England on top in ICC match against South Africa

England has outplayed South Africa in their ICC champions match. It seems like South Africa will also fail to proceed to the next round of the competition. I would like to see only day matches played at Centurion as it has been shown that the team batting first in the

New Zealand beats Sri Lanka in ICC trophy.

With Sri Lanka losing against New Zealand today it seems that my prediction can still come true that New Zealand can reach the next round of the competition.

So England has won the toss and elected to bat.

So England has won the toss and elected to bat as expected and in the first few over’s proved to be a good decision with 17 on the board after only 3 over’s being bowled. They were out of the blocks in similar fashion as Sri Lanka in their day night match against South Africa. This is going to be a thriller of a match with South Africa having a good record at this venue. Gibbs is has been recalled for this game and we will have to see what influence he will have on the game

Owais Shah has been playing the anchor role.

Owais Shah has been playing the anchor role in the 50 run partnership with Eoin Morgan fighting for every run and playing ultra defensive. It seems like the game plan was to button down the hatches at one end and trying to score the runs from the other. Shah has just demonstrated a majestic shot over square leg, the first shot of intent as the score moves closer to the Sri Lankan score.

England VS Sri Lanka Update

England is coping better with the Sri Lanka unorthodox bowler Mendis than South Africa a few days ago. Both the England players at the crease tried to play the bowler with a straight bat and also tried to play the ball well away form the pads.
Collingwood has played selectively attacking cricket with big over’s in between solid defensive cricket. The score have progressed to 63 for 2 wickets after 17 overs which should stand them in good stead in the latter overs. Murali have not started his bowling spell yet and I suspect he will do his complete spell without interruption from somewhere in the early 20th over

What is the scenario if England beats Sri Lanka in the Champions trophy?

The scenario will be that England , Sri Lanka and South Africa will have a victory each that will put England in poll position in the group because they only played one match in the competition. This will place extra pressure performing in Sunday’s match between England and South Africa as the winner will probably go to the next round. But the odds on three teams ending up with the same amount of points will be the favourite and it might boil down to run rate difference.
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England VS Sri Lanka Champions trophy match

The England cat is literally amongst the Sri Lankan pigeons in their Champions trophy match played on the Wanderers cricket stadium. The Wanderers gave more than expected assistance to the bowlers in the first few over’s and reduced the Sri Lankan team to four wickets down in the first few over’s that helped England to restrict Sri Lanka to 212. It is still going to be a tough ask for the England team to get the runs. The openers should be circumspect in the first few over’s and play each ball on its merit more than the olden day type cricket.
My view is that they should play save for the first 15 to 18 over’s and the number of runs scored then will make a big impact on the score chase scenario.

Ajantha Mendis has flummoxed South African

Ajantha Mendis has flummoxed South African left handed batsmen. Only bowling two deliveries to South African left handed batsmen and clean bowling both in his first spell of five over’s. Also tying down the scoring rate during his spell and putting Sri Lanka in a position as firm favourites to beat South Africa and sending them to third on the table of one day international rankings.
South Africa only had Graeme Smith until he received the first ball from Mednis and totally misjudged it playing down the wrong line. It will be interesting to see haw Mendis perform in the competition with the tracks giving assistance to spin.
The new rankings will be at number one Australia by a narrow margin then in second position India. Both these teams are in action in the other section of the competition.

ICC Champions Trophy South Africa VS Sri Lanka

It was quite clear that South Africa has been caught cold in there first match in the ICC champions trophy with both bowling and fielding has been shown up as mentioned in a earlier post. It is clear that it is not as easy after a long layoff as what the Proteas had to start firing from the outset.
In the South African opening bowlers was treated with distain and send to the boundaries on a regular basis. It has to be set that the pitch did not provide any assistance to the bowlers but that the lines and lengths of attack were not executed well.
Dilshan Telekeratne has blasted a quick fire 106 and was involved with a great partnership with Sangakara of 158 runs. If it was not for the tumbling of 5 wickets in the last 4 over’s the chasing score will have been much more than the 320 that was set as target by Sri Lanka. The death bowling have been much more improved but it was after the horse has bolted.
It will be interesting to see how good the South African batting will be under lights.
South Africa will have to produce a Centurion on Centurion to have a good chance to come near the score of Sri Lanka

ICC champions League is starting soon

This will be the first competitive match for South Africa after a well earned rest after their successes last season. South Africa’s form will be tested by sides that have been paying well. The teams that have been playing well in the short fifty- fifty over version of the game include Australia, Sri Lanka. It will be a big ask for South Africa to step up to the plate against Sri Lanka starting their campaign against a team in good form.
Especially the bowlers did not have a test this season yet. This will be the start of a prolonged season against England that will be touring South Africa this season.

The teams playing:
Australia
England
India
New Zealand
Pakistan
South Africa
Sri Lanka
West Indies