Category: Cricket

Afghanistan Out

A look at developments in the cricket world cup, with a special focus on today’s match between Afghanistan and South Africa – a valedictory on Mohammad Nabi and an acknowledgement of a new star in cricket’s firmament, Azmatullah Omarzai. Also a prize winning photograph and one of my regular galleries.

The 2023 ODI Cricket World Cup is approaching its conclusion, with the final round of group fixtures being played. I did not witness a single ball of either Tuesday’s or Thursday’s games because of work commitments, and England’s performance on Wednesday while impressive in isolation merely applied an unwarranted late gloss to what has been an appalling tournament for them. Today’s match was between Afghanistan and South Africa. South Africa are already qualified for the semi-finals, where their opponents will be Australia. Afghanistan had the slenderest of chances of taking the fourth slot going into today (slenderer by far than the threads holding the mythical sword above Damocles).

THE AFGHANISTAN INNINGS

To overhaul current fourth placers New Zealand on net RR Afghanistan needed a record breaking win – they would have to bat first, and would need win by at least 438 runs. They won the toss and chose to bat (no one in their right minds puts this South Africa side into bat even if it is not absolutely mandated by the group situation, do they Jos?). Unfortunately, this was not a pitch for heavy scoring, and it was soon apparent that Afghanistan were not going to score enough to give themselves any chance of qualifying. In the end the main question as their innings headed to towards the end of the scheduled 50 overs was as to whether Azmatullah Omarzai, of whom more later, would manage to complete a century. When he found himself facing the bowling, on 97 not out with three balls to come it looked on, but it was not to be. He failed to score off any of the three deliveries, and the number 11 was run out of the final ball of the innings. Afghanistan had scored 244 from 50 overs, with Gerald Coetzee, a fiery and talented young fast bowler, taking 4-44, and Keshav Maharaj achieving a notably economical analysis with 2-25 from his full 10 overs of left arm spin.

THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPLY

There were times in the innings when it looked like Afghanistan might be signing off with a victory – South Africa never got right away from them. Rashid Khan had 2-37 from 10 overs of leg spin, the veteran Mohammad Nabi topped him with 2-35 from 10 overs of off spin in what may well be the last world cup innings in which he features as a player. Nabi has an extraordinary playing history, having been part of the Afghanistan men’s side for their entire history as a cricketing nation, and having played his part in victories over no fewer than 43 different opposing countries. The least impressive of Afghanistan’s four front line spinners was Mujeeb Ur Rahman, with 1-51 from his 10 overs. He seems to feel an obligation to showcase his variations by bowling six different types of delivery per over, a strategy that in T20s can work very well, but in longer formats he would be better served by bowling his stock ball four or five times in an over and slipping in the variations every so often as a surprise. Andile Phehlukwayo eventually finished things in the 48th over when he hit left arm seamer Naveen-ul-Haq for 6,4,6 in successive balls to get his side over the line. Afghanistan are thus sixth in the group, which is the lowest they can finish. Tomorrow sees Pakistan in action against England. If Pakistan can conjure a win by 287 or more runs they will pip New Zealand to the final qualifying slot, while if they suffer a heavy defeat in going for the huge win they need they might drop below Afghanistan in the standings. The scorecard of today’s match is available here.

Azmatullah Omarzai

The young Afghan all rounder (RHB, RMF) has had an excellent tournament, and I regretted that he missed out on his century today, though of course that particular tally only has significance because we use base 10. I am sufficiently convinced by what he has done this tournament that although I usually base my judgements for such things on long form cricket I am prepared to change my all time Os XI – he displaces Irish seam bowling all rounder of yesteryear Alec O’Riordan from the number six slot in that XI. He has been one of the finds of this tournament as an individual, just as teams wise his team have been THE find of the tournament.

PHOTOGRAPHS

The results of the West Norfolk Autism Group autumn photography competition are in, and I won a £10 Amazon gift voucher for this picture:

When I took this picture on October 10th this autumnal leaf on which you can see both a snail with a very dark shell and much lighter coloured slug was still attached to it’s branch, though clearly almost ready to fall. I got a second picture out of this shot, focussing more closely on the snail.

