not even make 120...

[alfie]

Another superb outfield catch...Rashid this time . England's fielding (apart from one messy overthrow !) has been excellent.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

What a take from Buttler!

[Duty281]

Wow, four great catches from England tonight, Buttler has perhaps pulled out the best of the lot.

[eirebilly_01]

What a catch Buttler

[alfie]

Buttler getting in on the act with a great goalkeeper style leg side catch off Wood

91/5 and that 130 looks a way off still...

[alfie]

So into the last four with Rashid finishing his spell...which means for all the "bowling options" , neither Moeen nor Livingstone will be called on tonight. Curran and Woakes will finish up.

Fair enough in the match context but I had actually expected them to at least give Livingstone an over or two. Maybe next game.

[alfie]

They do waste time with these reviews sometimes. Was obvious even live that pitched outside leg - just . Could have checked that first instead of fiddling about to see if it had been edged (which it clearly wasn't)

Not to worry. Curran gets his second now and this innings is not going anywhere...109/6...

And now 109/7 with Curran on a hat trick...wonder if there will be anyone left for him to try and complete it in the last over ?

[alfie]

Eight down now. Reward for Woakes. Not getting 130. Maybe not even 120.

[alfie]

Not going to shoot Hales for dropping that one...was very tough , saved runs I reckon.

Come on Sam...

[Duty281]

Not a lot learnt from this one for England, Afghanistan have been fairly hopeless in fairly alien conditions for them, but always good to get a comfortable win. Chase it down quick, get the NRR high as possible, and move on to Ireland.

Afghanistan's best chance of squeezing a win will come v Sri Lanka or Ireland, but I'd probably make them outsiders for both.

[alfie]

No hat trick ...three in four though. 112/9. Pretty decent knock from Ghani , in context , making 30 from 30.

And five for Sam Curran to wrap it up ...another excellent catch

[eirebilly_01]

Poor Curran missing out on the hat trick by one ball. Still magnificent figures again for him. 5-10, the first Englishman ever to do that

So how do England go about this chase? I would imagine that they will go hard and try to knock these off within 10-12 overs.

I honestly did not expect much from this Afghanistan batting line up but I had hoped they would at least get 130-140.

[Duty281]

One-day T20, says Nasser?

Five for S Curran. England fans in good voice. Happy days.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Really disappointing effort from the Afghans that - but professionally done by England with the ball.

Now the aim with this batting deep lineup, knock it off as quickly as possible and get that net run rate off to a great start

[eirebilly_01]

Not sure if anyone else saw this but Chris Jordan flew out to Curran. The man he is in direct competition with and had one of the biggest smiles I have seen. I love team spirit like that

[eirebilly_01]

This track may not be as easy as I first thought...

[alfie]

Credit to the Afghan bowlers : Fazal Farooqi has done well here , just 20 off three and picked up Buttler so England aren't having it all their own way.

Don't think they are in much danger of failing to chase 113 ; but might not be raising that NRR as easily as they may have hoped.

[Duty281]

Think we're consistently seeing the wicket slow up considerably in the second innings, making chasing harder. This should mean that batting first becomes the sensible play.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

That was an absolutely wretched knock from Hales

[alfie]

England making rather heavy weather of this chase. Hales gone for a scratchy 19 , after being dropped twice. 52/2 in the ninth. Would want to get some fluency to the innings soon.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

England making rather heavy weather of this chase. Hales gone for a scratchy 19 , after being dropped twice. 52/2 in the ninth.  Would want to get some fluency to the innings soon.

Think the comms are rightly pointing out a lack of intent from England in these first 10 overs - seem to be content just knocking it off at relatively slow pace...bizarrely.

[eirebilly_01]

I am not sure if this is poor intent from England, a hard track with very good bowling or a combination of all. Certainly making for an intriguing match.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

One of the all time atrocious T20 innings from Malan that

[alfie]

England making rather heavy weather of this chase. Hales gone for a scratchy 19 , after being dropped twice. 52/2 in the ninth.  Would want to get some fluency to the innings soon.

Think the comms are rightly pointing out a lack of intent from England in these first 10 overs - seem to be content just knocking it off at relatively slow pace...bizarrely.

