An account of today’s match between Afghanistan and Sri Lanka at the 2023 ODI Cricket World Cup, and a large photo gallery.
Today’s match at the 2023 ODI Cricket World Cup was between Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. The winners would keep alive their hopes of claiming a slot in the semi-finals. This post looks back at the match.
THE PRELIMINARIES
Afghanistan won the toss and elected to bowl. Their skipper, Hashmatullah Shahidi, expressed very positive reasons for doing so – no “don’t really know why we are bowling first” from him! They made one change from their previous outing, left arm pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi replacing left arm wrist spinner Noor Ahmad in the line up. Sri Lanka brought Dimuth Karunaratne into their XI in place of Kusal Perera.
THE SRI LANKAN INNINGS
Afghanistan bowled well, especially Fazalhaq Farooqi, who recorded the outstanding figures of 4-34 from his 10 overs. Seam bowling all rounder Azmatullah Omarzai had 1-37 from seven overs of right arm medium-fast, Rashid Khan claimed a scalp in his 1o0th ODI appearance, a career landmark reached at the age of 25. From a Sri Lankan perspective it was a tale of jobs being half done – six batters scored at least 22, but no one managed more than 46. The result was a final total of 241 from 49.3 overs, modest, but not necessarily indefensible – both yesterday and the day before totals of 229 had proved well beyond the chasing sides.
THE AFGHANISTAN INNINGS
Rahmanullah Gurbaz was out for a duck, but Ibrahim Zadran and Rahmat Shah put on 73 for the second wicket, and then Ibrahim Zadran and Hashmatullah Shahidi added a further 58 for the third. At 131-3, with Zadran just out for 62, Sri Lanka still had hopes, but Azmatullah Omarzai soon extinguished those. The fourth wicket pair were still together, entirely unruffled, when the scores drew level. Azmatullah Omarzai was almost caught in the deep at that point, but the chance went down, and the batters took the winning single with 4.4 overs to spare. Azmatullah Omarzai had scored 73* (63) and Hashmatullah Shahidi 58* (74), and their unbroken stand was worth 111. Somewhat unfortunately for Omarzai, who had an outstanding match, the Player of the Match award went to Fazalhaq Farooqi for a great display of left arm pace bowling. This was Afghanistan’s third win of the tournament, and the third time they had beaten a former winner of the competition (Pakistan 1992, England 2019, Sri Lanka 1996). It keeps their hopes of a semi-final slot alive, and if they get that far it becomes a straight shoot out, with them needing two victories for the title. A win for them were it to happen (and I am not counting them out) would be a far more extraordinary story than Sri Lanka’s in 1996 was, and that result itself shocked a lot of pundits at the time. Every team has now played six matches, and the league table looks like this:
I published the table as it stood at the end of yesterday to shame England, who approached this tournament with arrogance and disrespect and are being punished for their hubris. I publish today’s version to give credit to Afghanistan who have contributed magnificently to the event.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off (remember to view any image at a larger size click on it)…
The Mallard in its new home on my living room mantelpiece.The Caledonian Railway tank engine in its new hom atop the Cabinet of Curiosities.The first of two street names which related to cricketers. Each street could be associated with at least two professional cricketers. Can you identify all four (answers in next blog post).The other street sign.Flowering Ivy is massively important in the autumn. Four pics.Possibly the last bee of the year (two pics)
A look back at today’s world cup match between England and India, a day of shame for the England cricket team, that saw them become the first team officially eliminated from the ODI world cup of 2023. Also a photo gallery.
Today at the cricket world cup saw hosts India take on England. When the schedule was devised this would have been envisaged as one of the marquee games of the tournament, pitting hosts against defending champions. Unfortunately by the time the day rolled around it looked more like a routine minnow bashing, with the hosts unbeaten and England in a complete and utter mess. This post looks at how the match panned out.
