Big teams key England in
England are, remarkably, not down and out of this World Cup just yet. Despite playing mediocre cricket and failing to beat a decent test side, they are still in a position where virtually one match separates them from a place in the semi-finals. Should a miracle happen and a ray of sunlight somehow shined its weary beam on the England camp, then they’d have a long list of people to thank as it’s all to do with the cricket all the other teams have been playing. Apart from Australia, who have maintained their position on the untouchable pedestal, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and South Africa have consistently been flirting around each other for the best available spot in the semi-finals. Bangladesh and Ireland played their part, also, in beating teams with whom, statistically, they barely ought to have been on the field. In fact, only the West Indies has really had little impact on England’s predicament, so there’s an amount of irony in the reality that they will present themselves as the last barrier to entry in to the semi-finals.
As it stands, South Africa is the clear and present danger to England. After losing to Bangladesh and New Zealand, South Africa find themselves in a dubious position. After starting the contest as clear second-favourite, they are now in a quarter-final situation. They were lacklustre against New Zealand, but its conceivable to think that they won’t bounce back against England. They are by far the better one-day team and the odds are weighted heavily in their favour.
But I don’t know. Call it a curious and hideously misplaced naivety, but something nags me that England might pull something off. They have a history of raising their game for the bigger sides (or is it a history of dropping their game for the lesser sides?). They were impressive (in defeat) against Australia, with Bell and KP both socring runs. Against Bangladesh, they were awful. So against South Africa, can we hope to see the better side of England?
Tags: England, south-africa, World-Cup-2007Related Stories
POSTED IN: Cricket
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