Tag: ODI World Cup 2023

ODI World Cup Thursday and Friday

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.

India Poised For Big Win Over Afghanistan

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.

New Zealand Poised For A Second Big Win Of The Tournament

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 Path
Red on black meets black on red.