THE PRELIMINARIES
At 8:00AM today UK time (UK clocks went back one hour last night in preparation for winter – from BST to GMT) the toss took place. Jos Buttler won it and put India in to bat, when batting first looked obviously preferable. For all India’s tremendous successes chasing (unlike Buttler’s England they really are a great chasing side) Rohit Sharma confirmed that he would have chosen to bat had he won the toss. England were unchanged, more out of a desire to look like they weren’t in a state of blind panic (though we could all see that they were) than out of any confidence in the XI. India, much more justifiably, were also unchanged – I don’t see any further changes for them until Hardik Pandya is fit again. The issue with their current XI, missing Pandya’s all round skills as it is is that if you can get through the phalanx of six top line batters plus Jadeja’s all round skills they do have a very long tail.
THE INDIAN INNINGS
England bowled pretty well for once, and for much of the Indian innings it looked like two matches were happening at the same time – at one end Rohit Sharma handled all the England bowlers with complete authority, never really looking in any trouble, while at the other everyone looked vulnerable. The most surprising failure was Virat Kohli, who succumbed to frustration after eight scoreless deliveries, holing out going for big hit off his ninth ball – it was Kohli’s first ever duck in a world cup, be it ODI or T20I. First was Shubman Gill, playing a loose drive. Shreyas Iyer’s dismissal showed that he remains vulnerable against the short ball. KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma shared a decent stand for the fourth wicket, though Rahul’s dismissal will probably give him recurring nightmares – it was an awful piece of batting. Suryakumar Yadav was Rohit Sharma’s next partner, and at one stage it looked like they might get India to a genuinely threatening total. Sharma finally succumbed for a masterly 87, and when Jadeja failed with the bat it was down to Yadav to shepherd the tail. He eventually managed 49, and a few good blows from Bumrah at the end got India to 229, a modest looking total, but exactly the same as that defended by the Netherlands yesterday, and on a pitch which had a bit of mischief in it.
THE ENGLAND INNINGS
England started well, and reached 30 without undue difficulty. Then Malan got himself out with a really poor shot, Root was out first ball, Stokes made a ten ball duck, playing not a single one of those ten deliveries remotely well and Bairstow dragged one into his own stumps, and suddenly it was 39-4. When Kuldeep Yadav produced a beauty to bowl Buttler (a rare wicket on the day that was purely down to good bowling) it was 52-5. Moeen Ali and Liam Livingstone offered some resistance, but once their stand was broken the writing was firmly on the wall. England eventually clawed their way up to a beggarly 129 all out, meaning that the final margin was exactly 100 runs. India, with six wins out of six so far, are definitely in the semi-finals, and England, in last place with two points out of a possible 12 and an appalling net run rate, are eliminated. England’s preparation for this tournament varied between the non-existent and the slip-shod, and they have paid the price. There will need to be wholesale changes – a whole raft of players are now past their sell by dates, Buttler is a truly abysmal captain, and just like in 2015, again following an atrocious world cup campaign, a full rebuild is the only way for England.
PHOTOGRAPHS
As autumn deepens opportunities for photographs are becoming a little harder to find…
A poster sized version of this should be displayed prominently at ECB HQ to remind them of just what has become of a once great side in four short years.
An account of an astonishing day at the 2023 ODI Cricket World Cup, one good both for the tournament and for the sport as a whole, though not good for England. Also a photo gallery.
Today saw two matches at the ODI Cricket World Cup, both of which in their own ways were excellent news for the tournament and for the sport as a whole. These are described in today’s post. Yesterday’s game between Pakistan and South Africa turned into an absolute nail biter, South Africa sneaking home by one wicket, and then came today’s events.
THE TRANS-TASMAN DERBY
Australia got away to an absolute flyer, with the scoring rate almost 12 an over for the first ten overs. However once David Warner and Travis Head were out in quick succession the innings lost momentum for a period. In the end it took a late flurry by Pat Cummins to boost the final total to 388-7. New Zealand also started fast with the bat, and were never wholly out of contention at any stage of the chase. In the end 19 were needed off the final over, and Mitchell Starc, who had a shocking match, had to bowl it. When Jimmy Neesham was run out coming back for a desperate second on the penultimate ball it meant that injured number 11 Lockie Ferguson had to attempt to score six off the one remaining delivery to pull off an epic chase. In the event the delivery was a dot ball and Australia had won by five runs. The aggregate of 771 was a new record for any World Cup match, beating the 754 between South Africa and Sri Lanka (428 plays 326) earlier in this tournament.
