We managed to overcome their spin pairing in last year’s ODI series and at Edgbaston on Sunday we will need the right mindset againThe World Cup knockout stages have, in effect, begun early for us but as Eoin Morgan keeps reminding the players and supporters, our fate remains in our hands. Personally I see these final group games against India and New Zealand as an opportunity to be embraced not feared.The defeats to Sri Lanka and Australia have hurt us. Australia outplayed us in the first 10 overs of each innings at Lord’s and some days you can take losing to the better side. But the Sri Lanka game at Headingley is one that still eats away at us a...
The famously immovable opening batsman now shows a much more carefree approach to the prospect of no-dealMy God, I wish Geoff Boycott had approached playing cricket like he approaches no-deal Brexit. The longtime cricketer turned longtime commentator was on Good Morning Britain this week, when he was asked about his Brexit strategy, rather in the same way you might get Jeremy Hunt on the show and seek his opinion as to whether he can even bear the poignancy of not being able to watch Jimmy Anderson in World Cup conditions like these.Having immediately attempted to flirt with Susanna Reid with the same gossamer touch you’d expect of a man convicted of a brutal assault on a former partner, Boycott moved...
Mitchell Starc peaked at the right time at Lord’s to extinguish England’s hopes of reaching Australia’s totalWelcome back then, England. It’s been a while. Just not, as it happens, quite long enough.On a sullen, grey day at Lord’s England were both oddly meek and jarringly aggressive en route to a comprehensive 64-run defeat by Australia that leaves their World Cup campaign, at best, intriguingly poised. Related: Australia deliver hammer blow to England’s Cricket World Cup hopes Continue reading...
Gareth Southgate has led a revolution that has produced better results and entertainment while England’s cricketers have also benefited from a more aggressive attitudeAmong the myriad skills that are employed in different sports one that is shared by all is risk assessment. Though it sounds like some dark art practised by insurance agents, it is the basic cost-benefit analysis that most competitors make intuitively and upon which all coaches are fixated. Namely, does a given action increase the likelihood of gaining an advantage more than it increases the likelihood of suffering a setback? That is the question a full-back has to ask each time he sprints down the wing. Or a tennis player when she rushes the net.And overall it...
If England beat Sri Lanka it will help widen the gap between the top four and the restIt is not really the rain that is haunting the organisers of this World Cup; it is the results. England are about to play the 27th match at Leeds against Sri Lanka in a tournament that has 45 league matches before advancing to the semi-finals.Mathematically just about anything is still possible though Afghanistan would have to beat India on Sunday and win the rest of their games to have the slenderest chance of qualifying. Realistically it is hard to see how any team is going to displace the current top four – and the semi-finals are still over a fortnight away. Continue reading...