Cricket World Cup 2019

[tee rex]

West Indies score 421 in a warm-up v NZ, and nobody notices. In my day ... (drones on until Bill Frindall interrupts).

I'm a Rip Van Winkle for this World Cup. Just woken up and expecting to see teams defending 150. Apparently things have changed, who knew?

[Satchmo Distel]

Ben Stokes's presence doesn't help. But I think most of the rest of the team are OK. I don't think anyone has a bad word to say about Moeen Ali, for instance.

Bairstow is another who seems to have a mature perspective outside the game.

I'd be happy for this side to win it, and it would clearly be based on merit as they were World No. 1 going in. The bounce Archer gets is stunning. Imagine him bowling in Australia. And have we already seen catch of the tournament?

[RobW]

I was at the Oval yesterday and have to say that watching Stokes' with bat and ball (and in the field) was probably the greatest individual sporting performances i've witnessed. Granted, i've seen a lot of Lincoln games, and there isn't much competition, but he was outstanding yesterday.

Thought South Africa had done pretty well in the field and that England might not even make 300. SA field placements and bowlers did pretty well and England's total was certainly within reach. Archer is something else though, and though SA's fielding was good, England's was on a different level. Jason Roy was magnificent and Stokes' catch was truly wonderful to see (fortunately it was right on front of us).
Was pleased that Mooen and Rashid each got a wicket because I think they bowled pretty well, without a lot of luck (surprised that Moeen bowled his full 10 overs), and the two late wickets for Stokes was fully deserved. Really very impressive performance by England.
The only negatives were Bairstow's soft dismissal and Buttler's own performance was rather subdued with the bat, and let a few balls go past him behind the stumps (including missing a couple of catches).

I couldn't believe my ears when they started playing 'Three Lions' (I had jokingly said to my dad 'It's coming home' before they started playing it). Can't believe they've altered the words tho, jeez.

[E10 Rifle]

That Three Lions was indeed an abomination and soured an excellent game. Typical of cricket's lack of self-confidence and, indeed, dignity.

Anyway, Pakistan making hay against the West Indies at Trent Bridge already. We could be looking at 350-400 here.

[Kevin S]

Russell producing the goods for West Indies; couple of wickets for him and Pakistan feeling a bit of pressure now, at 45/3.

[Kevin S]

Listening to TMS, the atmosphere sounds fantastic at this match.

[Kevin S]

Sounds like the pace attack from West Indies is reaping rewards. Thomas gets the wicket of Babar Azam.

[Ray de Galles]

Missed the opening hour of this in a meeting, is it West Indies being great or Pakistan dreadful? I'm sure it will be a little bit from both columns but hoping for the former.

[Kevin S]

Pakistan ODI results, 2019 (oldest first, most recent last, excluding no-results):

WLLWLLLLLLLLLL

I think it's fair to say the world cup has come at the wrong time for this team.

[Kevin S]

I was just going to say that the situation wasn't beyond hope for Pakistan given the decent run-rate, but that fifth wicket there has come at what feels a crucial time.

That was an excellent call by Holder to go for DRS too.

[Kevin S]

Oh, and that's another. Windies well on top now.

The bowling has apparently been aggressive with teasing lines and mixing in short, bouncing deliveries. Those are the ones that PK are really struggling to deal with but I suspect that a side like Australia or England would happily bring their pull shots out to those. PK just aren't prepared for this, and I suspect Windies will get some joy against a fair number of other teams with this bowling unit.

[Kevin S]

Oh my, 78/7. In serious danger of not making three figures. That one was apparently fuller and led to the lbw.

The BBC mused as to how good the West Indies attack would be if Archer was in it as well...

[Kevin S]

81/8

The lowest score in the 2015 world cup was 102, by the UAE.

[Ray de Galles]

Went to get a cup of tea in the office kitchen and missed three wickets.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

All the pundits said this World Cup was going to be all about big hitting and batting, but bowling and fielding have held the key so far. Refreshing to see to be honest, there should be that balance in the 50 over game.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Is the first tiebreak in the group stage direct results between tied teams or overall group NRR? Because the Windies are on for smashing the latter in this one game

[Kevin S]

Bloody hell.

[Ray de Galles]

Glad to see that for the match shirts and much of the merch "Windies" has been eschewed for the full West Indies.

[Kevin S]

Is the first tiebreak in the group stage direct results between tied teams or overall group NRR? Because the Windies are on for smashing the latter in this one game

Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Wins; 3) Net run rate; 4) Results of games between tied teams; 5) Pre-tournament seeding

[Kevin S]

Wahab Riaz shows the rest of the team how to treat the short ball with some big hits. Pakistan have crept over 100.

[Duncan Gardner]

Lanka predicted final position revised up to 9th

[Kevin S]

Graeme Swann points out that this was actually a slow over rate from West Indies. Starting at 10:30 and ending at 12:20 they had 110 minutes, so should have completed 27 overs and were six short of that. I wonder if there'll be a penalty for Holder?

edit - or to reframe that, since the innings was completed, they should have bowled those 21 overs in 84 minutes rather than 110.

Anyway, 105 gets them above that UAE score at least I suppose.
http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/eng...12;type=trophy

[longeared]

I think match referees are considerably more lenient for short innings, particularly given that they didn't have many (any?) overs bowled by their spinners.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Surely a bit of time has to be allowed for the fact new batsmen were coming out every ten minutes?

[E10 Rifle]

Blimey. Didn't see that collapse coming (or rather, I probably did, since you can never tell with Pakistan). Bowlers' game after all.