Now for my usual sign off – some photographs from the last few days (to view any of these at a larger size just click on them)…

Some pictures from Wednesday evening when WNAG had an adult’s meal at Knight’s Hill.
My parents are currently away travelling, and this postcard from Australia arrived yesterday.
This, the feature image for this post, and the one from which the next four pictures after this one were extracted may be the last hurrah of 2023 insects wise.

A Historic Day at the World Cup

A look back at today’s world cup match between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, which featured a classic century from Charith Asalanka, 90 from Najmul Hossain Shanto, a Player of the Match all round performance from Shakib Al-Hasan and a moment of cricket history – the first ‘Timed Out’ dismissal in any international match. Also a photo gallery.

Today’s match at the 2023 ODI World Cup was between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. A win for Bangladesh would mean that England stood alone as the sole team with as few as two points, while a win for Sri Lanka would effectively book their place in the 2025 Champions Trophy.

THE SRI LANKA INNINGS

Bangladesh won the toss and decided to bowl first. Sri Lanka’s fourth wicket fell at 135. Angelo Mathews came in at that point. One minute and 54 seconds after the fall of the fourth wicket Mathews put his helmet on and tried to tighten the strap, which promptly broke. Mathews then had a bit of a laugh and called for a replacement helmet. Shakib Al-Hasan, mindful of the laws of the game and the playing conditions in force for this tournament, appealed, and the umpires had no choice but to give Matthews ‘Timed Out’ for not being ready to face the ball within two minutes of the wicket falling. Mathews eventually left the crease, and as he crossed the boundary he petulantly flung down his bat and helmet.

The Laws of Cricket require that the new batter be ready to face within three minutes of the fall of a wicket, while this tournament has a playing condition in place tightening that to two minutes. The Sri Lankan numbers 3,4 and 5 had all been ready within about 100 seconds of the fall of the wicket. Mathews was testing the limits even before his helmet strap broke while he tried to tighten it. The umpires apparently checked twice with Shakib Al-Hasan as to whether he wished to withdraw the appeal, and he quite rightly refused to do so – Matthews was out fair and square.

It was the first time anyone had been given ‘Timed Out’ in any international fixture, though there are six official incidents from first class matches and from before ‘Timed Out’ was officially introduced there is the case of Harold Heygate for Sussex v Hampshire, who originally did not intend to bat since he was suffering from rheumatism, but at the crisis decided to attempt to go in, took too long to reach the middle and was denied his innings. A detailed analysis of the Mathews dismissal can be found here. For more on bizarre dismissals, here is a link to a post I created during the first Covid lockdown.

The rest of the Sri Lankan innings after Mathews’ zero ball duck was dominated by Charith Asalanka. The talented left hander scored a splendid 108, which enabled his side to reach 279 from 49.3 overs by the time their tenth wicket fell. Shakib Al-Hasan had 2-57 from his 10 overs of left arm spin, as well as playing his role in the historic Mathews wicket.

THE BANGLADESH REPLY

I missed a chunk of the Bangladesh innings due to having to visit my surgery. Bangladesh were firmly in control by the time I got home, and did not seriously look like losing at any stage, though they lost a few late wickets. Najmul Hossain Shanto scored 90 off 101 balls, and Shakib Al-Hasan 82 off 65 balls. Bangladesh won by three wickets with 8.5 overs to spare, a result which moved them above Sri Lanka in the table, and left England even more firmly nailed to the foot of the table than they already were. The Sri Lankan players refused to shake hands with their Bangladeshi counterparts at the end of the match. Shakib Al-Hasan’s all round contribution earned him the Player of the Match award.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Apologies for the background on this one – this bird was on the grassland in front of my house, and spoiling the background was the only way i could display its markings properly.

India Looking Dominant at ODI World Cup

A look back at the weekend’s action in the 2023 ODI World Cup – a somewhat fortunate two points for Pakistan, two rather more well earned points for Australia and an utterly dominant display by hosts India in today’s table topping clash with South Africa. Also a large photo gallery.

Since I last posed there have been three matches at the ODI Cricket World Cup: New Zealand v Pakistan, Australia v England and India v South Africa. This post looks at these matches and at the state of play in the tournament.

