Good afternoon cricket fans, I hope all’s well! I’ve been delivering beer around Yorkshire ruminating on the England game tonight, we’ll talk more about that later!
Today’s early match was between co-host West Indies and New Zealand at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Trinidad. West Indies have had a couple of wobbles in their first 2 games but have nevertheless won them both. New Zealand on the other hand received an absolute routing at the hands of Afghanistan in their first game. If the Windies win this one then they qualify for the super 8’s. If New Zealand win, it keeps them in the chase.
New Zealand won the toss and put West Indies into bat……..I wouldn’t have done that. Windies are huge hitters, I wouldn’t have wanted them to get away, the New Zealand Cricket Board so rarely listen to me though. NZ looked good with the ball and restricted Windies top and middle order to low scores. Sherfane Rutherford kept an end up with 68, steering Windies to a par score off 149. NZ’s gun bowler Trent Boult picked up 3 wickets for hardly any runs, he’s as good as ever.
The Kiwi’s Score card read very much like the West Indies with low scores running down the innings. The big differences being that NZ’s highest scoring campaigner Glenn Philips managed 40 compared to Rutherford’s 68. Alizarin Joseph bowled like a dynamo, picking up 4 wickets and when all the shouting had finished, NZ ended their innings 13 runs short of the target, handing The Windies a place in the super 8’s
Well done West Indies, good to see them rally! For New Zealand, it’s poorer news. For them to qualify they would need to win their last 2 games by huge margins because of their net run rate is so low and Afghanistan’s is so high. Even then the Kiwi’s need the Afghans to lose both their last 2 games, in the form they’re in, I can’t see that happening.
Net run rate is a concept we haven’t discussed together yet but we’re getting to the point of the group stage where it matters. It’s basically the same as goal difference in football. If any team ends the group stage on the same points as another, like New Zealand and Afghanistan could, then their placement will be decided by net run rate.
Match 2 is England Vs Oman. It’s a late (relatively speaking) start at 8pm GMT so I’ll wait until tomorrow to give you my thoughts. What I can tell you know is that we need to win, big, preferably huge!
For England to qualify to the Super 8’s we need to win our last 2 games by big margins to over turn Scotlands net run rate (net run rate rears its ugly head again!).
The actual rate needed if very variable but, roughly speaking we need to beat Oman and Namibia by about 40 runs each. More ideally, if the lions absolutely rout Oman (Oman all out for 70 and England knock them off in 5 overs sort of job) then run rate will be taken out of the equation.
There is fowl play at foot though. If the net run rate is in the balance then Scotland could beat England to qualification by beating Australia in the last game in the group. Top cheater and total wrong’n Josh Hazelewood had hinted in a press conference that Australia would consider throwing the game. This sort of Australian behaviour is not only extremely poor form but it’s also against the laws of the game. Australia captain Mitchel Marsh is facing a 2 match ban due to the comments of his typically Australian bowler…….shame!
As I type the match is on and it’s going well for the lions but I’m not going to count the chickens just yet.
Join me tomorrow for all the news.
All the best,
Nick
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