BANGLADESH v NETHERLANDS
The Netherlands batted first and managed to tally 229, being out to the last ball of their 50 overs. It was then that the fun started. In spite of the fact that conditions at Eden Gardens, Kolkata are rather closer to those experienced by Bangladesh on a regular basis than those best known to the Dutch it was the latter who made better use of them. Bangladesh were soon 63-4, then 69-5, then 74-6. A seventh wicket stand of 34 offered temporary reprieve. When the vastly experienced Mahmudullah was eighth out for 20, leaving numbers 9,10 and 11 in the order to score in excess of 100 at over six an over the writing was firmly on the wall, and although the tail enders showed rather more grit than most of their supposed betters with the bat the final margin was 87 runs, a second victory of the tournament for the Netherlands, and a result which condemned England, whose next outing is against hosts India tomorrow, to bottom place in the table, behind Bangladesh on net run rate. The single most damning aspect of a dismal performance by a team who have had test status for over 20 years and signally failed to make full use of being at cricket’s top table was the fact that even in the spin bowling department, always their greatest strength, Bangladesh were outdone by their opponents. Aryan Dutt for the Netherlands was allowed to record figures of 1-26 from his ten overs, while second spinner Colin Ackermann, primarily a batter, emerged with 7-1-25-1. The Dutch are to be congratulated, and I for one will be far from surprised should they add to their two wins in what is left of the group stage.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
These four pictures show a rather unusual choice of resting place for a cormorant. This tree overlooks a pond, but the bird is way above water level.
A look at developments in today’s world cup match between Pakistan and South Africa, a brief mention of this week’s auctions, and a photo gallery.
This post looks at developments in today’s match at the ODI cricket world, between Pakistan and South Africa. I was at work yesterday, which gives me the perfect excuse to draw a veil over England’s “effort” against Sri Lanka – all my knowledge of what happened in that match is second hand.
THE PRELIMINARIES
Pakistan were coming off a defeat at the hands of Afghanistan, while South Africa have been hugely impressive so far. Both sides made changes to the line up. Pakistan won the toss, and managed to get the next part right – they decided to bat first.
THE PAKISTAN INNINGS
Pakistan did not fare well at first, and when Babar Azam was out for 50 (65), his third such innings of the tournament, they were 141-5. However a good partnership between Saud Shakeel and Shadab Khan helped them to reach a final total of 270. Tabraiz Shamsi claimed four wickets with his left arm wrist spin and Marco Jansen three with his left arm pace. Pakistan’s total, while not great by modern ODI standards, looked enough to be defensible if they bowled well.
SOUTH AFRICA’S RESPONSE
South Africa have made a rapid start to their reply, but have also lost two wickets. The score at the moment is 110-2 after 16 overs, a position from which South Africa should prevail easily enough. However, Pakistan are notoriously unpredictable – it would be very like them to suddenly find form from nowhere and win this one.
AUCTION NEWS
This week has been auction week for James and Sons. It has been a little bit chequered – the Militaria auction which should have been on Tuesday had to be postponed until today due to internet problems, while the Railwayana auction on Wednesday was very successful, though it did take a long time to get through. I managed to discipline myself to placing advance bids on two lots and opportunistically snapping up a third when it would have gone very cheap indeed otherwise. Here are the pictures I have taken of them since getting them home, save for one composite pic which serves as the feature image of this post.
The appositeness of this picture become apparent when you see……the first item I won, lot 640, a model of The Mallard, the locomotive the broke the speed record set by Flying Scotsman.On display.The one that I had not bid on in advance. I can imagine several Scottish lines over which this little engine could have run.
A look back at today’s ODI World Cup match between Australia and the Netherlands and a large photo gallery.
Today’s match in the ODI World Cup featured Yellow (gold) against Orange – Australia against the Netherlands. This post is mainly devoted to that match. I did not get to follow anything of yesterday’s match due to work commitments. When I posted on Monday Afghanistan were going well in pursuit of 283 to beat Pakistan. They kept up their good start and won by eight wickets.
