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

[alfie]

Big difference from Monday when it was all seam and the spinners got hammered. Ireland have tweaked their side to add another pace man for a spinner , no ? Might regret that as we see Livingstone take his third wicket...

[KP_fan]

See if the pace is off Irish don't have the power to clear the boundary
IRE need a run a ball min and a boundary or two

[alfie]

Two wicket over from Curran

Was let down by a bad fielding error but a very good 19th over still. 156/9

Stokes to finish. And all out for 157 which is a good comeback from England I think.

[eirebilly_01]

I would say that Ireland are about 20 runs short of where they would have seriously put England under pressure but this is still a very good score for them. England may have some concerns in chasing this...

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Interesting to see Stokes bowl the 20th over - can’t remember him ever doing that in a World Cup before…

[alfie]

Lost seven wickets for 25 at the end. Not so easy for batsmen coming in but I won't criticise Ireland for continuing to go after runs : they got away with a lot of super aggression earlier...swings and roundabouts . 157 isn't a bad score.

But if England have any pretensions to winning this event they ought to run that down. Will want a better display than the Afghanistan innings.

[KP_fan]

The score in absolute is not a bad one given IRE playing top side Eng

They looked like getting more and could not improvise when Eng started taking pace off and crumbled for about 10 to 15 less than they could.have

ENG on their part took too long to figure pace off is the way
Outfield slow, and IRE does not have the ability to clear boundaries with brute power
They need pace on ball to get it past boundaries

[alfie]

Interesting to see Stokes bowl the 20th over - can’t remember him ever doing that in a World Cup before…

Not much alternative with Woakes having a total 'mare...

Looks as if Stokes the bowler is being seen as a bit of an all-purpose tool now that Topley has been lost to the team. So far he's done quite well I'm pleased to say.

Whatever else from today it was good to see Livingstone doing so well.

[alfie]

Oh dear...Buttler gone second ball !

At least he didn't waste many deliveries

[eirebilly_01]

England in real trouble here...

G'wan the Irish

[alfie]

Hales fails to profit from a dropped chance...gone next ball. Not having a great run and I reckon Salt might be a better choice .

England in a spot of trouble , one might say.

Odd that their lead in form was so good because they really don't look as if they are in great nick yet halfway through their second match.

[alfie]

Reading suggestions on BBC that Duckworth Lewis might get involved...and the clouds above the MCG do looks bit threatening. But with the sun out here - not that far away - I'd be surprised if we get a deluge.

Which should be a relief for England who are going to be a long way behind after this power play !

[eirebilly_01]

Ah here now, this is starting to look very ominous for England.

I knew that Ireland had one big win in them but had hoped they would save it for the Aussies.

Big job for Brook and Malan now.

[alfie]

Stokes gone ! Ireland fans ecstatic ! And why not...29/3 .

Have been a few upsets already this WC . This would be a big one.

No pressure , young Harry Brook

[eirebilly_01]

England will require a couple of solid overs here or the rate could get a bit high causing panic.

[alfie]

63/3 off ten. Work to do.

Ireland have bowled and fielded very well. Will they be able to maintain that pressure ?

Can't say we aren't getting an interesting contest to watch.

[eirebilly_01]

Oh dear, this is getting worse and worse for England...

[alfie]

Some over from Dockrell...two drops and Brook manages to get out anyway.

Ireland tightening their grip. England still have time ; but they need someone to do a "Stoinis".

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

A truly rank innings from Malan - horrendous. If you’re going to bat like he has this first two games he has to see it through and both times he’s got out at the worst time

[alfie]

Malan joins the queue back to the pavilion...

Livingstone arrives as England's last hope. This is just about Ireland's to lose now.

They've very much out bowled England today.

[VTR]

A strangely timid performance from England today. Looking like a certain defeat now and it will be deserved

[alfie]

A truly rank innings from Malan - horrendous. If you’re going to bat like he has this first two games he has to see it through and both times he’s got out at the worst time

I wouldn't be singling out Malan today. Sure he hasn't done the job we want from him but really the rest of the bats have been useless , except from Livingstone in Perth.

[eirebilly_01]

England behind on DL?

[alfie]

Hmm. Moeen cuts loose - as the rain arrives with England five runs behind .

Going to be a DLS finish , alas. Spoiling what might have been a thrilling finish...but if they don't get back on no one could complain about Ireland taking the points.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

A truly rank innings from Malan - horrendous. If you’re going to bat like he has this first two games he has to see it through and both times he’s got out at the worst time

I wouldn't be singling out Malan today. Sure he hasn't done the job we want from him but really the rest of the bats have been useless , except from Livingstone in Perth.