I think the Comms are underestimating the difficulty the bats are having with the Afghan bowlers. The spinners are making life hard enough and I think England are just concentrating on making sure they actually win the match. What might look like lack of intent could be just sensible playing within reasonable limits.

They really shouldn't need to use all their deep batting list ; but as Malan falls now they are 81/4 and I think NRR is not exactly their most pressing concern...

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

England making rather heavy weather of this chase. Hales gone for a scratchy 19 , after being dropped twice. 52/2 in the ninth.  Would want to get some fluency to the innings soon.

Think the comms are rightly pointing out a lack of intent from England in these first 10 overs - seem to be content just knocking it off at relatively slow pace...bizarrely.

I think the Comms are underestimating the difficulty the bats are having with the Afghan bowlers. The spinners are making life hard enough and I think England are just concentrating on making sure they actually win the match. What might look like lack of intent could be just sensible playing within reasonable limits.

They really shouldn't need to use all their deep batting list ; but as Malan falls now they are 81/4 and I think NRR is not exactly their most pressing concern...

They're not, and never have been in danger of actually losing this - someone had to have a proper dart in the top four for NRR purposes, and all they've done is just scratch around without even looking to attack the spinners. Bit grim really, but hopefully a wake up call for future games

[alfie]

Livingstone relishing facing a seam bowler instead...couple of handy boundaries to settle things down.

On course to finish in about 17 overs , I think. Which won't be too awful , even if not what many were expecting.



Might be grateful to Afghanistan for a few fielding errors and 11 wides though. They'll want to bat better than this as the competition goes on.

[KP_fan]

The only thing Afghanistan did not need to do was implode with the bat and play out 20 over for a lowish total of 140
Those 140 and some luck could have triggered an upset
Eng stutter over the banana peel of a game and leave Afganistan to inevitably upset someone else in the next 4 games

[alfie]

Got there in the end...with another wide to finish .

Took 18.2 overs which wasn't nearly as easy as expected. Not sure Afghans will be able to upset anyone because their fielding is sub standard and that counts on these big grounds ; but they aren't the pushover many assume. The spinners are very handy - and England still seem to have some issues there.

Livingstone did a good job .

[Duty281]

England did make hard work of it, but as I said before I think these wickets slow up significantly and make chasing harder. Should have still been more comfortable and decisive than that.

Tomorrow sees Sri Lanka v Ireland, two teams with little hope of making the semis and instead trying to be in the 'best of the rest' in this group alongside the Afghans, and India v Pakistan, which is a monumental game and could be an early key to deciding a semi-final place. Pakistan beat India comfortably last year on their way to the semis. Indeed, Pakistan were probably the best team at last year's tournament, but were undone by losing the toss in the semis.

Weather should be fine for both games, although Monday's could be interrupted.

[alfie]

England did make hard work of it, but as I said before I think these wickets slow up significantly and make chasing harder. Should have still been more comfortable and decisive than that.

Tomorrow sees Sri Lanka v Ireland, two teams with little hope of making the semis and instead trying to be in the 'best of the rest' in this group alongside the Afghans, and India v Pakistan, which is a monumental game and could be an early key to deciding a semi-final place. Pakistan beat India comfortably last year on their way to the semis. Indeed, Pakistan were probably the best team at last year's tournament, but were undone by losing the toss in the semis.

Weather should be fine for both games, although Monday's could be interrupted.

I wouldn't be too sure about that fine weather ! Forecast has improved ; but Melbourne can be as tricky as Manchester sometimes in spring - very much so lately ; and I don't guarantee no interruptions . Hopefully will be OK as its a Big Game...

[Duty281]

The ICC certainly wouldn't want the game that gets the highest TV ratings to be rained off!

[eirebilly_01]

Well this is disappointing. Up early to watch Ireland seriously struggle.

[alfie]

79/4 off 13. Hmm. Going to want a strong finish from here.

That'll help... Nice thump onto the grassy bank...seem to have found the accelerator

[eirebilly_01]

Just hoping that Ireland limp there way to 130 and get early wickets.

[Sponsored content]