Good afternoon friends new and old, the cricket in the Super 8’s has been coming thick and fast The 3 remaining subcontinental teams have been in action and a pattern, perhaps, is starting to emerge.
Yesterday’s late game was between cricketing giants India and the intrepid men from the Northwest Frontier, Afghanistan.
The Afghans had a superb start to the tournament winning their first 3 games, demolishing New Zealand in the Process. Afghanistan did lose their final first round match but with qualification secure all that was lost was the chance to top the group.
India also won 3 of their 4 group games, the other game was rained off. India have, perhaps inevitably, looked sensational. The only slight fly in the Dahl perhaps being Virat Kohli’s failure to fire so far.
The game was played at the legendary Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados. India won the toss and opted to set a score for the Afghans to try and chase down.
As has been the case on these Caribbean pitches on a few occasions, India got slightly bogged down in the pitch. The prior mentioned Virat Kohli was out for another disappointing run a ball 24. Rishabh Pant and Captain Rohit Sharma also struggled and were out for low scores. Suryakumar Yadav, the man they call Sky, loved up to his name and hit a ferocious 53 from 28 balls. Afghanistan also bowled very nice with Fazalhaq Farooqui and Rashid Khan picking up 3 wickets each. When all was said and done, India finished their 20 overs with 181 runs for 8 wickets.
I need to remember to not praise a team too highly. I’ve been very nice about Afghanistan and I hope I haven’t given them the kiss of death.
The Afghans also struggled to get the ball out from under their feet. The frontiersmen’s gun batters Gurbaz and Zadran were both out cheaply. Sometimes you can pick the good teams from the great teams when it comes to resilience. India could find one batter to hang in and score, whereas Afghanistan couldn’t and that is the difference. The Afghans were not helped by the unbelievable, almost extraterrestrial talent of Jasprit Bumrah who’s bowling at the moment, it beggars belief.
India are still wining and Afghanistan have now lost 2 on the bounce. All outcomes are still on the table however.
Today’s night shift game was between Bangladesh and cricket baddies Australia. Bangladesh made it through to the supers with 3 wins from 4 qualifying behind South Africa. Australia took all 8 available points from the first round.
In what was yet another rain effected game (note to the ICC, don’t hold cricket tournament’s during the host’s hurricane season!), Australia won the toss, probably using a double headed coin, and opted to field. Let’s face it, we all wanted to see a Bengal uprising but when Tanzid Hasan Tamim fell to a 3 ball duck, that familiar sinking feeling began to kick in. Shanto and Hridoy both got into the 40’s, getting the Tigers to 140 from their 20.
140 doesn’t seem a lot to defend against Australia and to make things even harder for Bangladesh, it started raining.
After a lengthy delay the boffins in the DLS box declared that Australia would need to reach 100 runs in a shortened innings. Sadly, Australia managed it in short order with a 53 run knock from top wrong’n David Warner.
As I type, England are taking on South Africa in today’s last game. If England get over the line they will be all but through to the semis……..but there’s a long way to go in this game yet.
I’ll bring you all the news tomorrow.
All the best,
Nick
All The Cricket 
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