ICC Cricket World Cup - Part 4

First topic message reminder :

Yes, England expected to be unchanged. Long boundaries apparently, which will suit England's excellent running ability!

If there were a decent replacement in the wings, I think Rashid's place would be under severe threat. He's got figures of 7/403 from 69 overs in the World Cup so far, which is hardly illuminating stuff.

Australia win the toss and bat first.

Not too fussed.

Aus win toss and unsurprisingly choose to bat.

Morgan says he'd have done the same, but it does look like it is swinging around in the warm-up, so may be we can get rid of Warner and Finch early and hope it brightens up later!!!

Well, we will have to chase down a target. Something that, until the WC started, we were good at.

Moment of Truth for England...lost the toss and have to chase.
Chase down today and I guarantee they will be world cup champions regardless of whether they bat or field in the final,

Bet365 offers very attractive 11/10 odds on Australia i.e more than double the returns

There should have been a plate-final also in hindsight to determine No. 3

Hopefully we can get a decent total on the board and then put the squeeze on their batting later.

If they can get around 290 runs again that should be a challenging task for England to chase under pressure.
Anything under 250 would be difficult to defend for Australia.

Mitchell Starc apparently hobbling around in the warm-ups.

It really is coming home, lads.

Its bat first every time. The grey cloud has gone and the suns out for now. Rain later could make the chase scenarios more complex

Pal Joey wrote:Hopefully we can get a decent total on the board and then put the squeeze on their batting later.

If they can get around 290 runs again that should be a challenging task for England to chase under pressure.
Anything under 250 would be difficult to defend for Australia.

Anything that Aus put on board, they will be be able to defend is my view..I put 100$ on Aus the moment they won the toss.
So the bigger their total the better for my bet......but 270 should be more than enuf

Aus NZ final would be a worst case for the broadcasters with a small audience and everyone in bed. 

Wouldnt be surprised if they bring the boundaries in after the innings break to help England.

Need Woakes to pitch it up and get some early wickets, if it actually swings that is. I'd put this in favour of the Aussies as the toss is always huge but not ruling England out before a ball has been bowled!

Afro wrote:Aus win toss and unsurprisingly choose to bat.

Morgan says he'd have done the same, but it does look like it is swinging around in the warm-up, so may be we can get rid of Warner and Finch early and hope it brightens up later!!!

Will want to bowl a lot better than they did at Lord's. It bothers me a bit that they keep claiming they were "unlucky" on that occasion. Rubbish. They bowled the wrong length and Finch and Warner effectively won the game in the first hour ...

Early wickets today and they have a chance to put pressure on a slightly unsettled Australian middle order. Glad to see they haven't done anything silly like bringing Moeen back in. Hope the weather stays fair(ish)

FInch out first ball LBW to Archer

Has reviewed

Well Archer pitched that one up

Looks good....Out !

Confirmed out

What a first nut from Jofra. And Finch chucks away the review.

Are you India in disguise

Popular pairing in now. Sure they'll get plenty of support from the crowd

Good start removing the dangerous Finch. But now the really tough bit comes : Smith and Warner together...Warner looks to be in attacking mode.

But gone ! Woakes gets him with a lifter

Afro wrote:may be we can get rid of Warner and Finch early and hope it brightens up later!!!

GET IN THERE

Early days, but a good start.

Sir Chris

Woakes not disheartened by being hit for two boundaries by Warner. What a ball on a good length. This is top stuff. 10/2.

Such an important wicket because Warner was timing them well early on.

Gooseberry wrote:
Wouldnt be surprised if they bring the boundaries in after the innings break to help England.

And that's the hundredth time you've used that joke.

A whisker away from 10/3 and Woakes being on a hat-trick.

Damn how did Erasmus not give that out on the field, looked plumb!

Aus seems ot have chocked for now under pressure
Eng doing well to keep the ball up and in stumps to stumps line

Aus has to see-off 10 overs without losing a wicket

That was really close ...I had a feeling it would be umpires call. But at least the review isn't lost. It looked a good appeal live.

Archer getting good bounce , discomfiting Smith. Hope he doesn't get carried away with the shorter stuff though : still think there is potential for getting more joy from well-pitched moving balls...

KP_fan wrote:Aus seems ot have chocked for now under pressure
Eng doing well to keep the ball up and in stumps to stumps line

Aus has to see-off 10 overs without losing a wicket

You shouldnt have let them know you had 100 bucks riding on it, too much pressure for them

checked odds last night and was tempted with 9/1 smith most runs. forgot to put it on this morning. he really is the key for Australia now

Archer and Woakes are both bowling superbly here.