NEW ZEALAND v PAKISTAN

DLS SAVES PAKISTAN

Pakistan won the toss and elected to bowl first, a type of decision that has a terrible track record at this tournament. That did not look like changing when New Zealand were batting – at the end of the 29th over I tweeted that a total of 400 was on for the Kiwis, and 21 overs later when their innings had run its course they were 401-6. A combination of an amazing innings from Fakhar Zaman, solid support from Babar Azam and good reading of the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern situation by Pakistan saved them from a poor decision at the toss. With rain threatening Pakistan started to seriously increase their scoring rate from the end of the 15th over onward, and by the time of the first intervention, in the 21st over they were 10 runs ahead of where they needed to be according to DLS. When the second and final interruption came midway through the 26th over they had increased their advantage to 20, and emerged with the two points when the rest of the match was rained out. It was well judged by Pakistan to get themselves significantly ahead of where DLS said they needed to be – there have been some famous mishaps involving DLS calculations, such as Mark Boucher studiously blocking a ball with the rain already falling in the belief that his side were already ahead on DLS, when they actually needed a single off that ball to get ahead. At the same time I feel that the Kiwis were hard done by – I don’t think that had the match been allowed by the weather to go the distance that Pakistan would have pulled off this chase would have been over 50 runs more than the biggest successful full distance chase of the tournament so far.

AUSTRALIA v ENGLAND

ANOTHER “WE’RE GOING TO BOWL” DISASTER

At 8AM UK time yesterday Jos Buttler won the toss at this match, and moments later uttered what has become something of doom laden phrase at this tournament “we’re going to bowl”.

This was not actually by any means one of England’s worst efforts of the tournament, though that is more a reflection of how bad they have been than of how good they were on the day. However, even with the bowlers showing up and restricting Australia to 286 from their 50 overs, it was never terribly close, and the final margin of 33 runs flattered England rather than Australia.

INDIA v SOUTH AFRICA

TOTAL HOME DOMINANCE

India were playing a world cup match at Eden Gardens, Kolkata for the first time since 1996 (that game was a disgrace for India in two ways, first they were totally outplayed by Sri Lanka, and second it was called off early and awarded to Sri Lanka because with India over 100 adrift with just two wickets left the “fans” rioted rather than suffer the closing stages of a defeat). Today’s match was billed as a clash of the titans, featuring as it did the two best teams of the tournament to date. India won the toss and chose to bat first, virtually a mandatory decision when facing South Africa (just ask Jos Buttler and Tom Latham, both of whom made the wrong decision in this situation)…

Rohit Sharma played some beautiful strokes early on, while Shubman Gill hit four fours and a six on his way to 23, but also allowed 18 dot balls to be bowled to him. India scored 91 off the first 10 overs and a huge total looked on. However, South Africa looked to have fought back quite well when India finished on 326-5 from their 50 overs. Virat Kohli equalled Sachin Tenulkar’s career tally of 49 ODI hundreds, while Suryakumar Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja provided some late hitting.

South Africa started their reply badly and it never got any better. Ravindra Jadeja followed his batting cameo by claiming five wickets with his left arm spin, while everyone else also bowled well. South Africa scraped up a beggarly 83 in 27.1 overs, going down by 243 runs, the biggest margin of defeat South Africa have ever suffered in any ODI (some of the sides from South Africa’s first incarnation as a test nation between 1889 and 1971 took some absolute thumpings). India had batted well, but it was the bowling that was really notable in this performance. Usually batting sides try to find a bowler or bowlers they can target and see if they can force the bowling side into using minor bowlers, but when an attack features three top class pacers and two top class spinners all of whom are in good form this is rather difficult to do.

HOW THE TOURNAMENT IS SHAPING UP SO FAR

India are now looking extremely likely to win the tournament – their performance against South Africa today was simply awesome, and was the second successive time they had bowled an opposition team out for under 100 while defending, a detail which might make Sri Lanka feel a little less ashamed of their own capitulation a few days ago. South Africa are qualified for the semi-finals and are likely to hang on to second place, meaning that they are most likely to face Australia in the semi-finals. The fourth semi-final slot is up for grabs between Afghanistan, New Zealand and Pakistan (listed in alphabetical order for the avoidance of prejudice). Bangladesh, England, Netherlands and Sri Lanka are battling for the minor places, with 7th and 8th in the group gaining qualification for the 2025 Champions Trophy. Personally I reckon that England deserve to finish the tournament precisely where they currently are: stone last. That would force them to make the necessary wholesale changes.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Four goldfinches together is not the commonest sight.
A hare enjoying a comparatively pleasant November afternoon.

