Cricket World Cup Diary Day 5
Upset… again.
I would appreciate it if this tournament stopped being so good. Sleep is already at a low.
Another night, another talking point. The hosts, the favourites, the seemingly unbeatable England have been beaten and all when two of their batsmen scored centuries.
How often would it happen in an ODI where two batsmen score centuries in the innings and their team still loses? I'd suggest not that frequently.
And who would've thought that their first loss would come at the hands of Pakistan? The same Pakistan that had 11-straight ODI losses heading into this game, that had just been thrashed by the West Indies after being bowled out for 105. Who knows what to think of all of that?!
I still consider England joint favourites with India, although like other strong teams at this tournament, their bowling seems susceptible to leaking runs.
Despite taking three wickets, Chris Woakes conceded 71 runs from eight overs, Joffra Archer 79 off 10 and Adil Rashid 43 off five. They aren't without faults.
What they do clearly have is the batting and, despite not getting them home this time, it seems that whatever hole they find themselves in they'll either be able to dig themselves out of it, or at least get close.
New Zealand still mull over opener
Well, they kind of do. Although it seems like the hamstring injury to Henry Nicholls looks like keeping him out of Thursday morning's (NZT) game against Bangladesh at The Oval.
Batting coach Craig McMillan today told 1 NEWS it's still an ongoing problem and it’s important they get him back fit. That suggests another opportunity for Colin Munro at the top of the order after his unbeaten, confidence boosting half century in the big opening win over Sri Lanka.
I suspect they'll give Nicholls another game off, and possibly two if they manage to beat Bangladesh, to give him the most time possible to fully recover.
What that means is Munro would have at least one more innings to push his claim and be Martin Guptill's permanent opener for the remainder of the tournament.
What is interesting to me, though, is Guptill is not given any say on who his opening partner is. I would've thought in that situation, Guptill would at least be asked as to who he prefers to bat with and who he thinks complements him the best at the top of the order.
It doesn’t mean they'd have to go with that person, but Guptill is a smart cricketer, our best opening batsman in the history of the ODI format and someone whose opinion would be valuable when it comes to something like this.
Maybe I'm reading too much into it and another opinion would just muddle things, but in a situation like this, with the top order so important to being successful at this World Cup, an opinion like that can't be overlooked.
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