Friday 14 June 2019

Match Nineteen

West Indies are the only team to have held England in an ODI series since... India beat us in the sub continent?  Anyway they should be considered a threat.

An early start on a drying wicket, England won the toss and the only decision is field first.  Once again I couldn't follow the cricket live but I did manage to do so via Cricinfo.  From what I could gather England were in control from the start with our pace bowlers holding sway.  The pure pace of Archer and Wood took the headlines but everyone contributed including a bonus two wickets to Joe Root.  At a high point of 144/3 West Indies subsided to 212 all out, their tail couldn't cope with England's two 90mph bowlers.

The only downside was injuries to two of our star batsmen, Roy and Morgan limped off the filed meaning a rejigged batting line up, Root opened with Bairstow and the two put on 95 before Bairstow was first out.  Enter England's number three, er Chris Woakes?  Really?  The boy done good making 40 from 54 balls, falling with only a handful left.  Root completed his second century of the tournament and Stokes hit the winning runs with nearly seventeen overs to spare.

So another good win and the defeat against Pakistan is forgotten, England are looking good.  The injuries are scary though and we have to hope they are not too bad.  Unfortunately Alex Hales is not in the squad for, er off the field misdemeanors, if he was he'd just slot straight in.  James Vince now has his chance to be a hero.

Elsewhere in the tournament we've only had one result over the last few days with Australia beating Pakistan. The weather has been horrendous with monsoon conditions across the country causing three abandoned games meaning India, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, South Africa and West Indies all picked up one point each.  The top four currently consists of New Zealand, England, Australia and India but there's plenty of time for change.

In 1992 India scored wins over Pakistan and Zimbabwe, South Africa thrashed West Indies which would have caused serious consternation in the Caribbean and best of all England thrashed Australia by eight wickets at the SCG in a match I attended.  None other than Ian Botham took 4-31 and hit a half century against the Aussies.  Maybe one day I'll write about this day which is one of the most memorable of my life but at the moment I don't have time to do it justice.  A few days later Australia did manage to win a game against Sri Lanka. At this stage of the tournament the top four consisted of  New Zealand, England, India and Sri Lanka.  It's worth noting that this four does not include two of the eventual semi finalists or the winner.

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