England plunge
England were effectively knocked out of the ICC Champions Trophy last night when the West Indies beat India, even with a game in hand. England still have to face West Indies in their last match of the group stages, despite the result being totally meaningless. It should be expected for England to win the match - not because they’re a better side or deserve to win it - rather, because they have a habit of winning lost-cause matches. (I’ve lost count of the number of series where the series result has ended up masking a pitiful performance.)
England’s losses to India and Australia in the group stage sealed their fate in this tournament, which despite being embarassing, is in reality, nothing to get too worked up about. England have a well lamented record in one day Internationals, and the losses here don’t reflect any sort of shift from normality. Whilst a new plan for the one day side is undeniably needed, their early exit does, at least, give the England boys maximum rest and practice time before the Ashes start next month.
Tags: England, ICC-Champions-Trophy-2006, Quick-Singles, rubbishRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Cricket
1 opinion for England plunge
SixandOut.net - The International Cricket blog » Wow… West Indies
Nov 8, 2006 at 10:10 am
[…] England won their last game of the group stages of the ICC Champions Trophy, despite it being totally irrelevant. Heck, I even predicted it. Go me. It was nice to see Kevin Pietersen finally do something useful, even if it was all in vain. Enough of England, though, how good do the West Indies look? Their form in the last couple of years has been frightening, amidst captaincy issues, loss of bowlers, Lara not being in form. But they’ve, in one day cricket at least, really turned it around. Their batting, even without Lara firing, looks solid and has some real depth, and their young and inexperienced bowling attach is growing in maturity with every game. Don’t forget that in addition to the group stages, the West Indies also negotiated their way through the qualification stages, so have now played 6 games. Some might say that that’s helped them because of extra match time - I say it proves that they’re a very good one day side. […]
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