Hanging by a thread

CRICKET WORLD CUP

GROUP STAGE

Pos	Team	W	L	NR	NRR	Pts	Remaining fixtures
(Q)	AUSTRALIA	6	1	0	0.906	12	New Zealand (29/06), South Africa (06/07)
(2)	INDIA	5	0	1	1.160	11	England (30/06), Bangladesh (02/07), Sri Lanka (06/07)
(3)	NEW ZEALAND	5	1	1	1.028	11	Australia (29/06), England (03/07)
(4)	ENGLAND	4	3	0	1.051	8	India (30/06), New Zealand (03/07)
(5)	BANGLADESH	3	3	1	-0.133	7	India (02/07), Pakistan (05/07)
(6)	PAKISTAN	3	3	1	-0.976	7	Afghanistan (29/06), Bangladesh (05/07)
(7)	SRI LANKA	2	2	2	-1.119	6	South Africa (28/06), West Indies (01/07), India (06/07)
(8)	WEST INDIES	1	5	1	-0.320	3	Sri Lanka (01/07), Afghanistan (04/07)
(9)	SOUTH AFRICA	1	5	1	-0.324	3	Sri Lanka (28/06), Australia (06/07)
(10)	AFGHANISTAN	0	7	0	-1.634	0	Pakistan (29/06), West Indies (04/07)

ENGLAND hopes of reaching a first Cricket World Cup semi final since 1992 were dealt a huge blow by Australia after they inflicted a painful 64-run defeat on the hosts at Lord's.

Aussie skipper Aaron Finch scored exactly 100 with the bat and left-arm seamer Jason Behrendorff took 5-44 with the ball as the five-time winners became the first - and so far only - team in the tournament to guarantee themselves a top four spot.

By contrast, England - who came into the competition as the world number one ranked team - now face an uphill task to make it through.

Following back-to-back defeats at home for the first time in four years, Eoin Morgan's men finish the group stage against the only two teams, other than Australia, currently above them.

The hosts will play India at Edgbaston on 30 June and New Zealand at the Riverside in Chester-le-Street on 3 July - and another two defeats almost certainly would be the end of their campaign altogether.

In fact, even one win and one loss would not be enough for England if either fifth-placed Bangladesh or sixth-placed Pakistan win both of their remaining games.

The pair of hopefuls meet each other at Lord's on Friday 5th July in what increasingly looks like being a decider for the last top four place.

Ahead of that clash, Pakistan - who ended New Zealand's unbeaten start today with victory in the final over - meet Afghanistan on Saturday while Bangladesh face India next Tuesday.

Morgan, defiantly, has been at pains to stress that England still have their own destiny within their hands - but it now seems inevitable in reality that there will be some reliance on results outside of their control going their way.

It is a far cry from the expectations held on the first day of the tournament when it had all begun so well against South Africa at the Oval.

The inimitable Ben Stokes scored 89 and took 2-12, a run-out, and a doozy of a catch as England easily brushed aside the Proteas by 104 runs to get off to an ideal start.

But the ideal start did not last long as Pakistan took advantage of a sloppy fielding performance to produce a characteristic turn-up for the books and win by 14 runs at Trent Bridge.

It did not matter that the Pakistanis had lost 4-0 in a bilateral series to the same opponents immediately before the World Cup - or that they had been bowled out for just 105 in their first game against West Indies.

In Nottingham, Sarfaraz Ahmed's side hit 348-8 - and England could not chase it down despite the best efforts of Joe Root (107) and Jos Buttler (103).

Still, the high-scoring nature of the contest did not raise too many concerns and, in any case, England soon got back on track with a trio of big wins against Bangladesh (by 106 runs) in Cardiff, West Indies (by eight wickets) in Southampton, and Afghanistan (by 150 runs) at Old Trafford.

Indeed, against Afghanistan, England were just about at their best in posting 397-6 as Morgan set a new One-Day International record of 17 sixes in his imperious 148.

Victory over the Afghans took England to the top of the standings on eight points, level with Australia, and a point clear of India and New Zealand on seven.

Sri Lanka were in fifth place, three points behind on four, ahead of a whole clutch of teams on three points - and so, at that stage, it looked as if the group phase would peter out on the back of a series of dead rubbers. Simply put, the top four looked pretty set in stone.

Even the always eagerly awaited India v Pakistan clash at Old Trafford failed to produce anything close to an iconic World Cup moment as the Indians recorded another routine win over their biggest rivals.

Rohit Sharma blazed his way to 140 off 113 balls as India won by 89 runs on the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method for a seventh victory out of seven over Pakistan in all World Cups.

The match, sadly, had also been blighted by rain - and, in the absence of any shock results or many close matches, the British summer weather quickly became the main topic of conversation between fans and pundits alike.

Rain has caused the abandonment of no fewer than four World Cup fixtures, three of them were total abandonments, and two of them came in four days in the drizzle in Bristol.

Previously, a total of two washouts was the most recorded at a single World Cup - in 1992 and 2003 - as organisers battled in vain against what is likely to be confirmed as one of the wettest months of June since records began.

Nevertheless, the extent of the bad weather did nothing to reduce the legitimacy of the complaint raised by Bangladesh coach Steve Rhodes about a lack of reserve days after the Tigers' tie against Sri Lanka was wiped out.

