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

1st Semi-Final: New Zealand v England at Delhi on Mar 30, 2016
(19:00 local | 13:30 GMT)

2nd Semi-Final: West Indies v India at Mumbai on Mar 31, 2016
(19:00 local | 13:30 GMT)

Sun Apr 3 (20 ovs) 19:00 local (13:30 GMT | 14:30 BST)
Final - TBC v TBC (Reserve Day)
Eden Gardens, Kolkata

Aren't England playing New Zealand after today's result?

Going for an India - England final, and of course an England win!

Gingerfinch wrote:Aren't England playing New Zealand after today's result?

Going for an India - England final, and of course an England win!

If WI lose really heavily against Afghanistan, then they could drop below England, leading to a WI-NZ match-up. But it's 99% an England-NZ SF.

An England sports team actually hot out of the group stage in a major sporting event

What is this witchcraft

backfootpunch wrote:An England sports team actually hot out of the group stage in a major sporting event

What is this witchcraft

A sure sign there were not enough associates in the group stages to beat them.

If Australia get through, that's a really unpredictable last four. Must be a while since no Asian sides made the last four. Played in Asia too.

NZ have been pretty classy. They've won all the games in the tougher group. England were beaten heavily in the game they lost, were pushed by Afg and had close finishes against SL and SA. Surely NZ will be huge favourites in their semi. The other semi depends on Chris Gayle, so is unpredicatble.

NZ seems to be THE team at the moment. Post McCullum who would have thought it?

I predicted India winning and Aus not making it out of the group stages, so hopefully Aus will lose tomorrow and not make me look (even more) stupid. I'm not sure either team has played well enough to rate a semi.

Toby F wrote:NZ seems to be THE team at the moment. Post McCullum who would have thought it?

I predicted India winning and Aus not making it out of the group stages, so hopefully Aus will lose tomorrow and not make me look (even more) stupid. I'm not sure either team has played well enough to rate a semi.

I get the feeling that new zealand have peaked too early

If they have peaked, they've still got Boult and Southee to call on.

It's seen as a tradition for the team that aces the qualifiers to get eliminated in the first knock out. I don't know if that stands scrutiny though. There's no reason why it should happen

For me, New Zealand have yet to show that their batting is good enough to win the tournament. Three complete scores under 145 in 4 matches is hardly the type of form that makes me think they arent anything but sitting dicks waiting to be knocked out. In contrast, they are coming against a team that have scored 171, 182 and 230 in their 3/4 matches and only really failed in a game against Afghanistan were you felt they were over confident and tried to start of suicidally to get their net RR up.

I have England beating New Zealand, and I think if England bowl well, it could be comfortable. I think England have too much firepower for the New Zealanders, and I dont see the New Zealand batting line up at the moment have the form to really punish England's bowling weaknesses.

On the tracks they played on, they outbatted their opponents by a distance. KW is a fine batter, and Guppy is a star in LOIs. Shame Brendon isn't there though.

We've got no chance of scoring 180 against Sodhi and Santner.

Arthur Crabtree wrote:On the tracks they played on, they outbatted their opponents by a distance. KW is a fine batter, and Guppy is a star in LOIs. Shame Brendon isn't there though.

KW is a fine player, but is limited in his ability to really up the rate. He wants to be the glue in the top order and bat through giving Guptil and Munro the job to hit, and allowing the others to play cameos. But a couple of early break throughs, and the middle to lower order is not going to win them anything. Corey Anderson, Ronchi and Grant Elliot have 2 x 50 between them in a lot of combined matches. Elliot coming in a batting slot has a best of 27 and a SR of just over a 100.... thats miles away from being good enough. Corey Anderson has failed mostly apart from one innings against Pakistan.

Can New Zealand chase 160 plus? I dont think they can consistently. If England put runs on the board New Zealand simply dont have the capacity to chase.

New Zealand havent really outbatted anyone but a hapless Pakistan team. Their bowlers have simply torn people to shreds, but will they do that against the competitions top scorers?

dan08 wrote:We've got no chance of scoring 180 against Sodhi and Santner.

Didnt England score near 200 last summer against them in the only match? And New Zealand were bowled out long before they even challenged our score?

sussexpob wrote:

dan08 wrote:We've got no chance of scoring 180 against Sodhi and Santner.

Didnt England score near 200 last summer against them in the only match? And New Zealand were bowled out long before they even challenged our score?

Completely different attack (only McClenaghan and Santner remain) and conditions are nowhere near similar.