Afghanistan in the Hunt for Semi-final Slot

A look at today’s world cup match between Afghanistan and the Netherlands, and the affect that the result has on the battle for semi-final qualification. Also a very large photo gallery.

Today’s world cup match saw Afghanistan facing the Netherlands. This post looks back at that match and at the fight for a semi-final slot. I did not catch a single ball of yesterday’s game in which India obliterated Sri Lanka (another “we’ll have a bowl” disaster at this world cup – India put in to bat tallied 357 from their 50 overs and Sri Lanka sank to 55 all out in response).

THE PRELIMINARIES

Afghanistan opted to go with four front line spinners, relying on Fazalhaq Farooqi and Azmatullah Omarzai to bowl such seam as was required. The Netherlands won the toss and chose to bat first, clearly the correct decision on a turner. However, winning the toss and making the right decision are the first two steps of a three-step process, with the third step, playing good cricket, by far the most important…

A DUTCH COLLAPSE

The Netherlands started very well, but the dismissal of O’Dowd, run out for a rapid 42, put the skids under them. That dismissal made it 73-2, and Colin Ackermann and Sybrand Engelbrecht put on 19 together before Ackermann became the second run out victim of the innings. Scott Edwards was then given Run Out first ball to make it 92-4. This was unlucky for Afghanistan keeper Ikram Alikhil, who pulled off a superb piece of work behind the stumps and deserved by credited with a stumping, but apparently Edwards had made contact with the ball, which meant that officially it had to be called a run out. Five runs later Bas de Leede played a wild shot at Mohammad Nabi and succeeded only in edging to Ikram Alikhil to make it 97-5. Saqib Zulfiqar offered Engelbrecht some support, but after scoring a very slow 3 he edged one from Noor Ahmad into the safe gloves of Alikhil and it was 113-6. Logan van Beek stayed while a further 21 runs accrued, of which his share was 2, before he was stumped by Alikhil. Roelof van der Merwe helped the Netherlands past the 150 mark, but shortly thereafter caused the run out of the determined Engelbrecht for 58 (86), and it was 152-8. Roelof van der Merwe and Aryan Dutt devoted themselves almost solely to seeing out overs at this point. The first really aggressive shot by either, from van der Merwe resulted in a lobbed catch to Ibrahim Zadran off Noor Ahmad to make it 169-9. Dutt and Paul van Meekeren cobbled together another 10 for the last wicket before Mohammad Nabi trapped van Meekeren LBW. The Dutch number 11 reviewed it, but it was plumb and the Netherlands were all out for 179 in 46.3 overs. 38.3 of those overs had been bowled by spinners, an all time record for a men’s world cup match. Ikram Alikhil had had a hand in six of the wickets, the three officially credited to him, and three of the four run outs (one was a direct hit throw from Azmatullah Omarzai), and with the four run outs and one official stumping this was the first ever men’s world cup innings in which as many as five batters had been out through being out of their crease at the wrong time. The Netherlands had lost their last nine wickets for 106 runs, and their last eight for 87.

THE AFGHANISTAN CHASE

Can be summed up with one word: clinical. Although both openers were out cheaply Rahmat Shah and Hashmatullah Shahidi had a fine partnership for the third wicket, and then Azmatullah Omarzai joined Shahidi in the stand that saw Afghanistan over the winning line with 18.3 overs to spare. Rahmat Shah scored 52 (54), Omarzai 31* (28) and Shahidi 56* (64), a thoroughly professional display from the numbers three, four and five for Afghanistan. This puts Afghanistan firmly in the mix for a semi-final slot. If they can beat either Australia or South Africa, their last two opponents, that will probably be enough for them. New Zealand look the most vulnerable of those currently in qualifying slots – they have lost three in a row, while India and South Africa are both guaranteed to qualify, and Australia could only be dragged into the dogfight for the fourth slot if they somehow lose against bottom of the table England tomorrow.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Just before I terminate this post, two posts ago I included in my gallery two street names which each connected to two cricketers. The connections are as follows: Wyatt Street – current England T20I women’s opener Danni Wyatt and former England men’s captain Bob Wyatt, and Archdale Street – England women’s first ever captain, Betty Archdale, and former long serving Somerset wicket keeper the reverend Archdale Palmer Wickham.