Obviously the rest haven’t performed well, but when you have Livingstone in at 7, Woakes in at 9, there is simply no excuse for his baffling lack of intent. Even running between the wickets, he isn’t pushing for 2s! I can understand the slow start for 10 or so balls but to use up 6 overs worth of deliveries at under a run a ball against Ireland, with the batter heavy approach, is just terrible.

[guildfordbat]

Malan and Brook batted as if they were unaware DLS might come into play. It wasn't as if Alfie and others hadn't warned them!

[alfie]

A truly rank innings from Malan - horrendous. If you’re going to bat like he has this first two games he has to see it through and both times he’s got out at the worst time

I wouldn't be singling out Malan today. Sure he hasn't done the job we want from him but really the rest of the bats have been useless , except from Livingstone in Perth.

Obviously the rest haven’t performed well, but when you have Livingstone in at 7, Woakes in at 9, there is simply no excuse for his baffling lack of intent. Even running between the wickets, he isn’t pushing for 2s! I can understand the slow start for 10 or so balls but to use up 6 overs worth of deliveries at under a run a ball against Ireland, with the batter heavy approach, is just terrible.

Well yes but I don't think it's lack of intent : he just wasn't able to go any faster. It's not his skill set. Brook did no better in terms of scoring rate.

Frankly England have got nearly everything wrong today. I mean massive praise for Ireland but I can't help thinking England took them too easily and have paid the price .

Yes , all over. Well done Ireland

Reckon that means England can start packing for home . They aren't getting past Australia or NZ on this form.

[VTR]

I think the problem with Malan is when everyone else is out of form he looks even worse. So I probably do blame others more, the supposed big hitters who did nothing. And as before the tournament, I am really not convinced Stokes should ever have been automatically back in the team taking up one of the prime batting slots

[KP_fan]

A Pity that the game wasn't played out to the fullest.
BUT
To be fair...IRE played well(being a qualifier) and Eng did not (being one of the contenders)

Where Eng got it wrong?
They conceded far too many in Power play ( 60 odd) and 92 in first 10 overs

Eng seamers did not get seam/ swing movement that IRE exploited far more out of same conditions..
Eng was late in figuring that taking pace off the ball works ...as outfield was slow...ground strokes are not going to the boundary easily and IRE lack the muscle and brute power to slog it out of the park

IRE didn't figure that they need to take singles and two and bat out the last 5 overs sensibly and hence left 10 to 15 odd runs on the table

Ali's 200% SR hits at the end brought Eng closer but agonizingly short.
In pieces there can be many Iffs and Buts.....but IRE did just enough to deserve the win.

Eng should not lose hope as AFG & SL will cause and upset or two I think...and still leave possibilities for all sides

[alfie]

Pity it ended as it did ; but no denying Ireland deserved the win. With Moeen going hard , who knows what would have happened ? But with the clear weather threat , England were surely well aware of the situation and either chose to disregard it or were unable to do what was needed ... either way , the better team on the day won.

I will have plenty to say on the issues England are facing later but for now prefer to let Ireland bask in the glow of success...

[eirebilly_01]

An amazing lack of match awareness from England, really poor indeed from them with intent only being showed when it was too late.
Complacency was certainly a factor here and England are in trouble in this group now.

As an Irishman, though, i am very happy

[alfie]

A Pity that the game wasn't played out to the fullest.
BUT
To be fair...IRE played well(being a qualifier) and Eng did not (being one of the contenders)

Where Eng got it wrong?
They conceded far too many in Power play ( 60 odd) and 92 in first 10 overs

Eng seamers did not get seam/ swing movement that IRE exploited far more out of same conditions..
Eng was late in figuring that taking pace off the ball works ...as outfield was slow...ground strokes are not going to the boundary easily and IRE lack the muscle and brute power to slog it out of the park
.

I think the main issue was really that England seemed intent on banging the ball in short. No idea why on a day when swing was available ? Fair enough for Wood to blast away - and indeed he took three wickets and wasn't hugely expensive ; but what Woakes thought he was doing is beyond me. And the one big mistake that might haunt Jos is choosing to bring him back for a third over : I can understand his reasoning ; but with options that ended up unused it proved a fatal error.

This was a day when Willey probably should have been in the team.

[guildfordbat]

An amazing lack of match awareness from England, really poor indeed from them with intent only being showed when it was too late.
Complacency was certainly a factor here and England are in trouble in this group now.

As an Irishman, though, i am very happy

Hiya Billy - yep, that was very much my point. England - particularly Malan and Brook - just didn't play the match situation which always included the real possibility of rain. So that's certainly not all hindsight!