THE AUSTRALIAN INNINGS
Pat Cummins won the toss, and decided that Australia would bat first. Although Mitchell Marsh fell early, Australia as a whole batted very well, and an amazing innings from Glenn Maxwell late on, which saw reach three figures off just 40 balls boosted the Australian total to 399 from their 50 overs. Bas de Leede earned an unfortunate place in the record books – his ten overs went for 115, the most ever conceded in a 10 over allocation in an ODI. This record has previously been jointly held by two Australians, Mick Lewis (Johannesburg 2006) and Adam Zampa, who was playing for Australia today, each of whom went for 113 from 10 overs in an ODI innings.
THE NETHERLANDS RESPONSE
The Netherlands crumbled in the face of an all but impossible challenge. At no stage did they look capable of even offering serious resistance, and they ultimately sank to 90 all out and defeat by 309 runs. Adam Zampa took four late wickets for just eight runs.
A look at developments in the world cup since England disgraced themselves on Saturday. A decent match between India and new Zealand yesterday, and today’s match between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Also a photo gallery.
This post looks at what has happened in the 2023 ODI World Cup since England’s humiliation on Saturday.
INDIA v NEW ZEALAND
This was a match between the only two teams to still be unbeaten. I missed a lot of it because I had to go through the annual torture known as a check for signs of Glaucoma (there is family history which makes this a necessity), and that knocked out most of the morning, since the appointment was at 10AM. I also had a commitment in the afternoon which took out a chunk of play – the West Norfolk Autism Group had a bowling session booked at Strikes for 4:00.
India won the toss and put New Zealand in. With ten overs to go a total of 300 looked on the cards for NZ, but some excellent Indian death bowling restricted them to 273. I only witnessed the start and end of the Indian innings. They eventually won by four wickets with two overs to spare, Kohli scoring 96 and getting out just before the end.
AFGHANISTAN V PAKISTAN
Pakistan won the toss and quite correctly chose to bat first. Afghanistan’s spinners bowled well, but a late flurry from Ifitkhar Ahmed and Shadab Khan, and a bizarre decision to trust the very ordinary medium pacer Azmatullah Omarzai over Mujeeb Ur Rahman at the death allowed Pakistan to get to 283, a formidable total on a slow surface. The Afghanistan is just underway, and I will be missing a lot of it, but the key will be Rahmanullah Gurbaz – to get anywhere close Afghanistan will need him to produce a major innings. So far all is progressing nicely for them – 25-0 in the fourth over.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Yesterday was sunny, and the walk back from my appointment (this location is borderline in terms of distance from my home, so I usually get the bus there and walk back, as I did yesterday) gave the photo gallery a welcome boost…
The pictures from the walk back from my appointment start here.And end here.This is the time when being an early riser and having an east facing front window enables one to capture the dawn (three pics)
A look back at today’s events at the cricket world cup including England’s shameful capitulation to South Africa which leaves their hopes of progressing beyond the group stage in tatters and a photo gallery.
This post looks at happenings in today’s two matches at the 2023 ODI Cricket World Cup. England came into the day with an opportunity to go third in the group if they recorded a big win over South Africa. As you will see things panned out somewhat differently from that scenario.
HORS D’OEUVRE – NETHERLANDS V SRI LANKA
At 6AM UK time the minor match of today’s double header got under way. The Netherlands won the toss, and mindful of how they had managed to beat South Africa in their previous match correctly chose to bat first. They managed to make 262, after being 91-6 at one point. There were moments when it looked possible that they were going to win a second in a row, but in the end Sri Lanka got home at the end of the 48th over.
THE MAIN COURSE – ENGLAND V SOUTH AFRICA
Some sports fans had dubbed today ‘super Saffaday’ because it is Saturday and it featured two big matches between teams representing England and South Africa, in the cricket world cup and in a semi-final of the rugby world cup. The former was reckoned to offer the better chance of a good result for England.
