2019 Cricket World Cup

And Lo, it came to pass, that England (as a work-colleague has not stopped reminding me since) became the first ever nation to have won the cricket, football and rugby union World Cups.  Although I cannot really think of any other country who plays all three of these sports at an elite level, and who could be viewed any sort of rival for this accolade.

Although, if one could overlook that CCTV footage of his Bristol night club adventures and also the distasteful Harvey Price incident, I think few folks would begrudge Ben Stokes his day in the sun – particularly anyone who witnessed his Over Horribilis at Eden Gardens in 2016.

Whilst England have certainly been the major force over the last two years at the One Day game, few would suggest they had been the best team in this tournament.  That (worthless) accolade, I think most folks felt, fell to an Indian team who succeeded in undoing all their earlier good work, during a catastophic 15 minute spell in their semi-final defeat to New Zealand.  

Indeed, it could be argued that England were not even the best side in the final.  For without Mr. Stoke's bizarre Bat-of-God incident, the Kiwi's would most assuredly have won the title.

But on such slivers of fortune are sporting triumphs and defeats often distributed.


I managed to attend three matches over the tournament – even if I had bought tickets for four – of more anon.


Australia v West Indies
(Trent Bridge 6/6/19) 

I had seen the West Indies play England in Antigua earlier in the year when, so we were led to believe, the green shoots of recovery of West Indian fast bowling were sprouting.  That may or may not be the case, but England poaching Windies' most promising young bowler Jofra Archer (the ECB altering their eligibility rules to facilitate this) hardly aided the Caribbean chaps' cause.

Nevertheless, in their opening match some aggressive short bowling - particularly from the arms of Oshane Thomas and captain Jason Holder - had lain waste to Pakistan; whom they had bowled out for 105 in less than 22 overs.  This failure to bat for even half of their allotted overs would decimate the Pakistani's net run rate, and contribute to their eventual elimination from the competition.

Australia, for their part had opened the defence of their title with a routine win over Afghanistan.  (As an aside: in the light of the poor showings of both sides who qualified for this tournament through the 2018 Qualifying Tournament, I feel the organisers were correct in limiting participation to ten countries.  It pains me to say it, but the addition of the likes of Zimbabwe, Scotland or Ireland to proceedings would only have detracted from events.  Either by stretching out an already lengthy tournament even further, or by increasing the number of one-sided encounters.  Or quite probably both).

Once play commenced, this afternoon, it initially looked as if the Windies may indeed have re-found their bowling mojo, as the aforementioned Thomas had Aaron Finch caught in the second over, before David Warner followed just six balls later.  By the end of the eighth over Australia found themselves 38/4, and in more than a little bother.

Fortunately for the Aussies, Steve Smith decided he had seen enough of the silliness and proceeded to batten down the hatches.  He stayed put for the next three hours, before being dismissed on 73 courtesy of some quite magical on-the-boundary juggling by Sheldon Cottrell.  Perhaps Smith's greater contribution to the match had actually been to act as an anchor for teammate Nathan Coulter-Nile to do his stuff.  The latter contributed 92 runs from 60 balls, including 14 boundaries.

The Australians eventually posted a total of 288 – a figure which had looked pure fantasy at one point, earlier in the day.  One could not help but feel, during the break, that the Windies really had let their opponents off a particularly sharp and curved hook.

And I would suggest WI wasted an equally promising opportunity to win the match during their own innings; even if they did make almost as poor a start as their opponents had.  When Chris Gayle's shockingly selfish display came to an end for just 21, Windies stood on 31/2.  But step forward Shai Hope; and it looked for a spell as if he and his captain Holder would chase down the Australia total.  For with five overs remaining, Windies required just 30 runs to win.  

But a disastrous 46th over wherein but a single run was scored, and two wickets (including Holder's) were taken by Mitchell Starc, pretty much ended the contest.

Realising the game was up, Windies then looked towards protecting their net run rate by tamely prodding ball after ball, declining to run.  Before Ashley Nurse appeared to lose patience with this approach, and proceeded to unceremoniously bash the final four balls to the boundary.  This flurry of scoring gave the margin of defeat (15 runs) a closer look than had actually been the case in reality.

Australia v West Indies - 2019 Cricket World Cup

Australia v West Indies - 2019 Cricket World Cup

And the 2019 Cricket World Cup (or, at least my bit of it), gets underway with Oshane Thomas to David Warner.
Not a good start for the Windies, as this one flashed past the wicketkeeper for five wides.

There were a number of these chaps at the grounds.  Clearly talented 
musicians who would jump up, generally after a wicket, 
and clatter away on a geetar created from a cricket bat.  
It was moderately entertaining the first couple of occasions, 
but soon became teeth-grindingly irksome.

I was disappointed with Chris Gayle in this match.  He appeared more intent on showing
 off with a few spectacular boundaries, than actually helping his side win the match.

Panorama of Trent Bridge

The last ball of the match was, as he had done with the previous three, hit for a four by Ashley Nurse

I do not know the Australian faces well enough to ascertain if this is Mitchell Starc being congratulated 
for his five wickets, or Nathan Coulter-Nile getting a pat on the head for his 92 runs.  
Or maybe neither. 

Australia v West Indies - 2019 Cricket World Cup

Aaron Finch attempts to put a gloss upon what had been at times a decidedly ropey Australian performance.

