Cricket World Cup group stages, May 30 - July 6

[meninblue]

50 for Alex from just 25 balls. Well played and chancekess innings. Too many to score though in 14 balls that are left.

[yuppie]

Good win for India, and a good work out for both teams. India have put a marker down.

Feel like that Warner innings really hit the reply. Good bowling in the first 10 overs, but Warner is in the team to score quicker than that.

The balance of the Australian batting line up does not seem right to me.

[meninblue]

Win by 36 runs against in form Australian team who had a series win against India in last bilateral. 4 points from 2 matches against two major teams. The No. 4 batsman and the 5 th bowler is not yet sorted which means no complacency should be allowed to creep in onsite of the excellent start to the tournament.

[ianp1970]

Australia still 1 to 5 to qualify
New Zealand 1-2
Pakistan and West Indies both slightly over 2-1

By way of comparison:
India and England both shorter than 1-10
South Africa and Bangladesh about 15 to 2
Sri Lanka 16 to 1
Afghanistan 100 to 1

[backfootpunch]

Good win for India, and a good work out for both teams. India have put a marker down.

Feel like that Warner innings really hit the reply. Good bowling in the first 10 overs, but Warner is in the team to score quicker than that.

The balance of the Australian batting line up does not seem right to me.

Dont think khawaja really fits in anywhere

He would probably like to open or bat 3 but hes not as good as Warner, finch and Smith

Not sure he has the hitting power to bat 4

The big shots he played today didnt look natural at all, the class which Carey is showing I'd think he would slot in nicely at 4

[alfie]

After viewing the bits I missed on replay a couple of random observations :

Warner was uncharacteristically slow . But at 38 overs the Aus score was the same as India's at that point , albeit three down rather than two. The big difference being that chasing brings more pressure on the batting side in those closing overs - especially as India had held back their best bowlers for the death (a tactic which doesn't always work but did in this situation) In truth even when Maxwell and later Carey were in full flight the chase always seemed a little out of reach.

Perhaps both sides may be a little disappointed they didn't get either a faster start with the bat or enough wickets before the last ten overs ?

How on earth Smith wasn't given lbw without needing drs ?! Seeing eye dog required for the umpire...

India will be delighted with the win. As they should be. But given how poor some of the Australian support bowling was they probably shouldn't have needed that late surge to reach their 350. It is possible the surface wasn't quite as easy for clean hitting as the scores suggest : but really Zampa could have gone for a lot more than he did had Dhawan and Kohli made the most of his pies. Or maybe they were happy to milk him... Anyway , I'd pick Lyon.

These two are both making the semis . And either could win the whole thing...but we already knew that. Still I didn't see anything here to make England despair of their chances against them. Further rounds will tell us more but this looks a very open event at the moment.

Hope the weather doesn't mess up the next week too badly...

[mikesiva]

Russell and Lewis injured. Bravo and Roach in.

Duminy and Shamsi dropped. Hendricks and Markram in.

Amla out to Cottrell for six.

Cottrell again! Markram out for five.

The first rain delay of the day. South Africa 29-2 from 7.3 overs.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Great start for WI. Maybe strengthened by Roach coming in. Not so much by Bravo, though he has the potential.

[yuppie]

SA will be happy with this weather, chance to get their first points of the tournament

[Arthur Crabtree]

Wonder how well it will go down if India v Pakistan is rained off.

[yuppie]

The organizers will be gutted.

[meninblue]

Due to reduced overs matches and abandoned games is just reducing my interest in WC 2019. I think so far there have been 2 abandoned matches. I have am reading that many more amtches are liekyl to be impacted due to the weather. Few more of those reduced over matches and abandoned matches would probably make this as the worst cricket world cup i have watched ? After availability of 4 years for planning we have a tournament like this.

Football is so much better in some aspects.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Heavy rain across the uk this week.

A problem is the huge mono-group. The tournament really isn't going anywhere. Break it down to groups of four, and have an extra knockout round. This lumbering, cumbersome group stage is a snooze.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Supposed to rain all day in Bristol. Should have been an interesting contest between SL and BD.

Forecast is better for Turnton tomorrow. Looks like there should be a game there unless the recent weather means it's waterlogged. Aussies v Pakistan.

Looks like the end of days outside my window.

[mikesiva]

Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh abandoned without a ball being bowled.

It's now official that 2019 tournament is the one with the most abandoned games.

And we're not even halfway through yet!