Chris Woakes and Sam Curran, who have proven valueless in this tournament, were quite rightly dropped, Gus Atkinson and David Willey taking their places. More debatably Ben Stokes replaced Liam Livingstone, which with the Durham man not able to bowl meant that England’s sixth bowler and second spinner would be Joe Root. For South Africa Temba Bavuma was ruled out by illness, and Reeza Hendricks was named as his replacement as player, while Aiden Markram took over the captaincy.
Jos Buttler won the toss and promptly had a brainstorm. Here are the salient points:
The side that bowled first would have to cope with the blistering afternoon heat of Mumbai.
England ideally needed to get the full ten overs out of all five of their front line bowlers.
South Africa had recorded two big victories batting first and lost the only game in which they had batted second.
England had lost their last game, to Afghanistan, after choosing to bowl first.
A fistful of teams had already opted to chase and had that decision blow up in their faces.
In the face of this compelling evidence that batting first and getting a score on the board was imperative Joseph Charles Buttler, in a decision that could serve as an example of Einstein’s famous definition of insanity, “doing the same thing and expecting a different result”, with one extra dimension of South Africa being unquestionably a stronger side than Afghanistan, opted to bowl in the broiling heat.
There was further bad news for England when Adil Rashid did not initially take the field. It turned that he had an upset stomach, though he did take his place on the field and bowl his full allocation. Quinton de Kock fell to the second ball of the match, having hit the first for four. Reeza Hendricks and Rassie van der Dussen then settled into a good partnership. Reece Topley suffered an injury to his bowling hand after bowling 3.5 overs and had to leave the field for repairs. Joe Root bowled the remaining ball of the incomplete over. All of England’s bowlers struggled badly, and a huge total looked on the cards. England hauled things back a little between overs 30 and 40, with South Africa being 256-5 at the latter point. The last ten overs were pure carnage, with Heinrich Klaasen and Marco Jansen both going on the rampage. Even with the 50th over only going for five runs South Africa had posted a total of 399, the largest England have ever conceded in an ODI, meaning that the last 10 overs had been plunder for no fewer than 143 runs.
England batted very nearly as dreadfully as they had bowled and Buttler had captained, being 24-3, then 68-6, then 100-8. Mark Wood and Gus Atkinson then handed South Africa back a little of the rough treatment that England’s bowlers had endured, putting on 70 together, which with Topley unable to bat was just enough to save England for the moment from being bottom of the group – England are one of a group of teams with two points, and their net run rate is -1.248, a mere 0.002 better than that of Afghanistan. It says everything worth saying about the efforts of England’s genuine batters that Wood with 43* and Atkinson with 35 were the only two members of the side to top 20, and that while they scored a combined 78 at 78.00 the other eight who batted plus extras scoring 92 at 11.50. The scorecard can be viewed here.
Where do England go from here? Well, they keep Buttler and Mott in post until England’s elimination is mathematically confirmed just to ensure that neither captain nor coach can find a way to wriggle out of blame for this debacle of a world cup tournament, the worst by an England team in the 21st century (both 1999 on home soil and 1996 in the subcontinent bear comparison with this showing). When the elimination confirmed Buttler should be sacked as skipper and a caretaker skipper appointed for the remaining group games. Once hands have been shaken after England’s last group game is complete Mott should be handed his P45 (if he offers his resignation it should be refused IMO – he should not be allowed to say he left of his own volition) as the first step in what needs to be a complete overhaul of England’s 50 over setup.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Inclement weather has limited opportunities for hobby photography, though I have some good pics. I am therefore including a few more model locomotive pics to start my gallery…
A look at developments in today’s cricket world cup match between Australia and Pakistan, a heads up about auctions taking place next week and a photo gallery.
Today’s world cup match features Australia and Pakistan and is taking place in Bengaluru. The first part of this post looks at developments in this match.
THE AUSTRALIA INNINGS
Pakistan won the toss and opted to bowl first. Australia got away to a flying start, helped by Usama Mir dropping an easy chance to be rid of Warner early on. The opening stand yielded 259, and they came quickly, with a total of 400+ looking more likely than not at that stage. However, as wickets began to tumble the scoring rate declined, and in the end Australia had recorded 367-9 from their 50 overs. Warner had scored 163 and his opening partner Mitchell Marsh 121, while the standout bowler was Shaheen Shah Afridi with 5-51 from his 10 overs. Haris Rauf took three wickets, but that was only after taking a blasting early on – his first five overs went for 70.
