Cricket Round-Up

Well, that was an action-packed weekend!

In what was being billed as the clash of the World Cup (so far), Australia played New Zealand at Eden Park in Auckland. At first, it seemed like it was going to be what could be described as a “normal” one-day match, with Australia comfortably cruising to 80 for 1 in 12 overs, before losing their second wicket. And then…disaster. Australia lost their next 7 wickets in a 9 over period, for 26 runs, ending at 106/9 after 22 overs. The final pair put on 45 before the last wicket was taken, giving Australia a paltry 151 all out. Trent Boult did most of the damage, with figures of 5 for 27 from his 10 overs, but including 5 for 3 in his second 5-over spell.

So far, so good. New Zealand have chased down low totals twice already in the World Cup – Scotland (142) and England (123). But they’d not reckoned on Mitchell Starc. As wicket after wicket fell in a steady procession, it looked like New Zealand were in danger of running out of wickets before they managed to accumulate the runs. When Ronchi was out for 6 runs, leaving the Black Caps with one batsman and the bowlers still to come, on 139 for 6, I thought they’d bring it home. After all, Daniel Vettori was next in, and he usually steers the Black Caps through a crisis with a steady hand. He was out for 2, and New Zealand still needed 7 runs to win.

Suddenly, it’s looking a bit precarious. With three wickets remaining, Kane Williamson decided to take a single on the second ball of the 23^rd over. This exposed Adam Milne to Starc’s bowling for potentially four balls. He only needed one. 6 runs needed, and only 2 wickets remaining, out comes Tim Southee to face the remaining three balls of the over. Again, Starc only needed one, as he chopped it onto his own wicket. The last batsman, Trent Boult, had to face two deliveries whilst Kane Williamson was trapped, hopelessly, at the non-striker’s end.

He survived them. Finally, Williamson was back on strike, and facing Pat Cummins. He put the first ball into the crowd to finish off the match in style.

So that was a bit close! But a win’s a win, and New Zealand have 4 from 4, with only Bangladesh and Afghanistan to face in the group.

The next big match of the weekend was in Wellington: England vs. Sri Lanka. It was an 11:00 start, so we decided to go and get a big breakfast at Jano Bistro first – having been impressed by their dinner a couple of weeks ago, I was also impressed by their breakfast: no “pile it on a plate” higgledy-piggledy-ness from them – it was all artfully presented on the plate, and very well cooked.

We were able to park a bit closer to the stadium this time, as (a) the game wasn’t sold out and (b) as it was a weekend, the commuter car parks were all empty.

England won the toss and went in to bat first. This match followed a more traditional one-day format, unlike New Zealand’s matches, where the team batting first actually manage to bat out their 50 overs, and amass a reasonable score. After starting well, England had looked a bit sluggish through the middle overs, regularly scoring only two or three per over. I was predicting a total of 276, until they woke up a bit in the final seven overs and started to slap the ball around the ground, putting on 77 to finish with a respectable score of 309 to bowl at.

Out came Sri Lanka, and they were ready to bat. The openers, Dilshan and Thirimanne, steadily put on runs until Dilshan was out for 44. Still, at 100 after 19 overs, they were well in touch with the run rate, and then Sangakkara  came in. They kept the runs ticking over at a reasonable rate in the middle period, and then started to slowly accelerate, with Sangakkara in particular regularly reaching the boundary. Thirimanne reached his century, shortly followed by Sangakkara, and it seemed there was nothing the England bowlers could do to get them out. In this they weren’t helped by their fielders, who dropped them with distressing regularity. Sri Lanka eventually cruised home with 16 balls to spare, finishing in style by putting another 6 into the crowd.

Another terrible day to watch cricket

England have two tough games ahead of them now: Bangladesh and Afghanistan, both in Australia. Whilst you’d think that there’d be no danger of either of these teams beating England, on current form you wouldn’t put it past them. England must also be wary about the weather: a washout could scupper their chances of reaching the quarter finals.