England Blown Away
It's not unfair to England to point out that the difference between them and the very best T20 sides is that they haven't got a Chris Gayle. Granted, nobody in the world right now except the West Indies has a Chris Gayle, but nevertheless, the point still stands. England don't possess that one outstanding individual who at this level can just go with the click of his fingers and take the game away from the opposition. Joe Root and Jos Buttler are both very close, but neither of them are quite there yet.
Because ultimately, as much as England wanted it to not go that way, their opening match of the tournament ended up being the Chris Gayle show. Ultimately, England could have set almost any total today and Gayle would have chased it down, he was just in one of those moods. The fact that Chris Jordan has decent figures is down to the fact that Gayle chose not to attack him, as the big man chose his moments and went big when he felt he needed to, almost when he wanted to. This was a phenomenal display of batting from arguably the world's best batsman in the short form of the game, and a handy reminder of exactly why the West Indies are still a force to be reckoned with in T20s.
That's not to say that England got everything right and were beaten by sheer force of quality from Gayle, because they didn't. From a batting perspective, they'll be disappointed that they were held up at points in the back ten, and although they finished strongly, they were never able to get on top of the Windies bowlers, and none of their batsmen were able to kick on. Root and Buttler in the upper middle order both started well but failed to convert their good scores into a colossal innings. But if we're being honest, the fault doesn't lie with the batsmen, 180 looked like a decent total, it wasn't a poor batting display and certainly you feel that if England could have got Gayle early on, they were more than in this game.
But they didn't. And with every over that Gayle was still stood at the crease, you could see the West Indies chances of winning this game increasing, all the way up to the moment when he scored his hundred, killed the game and then finished England off. The longer the innings went on, the more inevitable the ending was, but a sensational century from Gayle meant that the match was wrapped up with just less than two overs to spare.
But from a bowling perspective, England were very poor. There were far too many wides, some really poor line and length bowling and they made it easy for Gayle. None of the bowlers out there looked like getting him out, and there was a real lack of quality among the England bowlers. Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid looked like they were bowling well, but then Gayle put them to the sword. Chris Jordan only went at a run a ball, but bowled some genuine trash in the process. Willey and Topley, England's premier fast bowlers, just couldn't handle Gayle, the quality of the match was just too much for them. And the usually reliable Ben Stokes was the chief culprit, as his rank bowling was plundered for 42 runs off of his three overs. Yes, Gayle was superb and yes England bowled well at points in this match, but they were unable to bowl well consistently and for a man of Gayle's quality, it was served up to him on a plate.
England still have a lot to learn moving forwards. South Africa are next up and England will feel that they are reasonably well matched with the Saffers. But they need to bowl better than they did today, and when they get an opening with the bat, and with the ball, they simply have to take it. Too many rudimentary mistakes under pressure cost them today.
As for the West Indies, they'll be looking at this group, probably the easier group and thinking that they can walk it. Granted, they'll need to face some genuinely incredible spin bowling to win the tournament and I don't think that they have the bowling talent to win the whole thing, but their batting is almost limitless, and they should be aiming for at least a spot in the semis, if not the final.
With Pakistan doing what they needed to do, smashing Bangladesh by 55 runs and New Zealand spinning out India yesterday, this World T20 is shaping up to be an absolute cracker.
Champions League Preview/Review
No goals were scored in either of last night's games as a superb display from Joe Hart secured a 0-0 draw for a poor Manchester City side - a result that takes them through comfortably in Europe, but at the cost of both of their starting central defenders: Vincent Kompany and Nicholas Otamendi. City's season looks set to go from bad to worse as Kompany will face a month out on the sidelines, after a really, really abject performance from City when they had a real opportunity to go out and set a marker down for the rest of Europe's top sides. Instead, they produced only one shot on target and shorn of any semblance of a working defence, they surely now have lost any chance at a good Champions League or Premier League run. Without Kompany and Otamendi, it's possible to ask fresh questions about City's top four ambitions, as they are so heavily reliant on the Belgian in particular in the heart of their defence, and it's looking as if he'll miss at least three or four league games. City have some serious questions to answer in his absence and their performance last night will not have helped.
And in the other last 16 game, Athletico Madrid were taken to penalties by PSV Eindhoven, as that match also finished 0-0, both on the night and on aggregate, resulting in an 8-7 penalty shootout win for Athletico, the highest scoring in the competitions' history, in which the first 14 pens ended up in the back of the net. Talk about nerves of steel, but PSV will be gutted, because Athletico are a far superior side and should be one of the favourites for the competition with their defensive record, but having taken them to pens, Eindhoven will be kicking themselves that they couldn't get something out of it.
And tonight, the draw of the round sees last season's beaten finalists Juventus travel to Munich, to face Pep Guardiola's Bayern, who secured two away goals, but threw away a two goal lead in the first leg in Italy. As such, it's all to play for, and although Bayern will obviously be favourites, you'd expect Juve to put up a bloody good fight. Personally, I can see this one ending 2-1 to the home side, but strap in folks, because it's going to be an absolute cracker.
Oh and then there's the small matter of Barcelona wiping the floor with Arsenal at the Nou Camp. I jest of course, but Arsenal are missing key players through injury, as usual, facing a two goal deficit and travelling to easily the best team in world football. If Messi, Suarez and Neymar decide to turn up, then frankly this could be any score, but I reckon 3-0 Barca.
The Hard and Fast Section
- Another Leam win, 3-0 v Dorchester. Promotion chasing.
- Gatland "banter"gate. Blimey oh Riley.
- Marler escapes a citation. Might still get banned.
- FIFA wants its bribes back. Oh dearie me.
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