THE PAKISTAN REPLY
Pakistan needed a fast start with the bat to stay in the hunt and they got one. Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq each topped 50 but got out before going really big. This was the first occasion in world cup history that all four opening batters had scored 50+. Babar Azam fell to an excellent catch by Pat Cummins for 18, but Mohammad Rizwan and Saud Shakeel are going well and have got Pakistan to 203-3 in the 31st over, keeping them in the contest. Scoring has been brisk because the pitch is very flat, the outfield is lightning fast and the ground is significantly above sea level.
TWO-DAY AUCTION
Next week James and Sons have a two-day auction. Day 1 (Tuesday) features mainly militaria, while day two features over 600 collectable railway models. The full catalogue can be viewed here or here. The models start with lot 501, which is on page six of the-saleroom’s listing (first link) and page nine of easyliveauction’s listing. Here are a few sample images:
Lot 610 (five images)Lot 616 (six images).Lot 617 (eight images)
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
three goldfinches perching on an aerial.This picture and the next show military planes which flew over King’s Lynn while I was waiting for my bus into Fakenham yesterday.These last few pictures were taken today – not an ideal day for photography).
While I have been preparing this for publication Pakistan have lost one wicket but have also moved on to 263 in the 38th over. 105 off 12.3 overs is not particularly daunting by modern standards.
A look at recent developments in the 2023 ODI Cricket World Cup, including two spectacular upsets – Afghanistan beating England and The Netherlands downing South Africa. Also two photo galleries.
There have been many developments in the tournament since my last blog post. This post looks at these developments.
AFGHANISTAN BEAT ENGLAND
In Sunday’s post I was anticipating a historic win for Afghanistan over England. That win duly materialised, with the final margin being 69 runs in Afghanistan’s favour – 284 vs 215. Afghanistan thoroughly deserved their win, and I was delighted that the Player of the Match award went to Mujeeb Ur Rahman for a very rapid 28 which gave the Afghanistan total a late boost and three good wickets, rather than Rahmanullah Gurbaz’s 80 securing him the award which is what I had feared. This was obviously a great occasion for Afghanistan, but it was also a great occasion for the tournament as a whole – going into this match there had not been an upset of any sort, and this was a seismic one.
PHOTO GALLERY ONE
Having paid tribute to Afghanistan I break the post up a bit with this…
SRI LANKA V AUSTRALIA
Both of these teams had started with back to back losses, which meant that one of them would end the game firmly ensconced in the last chance saloon, almost certainly needing to win all six of their remaining games to qualify, while the other would still be in considerable jeopardy but would have some leeway. In the event Sri Lanka were never in the hunt, and Australia recorded a very comfortable win.
A SECOND UPSET
I was at work yesterday, so missed most of the match between The Netherlands and South Africa. The match was reduced by rain to 43 overs a side, and by the time I got back the Netherlands had amassed 245 from their allocation and had South Africa in considerable trouble at 133-6, needing 113 from 13 overs. The one hope for South Africa was that David ‘Killer’ Miller was still there. When he was out with the score at 147 the only remaining question was what the margin would be when the Dutch completed a victory that would be an even more king sized upset than Afghanistan’s over England. In the event, while never making anything approaching a serious assault on the target the South African tail provided stern resistance, with Keshav Maharaj leading a charmed life to score the luckiest 40 anyone could ever witness, and the final margin was 38 runs, which decidedly flattered the proteas. There was an added piquancy for a number of members of the Dutch XI – they had been born in South Africa and moved to their ancestral homeland after not making the grade in the land of their birth. They would have been even more overjoyed than their team mates to have bloodied South Africa’s nose in this manner.