Very disappointed with England but pleased for Ireland and particularly their skipper Balbirnie. Regulars may recall I've always liked him - intelligent cricketer who usually judges the game well and the role he needs to play.

[Pal Joey]

An amazing lack of match awareness from England, really poor indeed from them with intent only being showed when it was too late.
Complacency was certainly a factor here and England are in trouble in this group now.

As an Irishman, though, i am very happy

Ye giant killers sure know how to lift yer's game versus England. Congratulations.    

And we're next on yer list...!

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

A truly rank innings from Malan - horrendous. If you’re going to bat like he has this first two games he has to see it through and both times he’s got out at the worst time

I wouldn't be singling out Malan today. Sure he hasn't done the job we want from him but really the rest of the bats have been useless , except from Livingstone in Perth.

Obviously the rest haven’t performed well, but when you have Livingstone in at 7, Woakes in at 9, there is simply no excuse for his baffling lack of intent. Even running between the wickets, he isn’t pushing for 2s! I can understand the slow start for 10 or so balls but to use up 6 overs worth of deliveries at under a run a ball against Ireland, with the batter heavy approach, is just terrible.

Well yes but I don't think it's lack of intent : he just wasn't able to go any faster. It's not his skill set. Brook did no better in terms of scoring rate.

Frankly England have got nearly everything wrong today.  I mean massive praise for Ireland but I can't help thinking England took them too easily and have paid the price .

Yes , all over. Well done Ireland

Reckon that means England can start packing for home . They aren't getting past Australia or NZ on this form.

Don't think it is curtains for England Alfie - they're very capable of beating Aus and NZ, but they've certainly left themselves with a mountain to climb now. And they'll need to play better!

[alfie]

Hope you are right , Olly... but I am not holding out much hope. Something seems missing at the moment and I'm not sure they are capable of fixing it in the short term. It seems odd because they were playing with confidence and freedom against Pakistan and Australia but I have just not seen that in these two WC games. Almost as if they just can't handle pressure...

[KP_fan]

Hope you are right , Olly... but I am not holding out much hope. Something seems missing at the moment and I'm not sure they are capable of fixing it in the short term. It seems odd because they were playing with confidence and freedom against Pakistan and Australia but I have just not seen that in these two WC games. Almost as if they just can't handle pressure...

I don't think it's proving easy for Butler to be a Captain, WK  and Opening batsman all at the same time

[eirebilly_01]

Plenty of uproar on Social Media with people saying that England have been robbed by DLS. Their point being that it was unfair to England as they only needed 53 off 33 and that was very getable with two power hitters in.

Although I am sure there is an argument to be had with the way the DLS is calculated in T20, I find it difficult to find one. For me, it really went down to on field situation awareness.

[JDizzle]

Livingstone only facing two balls when Malan and Brook used up 58 for 54 runs is really poor cricket. I think I would have fancied England to win if the rain didn’t come (just!) but they’ll have known it was coming in and makes the lack of intent even more baffling.

The two POs decided the game - Ireland went off like a train and England did not. Hales hasn’t been getting the fast starts, so England’s 2-4 are quite one paced which contradicts the fact the you bat wel down to 9. Muddled.

[LeinsterFan4life]

Plenty of uproar on Social Media with people saying that England have been robbed by DLS. Their point being that it was unfair to England as they only needed 53 off 33 and that was very getable with two power hitters in.

Although I am sure there is an argument to be had with the way the DLS is calculated in T20, I find it difficult to find one. For me, it really went down to on field situation awareness.

Are the same people complaining that Ireland had to play in a pre qualifying tournament just to play this game?

[alfie]

Plenty of uproar on Social Media with people saying that England have been robbed by DLS. Their point being that it was unfair to England as they only needed 53 off 33 and that was very getable with two power hitters in.

Although I am sure there is an argument to be had with the way the DLS is calculated in T20, I find it difficult to find one. For me, it really went down to on field situation awareness.

Some will always whinge about DLS when the result goes the other way...in truth it is very much a second best way to find a result - but it saves a lot of draws

But I really don't think England could feel too hard done by in this case : sure , if Moeen and Livingstone stayed in they'd probably have got the runs - but with five supposed top bats gone for under a hundred , quite possible another wicket or two would have fallen and Ireland would have triumphed anyway. Unlucky not to have had the chance perhaps ; but given the ever present likelihood of rain they really should have been pushing to get over the par score earlier .
That would have entailed risk , sure. But that's one of the reasons teams choose to field first when rain is about , no ? So if you elect to chase , you have to take on that risk or you are gambling with the weather ... never a safe course in this city , trust me !

[Pal Joey]

Plenty of uproar on Social Media with people saying that England have been robbed by DLS. Their point being that it was unfair to England as they only needed 53 off 33 and that was very getable with two power hitters in.

