England rely on crumbs of comfort after defeat
By Mark Meadows
Guyana Chronicle
April 6, 2007
JOLLY HARBOUR, Antigua (Reuters) - At the start of the week England said they needed one win from their next two Super Eight matches to have a good chance of reaching the World Cup semi-finals.
Wednesday's two-run defeat by Sri Lanka leaves them with the prospect of having to beat the mighty Australians on Sunday to fulfil that wish.
On current form Michael Vaughan's men will not trouble the world champions, but Ravi Bopara and Paul Nixon's battling 87-run seventh-wicket stand which so nearly carried them to victory over Sri Lanka offers some hope.
"There's been a lot more positives from this game than there has been from the whole of the World Cup," Vaughan told reporters.
"A lot of the positives we can take from the game we will take into Sunday's game with Australia. No doubt it is a big game. They are playing very good cricket."
Despite the belief they must defeat Australia, there is a scenario where they could lose on Sunday but still have an outside chance of qualifying for the semi-finals.
Indeed, coach Duncan Fletcher predicted they would need to win four games out of six in the Super Eight following their group stage defeat by New Zealand which in effect counted as a second round match.
If they lose to Australia, England must beat Bangladesh, top-ranked South Africa and wounded hosts West Indies to keep a slim hope of going through if other results go their way. They already have two points from beating Ireland last week.
Andrew Strauss, who has not featured since a poor tour of Australia, will expect to play on Sunday after opener Ed Joyce again flopped and in turn failed to create a sufficient platform for big hitters Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff.
"We are going to sit down over the next few day and discuss what we feel is the best formula going into the game on Sunday now," Vaughan added.
CUT LOOSE
Against Sri Lanka, Pietersen had to patiently help England recover from 11 for two before being able to hit out later on. But just when the world's top one-day batsmen was beginning to cut loose, up popped his nemesis Muttiah Muralitharan.
In the run-up to the game, Pietersen had stated that Muralitharan was the best spinner in the world and much tougher to pick than Australian great Shane Warne. His words came back to haunt him as he clipped the ball back to the mercurial off-spinner for 58.
His dismissal meant England lost momentum which they only regained in the last five overs thanks to the determination of Bopara and Nixon. Pietersen is getting good starts here but until he converts those to centuries he will fail to justify his number one ranking and England will not progress to the semi-finals.
Flintoff is looking totally out of sorts with the bat even though another three wickets with the ball underlined his importance to the bowling unit.
Fellow paceman Sajid Mahmood went one better and took four for 50, but in truth it was more luck than judgement. James Anderson bowled more economically but for no reward.
Jon Lewis, another seamer yet to feature, is flying home to be with his pregnant wife and is being replaced by 20-year-old fast bowler Stuart Broad.
It is not expected to happen, but it would be typical of England to throw him straight into the side.