AFGHANISTAN v NEW ZEALAND SO FAR
Afghanistan are back in action today, against New Zealand. In spite of the fact that their great win over England had come by means of batting first, posting a total and defending it they made a very questionable decision to field first when they won the toss today, possibly allowing worries over evening dew to influence the decision. They didn’t bowl all that badly, but their fielding would have shamed the Rain Men – five catches went down, none of them hugely difficult and at least two downright easy. New Zealand ended their 50 overs with 288-6 from their 50 overs, which was a lot more than they should have got. Afghanistan lost both openers cheaply, and nothing else that has happened in the opening ten overs of their innings, which have just ended (with three straight maidens) with their score 28-2, needing 261 off the last 40 at 6.525 per over. Rahmat Shah has just scored his first runs, a two and a one, from his ninth and tenth balls, while Hashmatullah Shahidi is on 1 off 17 balls.
A look at developments in a match that is now likely to end in the first upset of this world cup, and it will be a colossal upset at that – defending champions England are under the cosh against Afghanistan who have only won one previous world cup match. Also features a photo gallery.
The 2023 ODI Cricket World Cup hasn’t yet seen an upset – a minor nation taking down a major one. Today’s match features defending champions England and Afghanistan, who come into it with one win from 17 previous world cup matches. This post looks at developments in that game so far.
A TALE OF TWO BOWLING STYLES
Jos Buttler won the toss and put Afghanistan into bat. The first ominous sign was his revelation after the toss that he didn’t know why he had chosen to bowl first. Afghanistan got away to a rapid start as England’s seamers indicated that they had little idea of what they should be doing on that surface. By the end of the 10th over Afghanistan were 79-0. Afghanistan slowed thereafter, and lost three quick wickets when Ibrahim Zadran fell for 28 (out of an opening stand of 114, with Rahmanullah Gurbaz playing brilliantly and England contributing quite a few extras). Rahmat Shah was out cheaply, and then Hashmatullah Shahidi caused the downfall of Gurbaz for a splendid 80 when he took on a single that was never there and Gurbaz, even with a desperate dive at the end, was a good two yards short of his ground. Hashmatullah also scored very slowly in his own innings. Fortunately Ikram Alikhil played a fine innings, and Mujeeb Ur Rahman played an aggressive cameo late on. Afghanistan were all out to the second last scheduled ball of their innings for 284, a new highest ever world cup innings for them. The seamers bowled 25.5 overs and had combined figures of 3-189, while the spinners sent down 24 overs (Livingstone, who had never previously bowled a full allocation in an ODI innings, 10-0-33-1, Rashid 10-1-42-3 and Root, called on in desperation because the seamers, particularly Curran and Woakes, were so dire, 4-0-19-1) for a combined 5-94, while there were two run outs, one of them the tenth wicket. It was ominous that England’s spinners had done so well, since two of them, Livingstone and Root, are primarily batters, while Afghanistan had the talents of Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and the veteran Mohammad Nabi available to them.
AFGHANISTAN IN CONTROL WITH THE BALL
Bairstow fell early to Fazalhaq Farooqi, and Root was also out cheaply, bowled by Mujeeb Ur Rahman, who shared the new ball. Dawid Malan’s dismissal for 32 was really odd – he played the ball straight into a fielder’s hand. Naveen ul Haq got through the defences of Buttler to make it 96-4, and 21 runs later came a farcical situation. Livingstone was hit on the pads by Rashid Khan, absolutely plumb in front, and duly given out. He sent it upstairs, knowing that unless it was overturned it was virtually game over for England. When he saw the replay on the big screen he started walking even before they got to using the ball tracking software, so blatantly stone dead was it. That made it 117-5. England have moved on to 128-5, but Sam Curran, the number seven, has barely been any less unimpressive with the bat than he was the ball (given his figures of 4-0-46-0 it would be hard to be more so).
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off, including what may be the last butterflies of 2023 (today, like yesterday, has been sunny but cooler than the early part of October):
A small amount of rain fell with the sun still shining yesterday evening, and the next five pictures show one result.
While I have been preparing this post for publication Sam Curran’s miserable participation in this match (4-0-46-0 and 10 off 23 balls) has come to an end. England are 145-6 in the 31st over, needing 140 runs off 118 balls.
aspiblog 