Not wearing snorkels and running between wickets wearing flippers it isn't.

[eirebilly_01]

Looks like the New Zealand game will be called off fully...

[JDizzle]

.

[Duty281]

Just caught up with the game, very well done to Ireland. Woakes bowled atrociously and I wonder if that might be it for him at this tournament? Otherwise, England bowled capably and it was just a good innings from Balbirnie and the odd hit lower down the order that got Ireland to a solid total.

England still haven't figured out this tournament or how to play in Australia. I think it's because some of them are trying to translate Big Bash cricket to this tournament, but this World Cup is played earlier in the year and the conditions are different. There's two key points that England aren't grasping:

1) You bat first, not bowl first. It's easier to defend than to chase because the wickets slow up and the boundaries are big.
2) These are not English pitches in 2019. You can't just blast off the top and expect to be 50/0 after four overs every time. You have to graft for it and be prepared to be 25/30 after four overs, then start to play.  We've seen that through this tournament - Australia were 26 after four v Sri Lanka, India a bit less than that, same situation with Aus v NZ, Eng v Afg etc. You have to grind it out before scoring heavily in a chase.

If England don't grasp these points, they'll be on the way home. I didn't mind Malan's innings, if I'm perfectly honest, though it was a teensy bit slow. It seems pretty clear that, during an innings in this comp, one player will anchor and the one at the other end will be the attacker. The anchor should be going at least 6 an over, so maybe he was a bit behind, but he was doing his job as far as I could see.

No complaints about DLS for me. Yes, England may have gone on to win it with Moeen striking the way he was, but at the point the players went off England were behind in the match situation and that's all that matters. Ireland's bowling was highly accurate, the first time I've seen it so at this tournament. They got thrashed by Sri Lanka, which is a shame as otherwise they'd be top and dreaming of the semis!

Way too soon to say England should start packing for home. Remember the 2019 World Cup when England lost to Sri Lanka, and still went on to win the tournament? Plus, it looks as though that dreaded Melbourne rain has wiped out the Kiwi game, so New Zealand have dropped a point.

Presuming the game does get rained off, the group looks very tight. NZ on 3, four teams on 2, and Afghanistan on 1!

England v Australia will be a titanic game on Friday. It's become more important for England because of this loss. If England lose to Aus, it's difficult to see Aus slipping up again and England could well be out. But if Australia lose then England may well be defeated further down the road by NZ, meaning a tie on points. But let's just say it's must-win for England. The rain could win the battle, however, looking at the forecast.

[Duty281]

Yes, NZ rained off, so that'll be frustrating for them. They're top, but they don't have an iron grip on it.

Australia v England on Friday and Joel Wilson is umpiring. Use the reviews wisely, lads.

Three games tomorrow, all in Group 2. Bangladesh/South Africa, India/Netherlands, Pakistan/Zimbabwe. SA and India should be comfortable, most likely one to spring an upset is Zimbabwe. Some rain around for the first two games, but not much so a full conclusion should be reached in all.

[alfie]

NZ losing a point through no fault of their own...won't matter if they beat England though - assuming they aren't on the Irish hit list

Group of Death gets messier with washouts. So we can't make any clear predictions . But it is looking as if Australia v England will almost certainly kill one of those teams on Friday.

Not expecting any upsets in the other group tomorrow . Which is probably famous last words...

[Pal Joey]

We should get the two games in tomorrow. There's only a 50% chance of some light rain (only a few mm) mid afternoon which might affect the start of the Bangladesh-South Africa match but for the 2nd match (India-Netherlands) in the evening it should be fine.

We had our first proper 'summer-like' day today even though it's mid-spring. Nice and sunny and it's heating up too. Saturday should be a near picture perfect clear day for the NZ-SL match.

The mornings are pretty clear and sunny with some cloud building up in the afternoons but I noticed (yesterday) a solitary dark cloud which was accompanied by about 10 minutes of some localised thunder and a squally rain burst... which then quickly disappeared.

It seemed a lot different to the constantly rain-laden clouds (and solid downpours) we've been experiencing for most of the year - or even the last couple of years which have been excessively wet.

It has been ridiculous here. Over 2394 mm of rainfall since Jan 1 when the average is 1215 mm. Smashed the 1950 and 1860 rainfall records.

Howzat!

[KP_fan]

Rossouw is MUSCULAR....just muscling the ball out of the park
If he gets a 60odd......SA will get to 200

[eirebilly_01]

Well now South Africa and especially Rossouw, that was some effort and they are looking very powerful in the batting.

They still have that issue with Bavuma who seems in worse form than even Finch...

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