Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

Afghanistan not enjoying the sorcery of Joe Root.

Three for Honest Joe!

Back on 606 this would have been taken as a sign to leave Mo out and pick another batter (Vince).

160 all out. Archer going for a few at the xpense of his three wickets.

England knocking these off at T20 pace

although YJB has perished now

England win by 9 wickets

Most of England's injury worries seem to be allayed, for now at least.

I'm nervous. Over the last twenty years of world cups when I've been following cricket, I never expected England to win - making the knockouts would have been a success. Naturally England managed to disappoint even low expectations every time (1999's ignominy of a group stage exit, 2007's pedalo-gate, 2011's loss to Ireland, every aspect of the 2015 tournament). But at least I never expected them to shine.

Now I'm hoping for great things, yet fearing the disappointment will be all the greater if England revert to their usual tournament form. Has any side underperformed at world cups as much as we have?

Made a couple of finals in the early days of ODIs. In one of those, were probably favourites. But since then have been comically bad. At least this time they have a realistic chance, even though they're not so much better (the bowling) as WI and Australia were in their time that winning is probable. Anything can happen in the knockouts. But it'd be a surprise if England didn't get out of the group stage.

I'd quite like an underdog to win it though. NZ, WI. Afghanistan would be amazing!

Huge score from the Windies today

bigfluffylemon wrote:
Now I'm hoping for great things, yet fearing the disappointment will be all the greater if England revert to their usual tournament form. Has any side underperformed at world cups as much as we have?

South Africa?

GG - Amir Sohail wrote:Huge score from the Windies today

A good all round performance.

Durhamfootman wrote:

bigfluffylemon wrote:
Now I'm hoping for great things, yet fearing the disappointment will be all the greater if England revert to their usual tournament form. Has any side underperformed at world cups as much as we have?

South Africa?

They're probably the other major contender, yes. Should have won in 1999, they were the best side in the tournament but for that semi final run-out.

But they've made the knockouts in every tournament since apart from 2003, three semi final appearances in the last five cups. Is that underperformance? I'm not sure you could say they should have gone further in 2007 or 2015. 2003 was a bit of an outlier, but they had a bit of bad luck with the combination of Duckworth-Lewis and New Zealand's political forfeit to Kenya.

England have failed to make the knockouts in every edition bar 2011 (when there were eight sides in the knockouts rather than the usual four), at which point we were thrashed by Sri Lanka. So I think we're worse.

mikesiva wrote:

GG - Amir Sohail wrote:Huge score from the Windies today

A good all round performance.

Should've saved it for later!

bigfluffylemon wrote: So I think we're worse.

me too

I don't want to exaggerate - but this World Cup opening ceremony is one of the worst things I've ever seen.
So bad that I'll be surprised if the ECB weren't heavily involved in devising it.

There was one in England that was famously bad, might even have been the last one. Didn't St. George break his ankle.