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.
A look at today’s fixture in the ODI Cricket World Cup – a small matter of India v Pakistan. Also a photo gallery – though the temperature is more October like today than it has been for the previous 12 days of the month the sun has been out, making walking pleasant.
Today’s match in the ODI Cricket World Cup is the biggest clash of the group stage – bitter rivals India and Pakistan are in opposition. These two sides rarely meet outside tournaments because of the strained relations between the two countries. This post looks at the match that is currently in progress.
PAKISTAN MAKE A GOOD START…
India won the toss and put Pakistan in to bat. Pakistan looked to be going very well for much of their innings. Both openers got going but then got out (Abdullah Shafique for 20, Imam-ul-Haq for 38). However Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan looked like setting Pakistan up for a very respectable total, pushing the score up to 155-2.
…THEN COLLAPSE
The Pakistan innings unravelled spectacularly from this point – Babar Azam was out for exactly 50, Saud Shakeel failed outright (these two falling in the space of four balls from Kuldeep Yadav, the left arm wrist spinner), then Rohit Sharma cashed in on this double strike by calling Jasprit Bumrah back into the attack at the other end. Bumrah clean bowled Rizwan for 49 and Pakistan were five down. Both the two new batters failed cheaply, one to Jadeja and one to Bumrah (Yadav had completed his 10 overs, with superb figures of 2-35), and Pakistan were suddenly 171-7. The eighth wicket pair cobbled together a stand of 16, at which point Score Predictor had Pakistan somehow mustering a final total of 237, which looked very optimistic indeed. It soon looked like a fantasy land prediction, as both batters were out with the score on 187, and with 9.5 overs to go Pakistan had numbers 10 and 11, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf batting together. They advanced the score by four runs before Rauf was pinned LBW. From 155-2 at high water mark Pakistan had surrendered their last eight wickets for just 36 runs. While the failure of the middle and lower order batters was shocking the real problems had actually happened earlier – three of the top four had topped 30, but none went on to play the sort of major innings around which a respectable total can be built. Rizwan took 69 balls to accrue his 49 runs, a rate of progress that can only be justified if you do actually bat all the way to the end of the innings AND you considerably increase your rate of scoring in the late part of the innings.
INDIA IN TOTAL CONTROL
Pakistan’s only hope after posting such a poor score themselves was to start fast with the ball, with early wickets being imperative. In the event it was India who got away to a flier, and their tempo has never slackened. Rohit Sharma followed his astute captaincy with a batting masterclass that had commentators speculating on him reaching a century before the end. That was not to be, as he was caught by Iftikhar Ahmed off Shaheen Shah Afridi for a superb 86, but as I type these words India are 161-3 after 23 overs, needing a mere 31 with 27 possible overs remaining.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Today’s photo gallery is not as large as some of mine, but I think it is good one…
While I have been preparing this for publication India have moved on to 168-3 after 26 overs – 24 needed off a possible 24 overs.
A look at recent developments in the ODI cricket world cup, and a very large photo gallery.
In this post I will look briefly at events yesterday, which all took place while I was at work and in today’s match between New Zealand and Bangladesh.
AUSTRALIA IN TROUBLE
Yesterday in the world cup Australia took on South Africa. I did not catch any of the match as Australia were so inept that it finished before I was home from work, with the proteas victorious by a thumping 124 runs. At the moment, with New Zealand and Bangladesh in action today every team has played two group matches, and Australia lie second from bottom having lost both of their matches and having a ghastly net run rate of -1.846. This effectively means that they need to win six of their last seven group matches to qualify, as their poor net run rate means that five wins and four losses will not be good enough for them to qualify. Four teams have won two out of two, South Africa, New Zealand, India and Pakistan and two others, England and Bangladesh have won one and lost one, while the other four, Sri Lanka, Netherlands, Australia and Afghanistan have lost both their matches.
BANGLADESH v NEW ZEALAND
A West Norfolk Autism Group committee meeting meant that I missed the whole Bangladesh innings. They managed 246 from their 50 over, which would not normally be expected to be a winning total. However Bangladesh are faring quite well in the field – New Zealand are 101-2 in the 22nd over. Bangladesh used to be over reliant on spin, but they have finally got some decent pace bowlers – in this match they have three specialists in that department, Mustafizur Rahman, Shoriful Islam and Taskin Ahmed, the last named being the quickest of the trio. Both the spinners in the XI, Shakib Al Hasan and Mehidy Hasan Miraz are genuine all rounders.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
While I have been preparing this for publication New Zealand have advanced to 123-2 after 25 overs, meaning that they are precisely halfway to the target after precisely half of their overs.
A look at recent developments in the 2023 ODI Cricket world cup, with emphasis on today’s match, between Afghanistan and India. Also a large photo gallery – even when grey as it is today this October has been much warmer than is normal for an English October.
Yesterday was a work day, so I did not get to follow much of the action in the two cricket world cup matches that took place – I got some but not all of England’s innings against Bangladesh and the last few overs of Pakistan v Sri Lanka, with the latter completing the largest successful run chase in World Cup history with just under two overs and six wickets to spare. Today India are playing Afghanistan and the rest of the post is about that match.
THE AFGHANISTAN INNINGS
Afghanistan won the toss and have chosen to bat, and in spite of the likely outcome of this match I think they made the correct decision. I also reckon that their score of 272-8 from their 50 overs to be an important one, not because it was enough on a pitch as good for batting as this one, but because it was an undeniably respectable total against top tier opposition and crucially it was made in spite of the fact that both of Afghanistan’s biggest batting guns, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran, failed to fire. The major contributions came from Hashmatullah Shahidi (80) and Azmatullah Omarzai (62), who shared a century stand together for the fourth wicket. Most of the Indian bowlers did respectably, with the exception of Mohammad Siraj who bowled seven overs for 55 runs. Jasprit Bumrah was the most impressive by a long way, finishing with 4-39 on a track offering no bowler the slightest hint of assistance.