Pakistan v Sri Lanka
(Bristol County Ground 7/6/19)

From Nottingham it was down to Bristol the following day, to enjoy the questionable delights of sitting in my car for three hours, hoping for the rain to go off and stay off.  It did around 1:30pm or so, but apparently a month's worth of rainwater had been tipped onto the County Ground.  So it was perhaps no great surprise when, at 4pm, it was finally decided the outfield was just too squishy to allow any cricket to safely take place.  

Pakistan would have fancied their chances against Sri Lanka, but had to settle for just a single point with the abandonment of the tie.  Which would be another factor in their failure to reach the semi-finals.

West Indies v New Zealand
(Old Trafford 22/6/19)

By the time of this encounter, any glimmer of a Windies' renaissance had been seen to have been a false dawn – they had failed to win again since that opening tie.  New Zealand, by contrast, had taken full advantage of the way the fixtures had landed (playing all the weaker nations first), to sit unbeaten atop the group.

I had barely begin to warm my seat, when Martin Guptill was dismissed with the first ball of the innings - no repeat of Guptill's 237 against the Windies at the last World Cup then.  And before the first over was...ahem...over, Private Sheldon Cottrell was marching and saluting once more, as Guptill's fellow-opener Colin Munro also failed to deal with his first ball faced, leaving NZ on 7/2.  

Fortunately for the Kiwi's the redoubtable Kane Williamson strode in, and proceeded to do to WI what Smith and Coulter-Nile had done at Trent Bridge – namely refuse to get out, whilst doggedly totting up the runs.  NZ had rallied to 167 before losing their next wicket, and were 251/5 by the time Williamson was finally toppled; the Kiwi's captain having reached 148.  A fine tail-ender cameo by Jimmy Neesham helped the Black Caps to a total of 291.  And once again, the Windies' bowlers must have been left wondering: how the heck did we let this one slip?

I was rather glad they had, for what transpired in the second half was quite the most dramatic end to a cricket match I have seen.  Well, live anyway.

For after Chris Gayle's 87 had given his side a head-start in the run chase, Windies suddenly collapsed from 142/2 to 164/7.  And pretty much everyone in the stadium thought that was that.  Everyone except Carlos Brathwaite, of course.  He toiled away, with partners falling, until the astonishing 48th over when he hit Matt Henry for 25 runs.  And suddenly, what had been 33 runs from 18 balls to win, became an almost perfunctory looking 8 from 12.

But Jimmy Neesham proved to be made of sterner stuff than the shell-shocked Henry, and after conceding just two runs from the first five balls of his over, he tempted Brathwaite into going for the biggie.  But Brathwaite's swipe fell just a few inches short of the boundary, being caught by a relieved Trent Boult, who had already butterfingered a brace of eminently catchable opportunities earlier in the match.

One could not help but feel for Carlos, but as he got up from his knees with a wry smile on his face, I think even he appreciated the preposterousness of what he almost achieved.  He did leave Old Trafford with the consolation prize of a memorable century to his name, I suppose.

That is a LOT of scaffolding.

The temporary stand at Old Trafford held 8,000 people.

New Zealand v West Indies - 2019 Cricket World Cup

New Zealand v West Indies - 2019 Cricket World Cup

Somewhere down in there is a very, very, very disappointed Carlos Brathwaite

Panorama of Old Trafford

England v New Zealand
(Riverside 3/7/19)

My final match was, had we but known it, a dress rehearsal for the final itself.  For a few days leading up to this one it looked as if the tie would actually be a semi-final eliminator.  But England had belatedly found a bit of form, and a fine win over India allied to New Zealand's positive run rate (gleaned from an earlier bashing of Sri Lanka) really turned this one into a bit of a friendly.  As long as NZ succeeded in batting out the majority of their overs, both sides would in all probability progress to the last four irrespective of the result.

Well, what we got was as one-sided an encounter as I think I have seen (outside of a Scotland defeat), as Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow set about the NZ attack with glee.  England raced to 100 within 15 overs, and were sitting pretty at 202/2 before Bairstow was finally dismissed by Henry for 106.  A projected tally of 350 plus was being touted by the folks in my earpiece, before something odd happened.  For the pitch gradually became more bowler friendly (how that happens, I have no idea), and England began shedding wickets.  Butler, Stokes and Woakes all disappeared rather cheaply, and the hosts had to rely upon Liam Plunkett's gritty half-hour to creak over the 300 mark.

But this target was never in any real danger of being overhauled, for The Black Caps lost Henry Nicholls to his first ball faced, before Martin Guptill's desperately disappointing tournament continued, as he managed to accrue just 8 runs before falling.  When first Williamson and then the experienced Ross Taylor were each run out attempting to force the run rate, leaving NZ on 69/4, the business was over.  Not even Jimmy Neesham's fine half-century could bring the Kiwis within a hundred runs of England's total.

The next meeting between the sides would, of course, be rather closer.

First ball of the match: Mitchell Santner to Jason Roy

A couple of New Zealand players enjoyed a fun five minutes looking for the ball 
which had somehow burrowed into the rain sheeting to hide.

Panorama of Emirates Riverside

Johnny Bairstow celebrates his century, whilst Joe Root wipes his brow, unaware he will be gone next ball.
Quite what that odd little UFO above Moeen Ali's head is, I have no idea.

I caught this one myself.

Drinks break.

Not a whole lot to say here, beyond recording what one of the co-commentators on TMS stated: 
"he is carrying a lot of timber".

With only(!) 124 runs required off 33 balls to win, Trent Boult does his bit by hitting this one for four.

But two balls later Boult is stumped having crept just too far out of his crease, and the match is over.  
England win by 119 runs.

England v New Zealand 

Future World Champions.