Back to the action and, last Friday, the Sri Lankans were next up for England. With just one win in their opening five matches, the lowly-ranked Lions were expected to cause few problems for the hosts at Headingley.

And so it was no surprise then when England quicks Mark Wood and Jofra Archer duly took three wickets apiece to restrict Sri Lanka to 232-9.

Of course, at 170-5, it could hardly be said that the chase was going completely to plan - but, with Stokes and Mooen Ali at the crease and Chris Woakes still to come, 63 runs in more than 12 overs did not look like too much of a stretch.

But then the England middle order, with the honourable exception of Stokes, completely and collectively lost their minds, their nerve, or both.

Mooen marked his 100th One-Day International by holing out for 16 to long-off before Woakes and Adil Rashid were both out cheaply edging behind in Dhananjaya de Silva's very next over.

At 178-8, Stokes was left with only Archer and then Wood - and, rapidly, it was just his Durham team-mate Wood left when Archer found long-on trying to clear the boundary.

Encouragingly, Stokes thumped 23 from eight deliveries to make a deafening crowd believe - but, needing to defend the final ball of the 47th over, Wood edged Nuwan Pradeep behind for a 19-minute, four-ball duck.

Stokes - miserably - was stranded on 82 not out and England had been bowled out for 212 to finish 20 runs short.

At least, at this point, it could be said that the tournament had belatedly come to life.

England's defeat to the Sri Lankans came hard on the heels of an exciting match at Edgbaston where Kane Williamson hit an unbeaten 106 and coolly steered New Zealand to victory over hapless South Africa with just three balls to spare.

Then, last Saturday, there were two back-to-back thrillers as Afghanistan gave India an almighty scare - and eventually fell just 11 runs short - before an even tighter contest under lights between New Zealand and West Indies at Old Trafford.

At 211-8, requiring another 81 off less than 12 overs, it looked as if West Indies were set to be well short of their target.

In fact, the Windies still needed 33 runs from the final 18 balls to seal an unlikely success - but then Carlos Brathwaite struck three huge sixes off Matt Henry in the 48th over.

Braithwaite also top edged a four to take the required runs down to eight from 12 balls - and, in the following over, he reached a sensational century with six runs still needed.

All of a sudden, victory was within one blow for the men from the Caribbean - but, with a full over to go, Braithwaite's death-or-glory shot from the final ball of the penultimate over was surely the wrong option.

New Zealand thus escaped with two points from a tight match for the second time in four days - and the Black Caps now need just one more win to make sure of qualifying for an eighth World Cup semi final.

Sadly, England do not seem likely to join them, particularly if stricken opener Jason Roy is still not ready to come in for his overwhelmed replacement James Vince.

Without the settled opening partnership of Roy and Jonny Bairstow (and, before that, Roy and Alex Hales), Root and Morgan have been at the crease in the last two matches far sooner than they would have liked.

Meanwhile, Buttler - barring one ton scored in a losing cause against Pakistan - has failed to tear up the tournament in a way that was expected of him based on his form in the last couple of years.

Finally, Moeen - more of a confidence player than most - appears to be at a particularly low ebb with the bat.

In fairness to the bowlers, none of them particularly disgraced themselves against Sri Lanka or Australia - but, against the latter, quicks Wood, Woakes and Archer were all guilty of failing to threaten the stumps by bowling too short.

So, there is plenty for England to work on ahead of Sunday then. Arguably, though, the biggest issue now is the need to rebuild the shattered confidence of the squad as a whole.

Ultimately, it looks as if a home World Cup has been just too big a deal for England to cope with.

After all, it is widely recognised that a World Cup has a completely different level of pressure to the standard bilateral series which England have dominated over the last two years.

"The team, which handles the pressure best, carries the day," said former Pakistan captain Imran Khan before he led his side to the unlikeliest of triumphs in the 1992 edition.

England need just a drop of the spirit held by Khan's Cornered Tigers from 27 years ago. Tellingly, though, yet another group stage exit is now odds-on with the bookmakers.

CENTURIES
166 David Warner (Australia) v Bangladesh
153 Aaron Finch (Australia) v Sri Lanka
153 Jason Roy (England) v Bangladesh
148 Eoin Morgan (England) v Afghanistan
148 Kane Williamson (New Zealand) v West Indies
140 Rohit Sharma (India) v Pakistan
124* Shakib Al Hasan (Bangladesh) v West Indies
122* Rohit Sharma (India) v South Africa
121 Shakib Al Hasan (Bangladesh) v England
117 Shikhar Dhawan (India) v Australia
107 Joe Root (England) v Pakistan
107 David Warner (Australia) v Pakistan
106* Kane Williamson (New Zealand) v South Africa
103 Jos Buttler (England) v Pakistan
102* Mushfiqur Rahim (Bangladesh) v Australia
101* Babar Azam (Pakistan) v New Zealand
101 Carlos Braithwaite (West Indies) v New Zealand
100* Joe Root (England) v West Indies
100 Aaron Finch (Australia) v England

FIVE-FORS
5-29 Shakib Al Hasan (Bangladesh) v Afghanistan
5-30 Mohammed Amir (Pakistan) v Australia
5-31 Jimmy Neesham (New Zealand) v Afghanistan
5-44 Jason Behrendorff (Australia) v England
5-46 Mitchell Starc (Australia) v West Indies