Both batsmen looking pretty lost out there. England bowling superbly to Smith, with a clearly-defined plan. Archer absolutely stupendous.

Worth remembering that Australia have a long tail. Four more wickets and Pat Cummins comes out. Next man in is looking likely to be Alex Carey...this clearly isn't the best situation for him.

Galted wrote:

Gooseberry wrote:
Wouldnt be surprised if they bring the boundaries in after the innings break to help England.

And that's the hundredth time you've used that joke.

1 for every dollar KP is losing on this game and 1 for every ungracious comment he made about England beating India.

Hey they have twice as many runs as India did when 3 down 

Woakes defeats Handscomb with a peach. Stumps'a'splattered. The batsman did look pretty clueless all innings, so not the greatest surprise.

Fantastic stuff.

This is well too early for Carey to come in.

Handscomb got out about 5 times before he did
Pesssure, pressure...Aus choking Like Ind even without a chase.
their objective should be to bat out 50 overs now

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Sir Chris

SIR CHRIS

KP_fan wrote:Handscomb got out about 5 times before he did
Pesssure, pressure...Aus choking Like Ind even without a chase.
their objective should be to bat out 50 overs now

Don't think either India or Australia have choked. They just got undone by superb new-ball bowling.

Woakes is on fire !

Didn't really expect Handscomb to do much , to be honest. But still , 14/3 !

Smith still there though...

To be fair to Handscomb, being dropped in to this situation in his first match of the tournament, it's hardly surprising he failed.

Not that I'm complaining about this start...

The bal is moving as much as it has in any ODI I can remember in the past few years, but it also takes some great skill and focus to use that as well as this pair have. They definitely seem to have had some plans for the batsmen too, all in its a near perfect start. 
Huge pressure on Smith now, but he is exactly the sort of player who will revel in that. I just dont see whos going to stick around with him, Carey isnt a top order batsman and more than Pandya for India and Stoinis and Maxwell are more fine in a tight chase but not renowned for batting time. Its maybe a stronger batting unit than they started the tournament with but even blocking cant be easy with the ball moving so much. 
A few people questioned Maxwell over Wade, I think they are really regretting that choice right now.

All the saints, this is some start.

Clever from Finch not to send Maxwell out. Smith and Carey can steady the ship though.

I am just shuddering at the thought of Roy/Bairstow facing Starc/Behrendorf if the pitch is like this.

dummy_half wrote:To be fair to Handscomb, being dropped in to this situation in his first match of the tournament, it's hardly surprising he failed.

Not that I'm complaining about this start...

Yeah I have to admit, that was always a risky selection. Handscomb has struggled against England previously, and played 3 innings all summer. His last one against Gloucester 2's in June! Never looked like he'd last long

Duty281 wrote:

KP_fan wrote:Handscomb got out about 5 times before he did
Pesssure, pressure...Aus choking Like Ind even without a chase.
their objective should be to bat out 50 overs now

Don't think either India or Australia have choked. They just got undone by superb new-ball bowling.

feet not moving, poking tentatively are signs of choking...of otherwise freely moving and wells scoring batsmen a few days back
All choking(s) make bowling look good.

Aus need a little partnership and counter punch a bit from Carrey

Want another wicket AND I WANT IT NOW!!!

Worth noting Woakes and Archer got prodigious movement against Australia at Lords but bowled too short and didn't manage to get the wickets. Much, much better. Lesson well learned it seems.

Need to keep backing it up. If Smith goes that's a dream powerplay. A lot for the Aussie middle order to do regardless.

Did Archer even go down to see if Carey was ok there?

Good thing Carey caught his helmet, otherwise it might have hit the stumps on the way down - like Pietersen against the Windies in 2007.

Brings back the old phrase "chin music" 

Watching this I bet some of the England bats are hoping Starcs hobble was real!

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:

dummy_half wrote:To be fair to Handscomb, being dropped in to this situation in his first match of the tournament, it's hardly surprising he failed.

Not that I'm complaining about this start...

Yeah I have to admit, that was always a risky selection. Handscomb has struggled against England previously, and played 3 innings all summer. His last one against Gloucester 2's in June! Never looked like he'd last long

Well whoever came in wouldve been doing so cold. Theyve lost two batsmen from the party. 
But Handscombe and Wade have been playing for the A team in England, so would have been getting more time in the middle than someone like Dawson would have for England if he was suddenly required. 

Or indeed Jadeja who hadnt played in weeks then nearly bailed India out of a much worse hole.