It was a huge weekend of World Cup cricket from a few days ago where one match was a Trans-Tasman rivalry between Australia & New Zealand while another was the host nation (India) battling up against the under-fire defending champions (England).
Australia was sent into bat after New Zealand won the toss by electing to field first as the returning Travis Head & Dave Warner got them to another best possible start, with Head backing up his 100 on his first match back from injury. Although Australia did well to keep on scoring up to 388, they were under threat by the attacking NZ side with the bat later on thanks to some spectacular knocks from Rachin Ravindra on what has been another ton, as well as 50s coming from Daryl Mitchell & Jimmy Neesham. But in the end though, the Aussies were able to put them into bed at 383-9 thanks to a narrow five run win after 50 overs of play. Meanwhile, a similar thing happened the next day to India when they were also asked to bat first after losing the toss to England. Now India might not have scored as much as they’d like especially when Virat Kohli didn’t do so well, although Rohit Sharma is still at it in his Opening role as always. However, they defended their score of 229 where the fast bowling duo of Mohammed Shami & Jasprit Bumrah dismantled England’s batting card so quickly before the opponents were all out for 129 that secured them a 100 run win.
First of all, the Blackcaps showed some good rebound with the bat after a poor showing on the field except the last couple of overs with the ball. It’s still just not enough sadly when they fell just short towards meeting that 389 run target as there’s still time to improve their fast starts (either way or hopefully with the bat next first time) as well as these catches on the field. Aussies on the other hand have been so fortunate to escape NZ’s chase on the pitch as the overs comes down where it would be great if their quicks step up when building on these early scalps other than just the usual Adam Zampa show with spin. Other than that, the opening partnership has been strong as always regardless of the other partner with Dave Warner lately including 1-2 in the middle to lower order like Glenn Maxwell, wicket keeper Josh Inglis & skipper Pat Cummins.
Then India would’ve love to score as big as they’d like where that match could go England’s way at last who is good with their so-called Bazball tactics when it comes to playing attacking cricket. But they were fortunate to shut the opposition’s batting card down as quick as they can thanks to the excellent fast bowling duo of Mohammed Shami & Jasprit Bumrah as said above including some help in the spin department from Kuldeep Yadav. And speaking of England, their bowling wasn’t bad where the could come at last after bowling them out for 229. But unfortunately, their batters still blew it up before it was too late just short of 100 runs which was the 230 run target as they are still rock bottom in this CWC.
Australia will renew its long-standing rivalry v England this Saturday while New Zealand will next be out on the field soon tonight v South Africa followed by Team India the next day v Sri Lanka.
