That elusive upset emerged yesterday, in the form of a thrilling three-wicket Ireland win over England. The Englishmen batted decently, as it is very easy to do that at the M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru, but the same can't be said about their bowling. Kevin O'Brien scored the fastest hundred in World Cup cricket, off a neat fifty balls and a nice round strike rate of 200, shattering the previous record of Matthew Hayden's ton off sixty in the previous edition in the Caribbean. Only Graeme Swann bowled remotely well, and his overs were used up early.
An Associate team will not be able to chase down a target of 328 unless the opposing team plays really badly, and that could describe England pretty well. O'Brien and Alex Cusack built up a good partnership, before Cusack sacrificed himself after a misunderstanding over a single. John Mooney came in, and played with a general pattern of many dot balls before a boundary, the fours coming in strange places where neither the bowler not Mooney meant them to go. O'Brien's historic innings came to an end after a convincing run-out. There were only tail-enders left, but the damage was done. The Irish men won with five balls to spare.
England's hopes of winning their first ever World Cup are now dented, after being stretched by the Netherlands, tying a thriller with India and now losing to their European rivals. They will ahve to step up.
Ireland, on the other hand, are high on confidence. They will be playing India next, and will be looking to exploit the hosts' below-par bowling. However, the captain says the top order should improve. They could beat Bangladesh, and if they pull off another upset, over India, South Africa or Windies, then a quarterfinal berth is more or less assured.
The weekend menu is quite interesting, with an Australia - Sri Lanka final replay, South Africa meeting a battered England and India playing Ireland, which, being Indian, I have to watch. A certain TV is going to be on for a long time!
More upsets will be fun, but NOT against India.
That's it for now!
An Associate team will not be able to chase down a target of 328 unless the opposing team plays really badly, and that could describe England pretty well. O'Brien and Alex Cusack built up a good partnership, before Cusack sacrificed himself after a misunderstanding over a single. John Mooney came in, and played with a general pattern of many dot balls before a boundary, the fours coming in strange places where neither the bowler not Mooney meant them to go. O'Brien's historic innings came to an end after a convincing run-out. There were only tail-enders left, but the damage was done. The Irish men won with five balls to spare.
England's hopes of winning their first ever World Cup are now dented, after being stretched by the Netherlands, tying a thriller with India and now losing to their European rivals. They will ahve to step up.
Ireland, on the other hand, are high on confidence. They will be playing India next, and will be looking to exploit the hosts' below-par bowling. However, the captain says the top order should improve. They could beat Bangladesh, and if they pull off another upset, over India, South Africa or Windies, then a quarterfinal berth is more or less assured.
The weekend menu is quite interesting, with an Australia - Sri Lanka final replay, South Africa meeting a battered England and India playing Ireland, which, being Indian, I have to watch. A certain TV is going to be on for a long time!
More upsets will be fun, but NOT against India.
That's it for now!
hi
ReplyDeleteTime to add Ireland in the main list and not under Other..