England qualify. Australia go (stay) home. Sri Lanka freak out everyone. Sam Curran’s teeth and toes. Sri Lanka exit interview. And MUHAMMAD NABI steps down.
Day 21 of the World Cup.
England qualify
Well they did it the hard way, but England are into the semi finals. Sorry Australia.
After the easy, yet not exactly emphatic win against Afghanistan, and then the shock against Ireland, England have been much more as advertised in their last two games against New Zealand and Sri Lanka.
They have now come through what were effectively two consecutive knockout games, playing accomplished cricket, if not yet necessarily displaying the sort of explosive batting that we expected coming into this competition – but then it really hasn’t been that sort of World Cup.
In the past this is definitely the sort of game we have seen England lose. High pressure, batting second on a thrice used wicket, Sri Lanka with nothing to lose, Silverwood’s revenge – there were plenty of negative omens there if you wanted them. And you can throw the mid-game injury to Dawid Malan, which effectively reduced them to ten batters, in there too.
But England kept their cool- well, they didn’t fuck it up at least. First when Sri Lanka got off to a flying start and then when their chase didn’t go as smoothly as they would have liked. There was an irony that it was Ben Stokes – whose batting has drawn criticism this tournament – who was there to finish things for them at the end.
England will now most probably face India in the second of the two semi-finals in Adelaide on Thursday.
England bowling
England were in trouble with the ball in this match. Sri Lanka had 65/1 after just 7 overs. Mark Wood’s first over went for 17. Nissanka had raced to 41 off 23 balls, including four sixes.
On a pitch where chasing anything around 160 looked like it was going to be tricky, this was an absolutely massive start from Sri Lanka. But then something somewhat unexpected happened, England pulled it back.
Bowling has famously been England’s weaker suit since their white ball revival began, and when things have started to go wrong for them in the field they have often gone really wrong.
Today was different though, after Sri Lanka’s early onslaught England bowled five consecutive overs at a run a ball or less.
Rashid’s first over here went for 6 runs, Curran for 4 and the wicket of Dhananjaya, Moeen for 5, Stokes for 4 and the wicket of Asalanka and then Livingstone for 5.
England cycled through their bowlers, leaning heavily on spin with Curran and Stokes mixing in a healthy dose of pace off deliveries too. In that five over period Sri Lanka failed to find the boundary once, going for 31 balls in total between boundaries.
Having been 41 after 7 overs, Nissanka was eventually dismissed for 67 in the 16th – no other Sri Lankan batter made more than 22.
Ultimately having been 65/1 after 7 overs, Sri Lanka made 76/7 off their final 13 - 25/5 in their last five. Overall half of England’s overs in the innings went at less than a run a ball.
Adil Rashid was the pick for England, in fact he even managed to bowl an over that went for just 2 in the middle of Sri Lanka’s onslaught (and in the powerplay). He picked up his first wicket of the tournament and finished with an impressive 1/16 from his four. The wicket also took him to 90 T20I wickets, making him equal with Chris Jordan as England men’s leading wicket taker in the format.
Curran’s new length
If I told you that Sam Curran had changed his length profile, you would probably look at me weirdly, and then walk away slowly. But each bowler has a profile of how often they try each area. Now there is always a slight variation in this from year to year. The balls might swing more one year, so you pitch it up, or you might play a bunch of games on surfaces that dictate your length more or less.
But the changes in Sam Curran this year, are not from that. He has made a conscious effort to change where he lands the ball on the pitch.And the medium fast southpaw swinger has suddenly become a toes and teeth bowler.
Look at all the full tosses and yorkers he has bowled this year. You would expect that from Mitchell Starc, not junior Curran.
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