INDIA’S REPLY
The big story of India’s innings so far has been Rohit Sharma. The Indian opener has been rewriting the record books – most sixes in international cricket across formats, overhauling Chris Gayle’s 553, most runs out of a team’s first 100 in a world cup match – 76, fastest world cup century by an Indian. He has been dismissed, for 131 off 84 balls, bowled by Rashid Khan, but the outcome of the match is as good as settled – India are 231-2 in the 29th over, needing just 42 more to win. India will be giving an already good net run rate a boost.
PHOTOGRAPHS
I have a splendid photo gallery to share with you…
While I have been prepping this post for publication India have advanced to 255-2 from 33 overs, needing a mere 18 more to complete their victory.
This post looks in the main at developments in today’s ODI Cricket World Cup match between The Netherlands and New Zealand. However just to tie up the loose ends of yesterday’s post, my unequivocal and unambiguous statement that due to the small size of the total they were chasing India were still favourites to win even after losing three very early wickets was borne out by the final stages of the match. Kohli and Rahul took India to the brink of victory before Kohli was caught for a fine 85. Hardik Pandya struck a six, which roused Rahul to new levels of aggression, and it was ultimately India’s batter-keeper who made the winning hit, a six over cover which took him to 97*. The margin was six wickets and 8.4 overs to spare, which gives India a healthy net run rate of 0.883 (this could be crucial later on, as if multiple teams finish the round robin stage on the same points tally net RR will be used as the tie-splitter. My reckoning based on the fact that four of ten teams qualify for the semi-final stage is that teams with a win-loss ratio of 6-3 or better will likely qualify without recourse to net RR and that it will be the teams with five wins and four defeats who get separated by net run rate. Thus my reckoning is that after yesterday Australia with their net RR having taking a big early hit need to win six of their remaining eight matches, while four more wins would probably see India qualify on net RR.
THE NETHERLANDS V NEW ZEALAND
I missed the early stages of this match due to an appointment with the hygienist at my dental practice. The Netherlands won the toss and foolishly went with their fears about dew making the ball difficult to grip and gave New Zealand the opportunity to make use of the best batting conditions of the match. For much of the New Zealand innings a 350+ total looked on, but a combination of tight Dutch bowling and a couple of quick wickets around the 40 over mark put that kind of total out of reach, and at one stage a total of under 300 seemed possible. Overs 48 and 49, which went for 17 and 12 respectively got New Zealand to 300. With one ball left in the innings New Zealand were on 309-7. Then Bas de Leede, who had bowled very well, and had figures of 1-51 had a horror finish that spoiled his fine spell: first he bowled a no-ball which was smashed for six, then the resultant free hit produced six more and the last ball of the innings had thus yielded 13 (12 for the two sixes, one for the no-ball). New Zealand had thus ended on 322-7.
The Netherlands have not made a good start to the reply. Currently they stand at 76-3 after 19 overs, meaning that required run rate is pushing eight an over. Unless something remarkable happens in the remaining 31 overs of this match New Zealand, who started this tournament by pummelling England in the opening fixture, will be extremely strongly placed, with two wins out of two and a very good net RR.
PHOTOGRAPHS
I have a bumper gallery to share with you…
The sun heading for the horizon last night as I walked along the Gaywood River PathRed on black meets black on red.
At 9:30AM UK time the biggest match of the 2023 World Cup so far, hosts India against perennial high achievers Australia, got underway. This post tells the story of the match so far.
A POOR PERFORMANCE BY AUSTRALIA WITH THE BAT
Mitchell Marsh was out cheaply. A partnership between Smith and Warner seemed to be putting Australia on the road to recovery, but then Warner was out. Smith and Labuschagne took the score to 110, but Australia were scoring slowly. Smith’s dismissal at that score put a different complexion on matters. Not much later Labuschagne was caught behind, and in spite of the fact that his innings had been anything but a good one, he selfishly sent it upstairs, where it was duly confirmed as out, putting him deep in debit – a slow innings and then he compounded it by burning a review. A collapse set in, and Australia found themselves 140-7. The tail wagged somewhat, but Australia were all out for 199 after 49.3 overs. This confirmed a prediction that I had made tentatively at the end of the 34th over (Australia 134-5) and firmly at the end of the 36th (Australia 140-6) that they would not get to 200. The three spinners, Ashwin, Jadeja, and Kuldeep Yadav had taken 6-104 between them from their full 30 overs. Not a single Australian had any cause to be proud of the way they had batted, and at least one of their major batters, Labuschagne, should have been hanging his head in shame.
EARLY WICKETS FOR AUSTRALIA
I went out for a walk during the break between innings and slightly overran, missing the start of the Indian reply. Australia needed early wickets to have any chance, and they got them with Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer (numbers 1,2 and 4 in this Indian order) all going for ducks, at which point the score was 2-3. By the time I got back runs and wickets were the right way round for India, with the score reading 4-3. Virat Kohli and KL Rahul are carrying out a rescue operation, and as I type this the score is 20-3 after seven overs. I still think that this match is India’s to lose – 200 is not a large total to have to get, and in addition to the pair currently batting Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin can all bat. I am glad to see a pitch on which bowlers are genuinely in the game.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off (from walks yesterday afternoon and evening and this morning)…
While I have been preparing this for publication India have moved on to 27-3.
aspiblog 