Now for my usual sign off…

A pair of goldfinches
The moon in a clear morning sky (taken not long after 7:30 this morning)

Fourth Semi-Final Slot up for Grabs

A look back at the match between New Zealand and South Africa in the 2023 ODI Cricket World Cup, and a brief look at the ramifications of the result for the tournament as a whole. Also a very large photo gallery.

Today’s match at the 2023 ODI Cricket World Cup saw New Zealand face South Africa. This post looks back at the match and at the ramifications of today’s result.

THE PRELIMINARIES

New Zealand skipper Tom Latham won the toss, which was probably the last thing that went right for his side on the day. South Africa had batted first four times this tournament and never scored below 300 on any of those occasions, New Zealand are not a stellar chasing side. Yet, for some reason unknown to anyone other than himself Latham decided to put South Africa in to bat.

THE SOUTH AFRICA INNINGS

When Temba Bavuma was out fairly early, with just 38 runs on the board things weren’t looking all that bad for New Zealand. However, the second wicket stand between Quinton de Kock and Rassie van der Dussen illustrated precisely why putting the Proteas in is a poor idea. They got themselves in, and gradually increased the tempo as the danger of a sudden crash of wickets faded. After 35 overs the score was 194-1, and while some were criticising the SA second wicket pair for not having upped the rate enough by then, I tweeted at that point that they were well placed, and that a total of significantly above 300 looked more likely than not and that 350 couldn’t be ruled out. Quinton de Kock completed his fourth century of this world cup, joint second most for a single edition ever behind the five Rohit Sharma scored in 2019, and in the process became the first South African to score 500 runs in a single edition of the tournament, putting the all comers record, Sachin Tendulkar’s 673, in severe danger of being broken. Rassie van der Dussen opened out after a sedate start and moved his own rate to better than a run a ball, as he too completed a century. It was de Kock who was second out, ending a stand of exactly 200. David Miller came in at number four, and when van der Dussen was third out with only 17 balls left in the innings Heinrich Klaasen joined the fray. Miller was out to the second last ball of the innings for 53 (30) to make it 351-4, and Aiden Markram came out to face one ball, which he despatched for six giving South Africa a final score of 357-4. 163 of those came in the last 15 overs and 119 in the last ten as South Africa once again demonstrated their ability to butcher opposition attacks in the closing stages of an innings. They were helped by a hamstring injury to Matt Henry, but the heaviest blow to Kiwi hopes had happened at the toss with that awful decision by Latham.

My tweet at the 35 over mark (a reply to Lawrence Bailey):

https://x.com/aspitweets/status/1719672685507105159?s=20

THE NEW ZEALAND REPLY

New Zealand faced a daunting task, and it only got more daunting as the innings progressed. Wickets fell with remorseless regularity, run scoring was difficult at all times, and there was little prospect at any stage of a successful chase. New Zealand lost their ninth wicket at 133, still 224 runs adrift, and the injured Matt Henry came in to bat in a desperate effort to mitigate the hammering their net RR was taking. Some good blows from Glenn Phillips reduced the margin to below 200, but with the score at 170 he took one chance too many and offered up a straightforward catch, which ended the match with a margin of 184 runs. Keshav Maharaj claimed four wickets with his left arm spin, Marco Jansen three with his left arm pace, Gerald Coetzee two and Kagiso Rabada one, leaving Lungi Ngidi wicketless. Rassie van der Dussen was named Player of the Match for his 133. A full scorecard can be viewed here.

RAMIFICATIONS OF THIS RESULT

This is New Zealand’s third straight defeat, and opens the way for Afghanistan or Pakistan to displace them from the semi-finals. Afghanistan have played a game fewer than either New Zealand or Pakistan, and their next match is against the Netherlands, which they would regard as a major opportunity. Their other two group games are against South Africa and Australia, with the former requiring that they bat first and then bowl well in defence of whatever they manage to post, and the latter almost certainly against a side who will have guaranteed qualification by then and therefore probably easier than if they met them earlier in the tournament. Pakistan still have New Zealand to play, a huge game in the context of developments in the tournament so far, and their other remaining game is a more or less guaranteed two points against the demoralized, disorganized rabble masquerading as “England”.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Afghanistan Zindabad!

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)

England Execrable

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.

A Classic and an Upset

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.

Pakistan v South Africa

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.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Australia Hammer Netherlands

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.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…