India Survive Major Scare
When Mushfiqur Rahim punched the air, the ball running away to the boundary, leaving a shell-shocked India staring down the barrel of a potentially tournament ending defeat, with Hardik Pandya needing to defend one run off three balls to win and two runs off three balls to draw, it looked like Bangladesh had pulled off the shock of the tournament. Fast-forward three deliveries and it was a horror show for the men in green, the most exciting end to a match in the tournament as India and Pandya somehow, inexplicably, got away with it to win by one run. I have absolutely no idea how, but three wickets in three balls, with Rahim and Mahmudullah caught and then Rahman run out (and only just, he looked like he might just make it in) chasing a bye off the final ball. It was a combination of Bangladesh cracking under pressure and some truly sensational intelligent death bowling from Pandya, who looked to have thrown it away for India when his previous two deliveries went for boundaries to set Bangladesh on the way to victory. This was a match won by the very tightest of margins.
In context, this result means a lot more for India than it does for Bangladesh. Defeat in this match would have left India in real danger of not qualifying, meaning that winning their crunch match against Australia would not have guaranteed them a semi-final spot, depending on if Pakistan could beat both the Aussies and New Zealand, or if Australia had won by enough against Pakistan to put pressure on India's shocking net run rate. Either way, it would have been messy. As it is, India are now in prime position to qualify, and it's the Aussies who have to beat Pakistan on Friday to set up a winner takes all clash with India on Sunday. Cricket is mad. The fact that those three balls, when the match looked over, have completely changed the face of Group 2, is just staggering.
But make no mistake, if India play like they did against Bangladesh, then you would expect Australia to walk past them. The Aussies are still reeling from their defeat at the hands of New Zealand, but remain a formidable prospect and I would expect them to walk past Pakistan and give India a real game of it. With the bat, India were not great today. Nobody really got going, and Kohli got out just when he was about to go big. Crucially, only Pandya's 15 off 7 was scored at a rapid rate, with Kohli scoring at a run a ball, and nobody else except Jadeja making double digits at a strike rate of 150 or higher. Whenever a batsman got into a good position, he got out and it kept stunting India's momentum, as they should easily have been hitting 170, but instead couldn't even reach 150. The big wickets of Suresh Raina, who top scored with 30 off 23 and Kohli's run a ball 24, turned the game late on in India's innings, stopping them kicking on.
And Bangladesh managed the rate well, Tamim Iqbal, Sabbir Rahman and Shakib Al-Hasan scoring quickly to keep India from ever quite getting the game under control. It always looked to be a close chase, and so it proved, right to the death. Credit has to go to Bumrah and Pandya, who both were bowling pretty poorly but managed to keep it tight at the death when it mattered, but as ever it was spin that did the job in the middle overs with Jadeja and man of the match Ashwin taking 2-22 and 2-20 respectively off their four overs. And India march on. Just about.
England Do The Job
And England's bowlers recovered from a couple of horror shows against the Windies and South Africa to comfortably in the end defend a mediocre total of 142 against Afghanistan, who once again gave it their all, and at one point had England 85-7 before Moeen Ali and David Willey stepped in with a crucial late partnership. But really, England's batsmen had only their themselves to blame as they collapsed from 42-1 to 42-4 in the space of one over, with opener Vince (filling in for the injured Hales) and Joe Root both falling, as well as a golden duck for Eoin Morgan and all three wickets were absolutely appalling. First Vince dabbed a slower ball straight back to the bowler in tame fashion, then Morgan, who has been horribly out of nick all tournament, played a cardinal sin and missed a straight ball, before Joe Root was sent back haring for a single and caught short of his ground. Pathetic showing all-round in all honesty.
But Moeen's unbeaten 41 set a reasonable total, and certainly one that England would have felt was defendable. And they bowled very well it has to be said. Early wickets from David Willey, who took 2-23 off his four and Chris Jordan, who took 1-27, reduced Afghanistan to 13-3, before the spinners did some damage in the middle order, Ali removing the dangerous Rashid Khan and Adil Rashid once again bowling well, taking 2-18 off his three overs. And although they made a decent fist of it towards the end as Ben Stokes got stuck in for the final six overs, Afghanistan never quite looked close enough to chase it down and despite a valiant 35 off 20 from the excellent Shafiqullah, they just left themselves too much to do, with their top six struggling and ultimately failing, with Nabi's 12 off 10 the only one to make in the top seven into double digits at over a run a ball.
Ultimately, this was not a good performance from England, at all to be honest. But their bowlers, boosted by Liam Plunkett's economy of three an over off his four early on as he returned for the hapless Reece Topley. showed a lot of character to recover well from their previous hammerings. But nevertheless, they ended up never looking like losing and avoided a massive potential banana skin. Beat Sri Lanka and they're in the semis.
The Hard and Fast Section
- Sterling out for eight weeks. Ouch.
- Schweinsteiger might miss the Euros. Ouch.
- F1 drivers are worried. Shocker.
- And Marler is facing a hearing. Moron.
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