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Home   /   Cricket Weekly Column #3 World Cup: Round Three Roundup
Posted on by Riley Taylor
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By Riley Taylor (@rileyttaylor21)

Welcome to the third edition of Overtime’s Cricket Weekly Column, where we look at the weeks biggest cricket stories and games. 

After a week of bad weather, the sun returned to the Cricket World Cup much to the relief of cricket fans and the ICC after copious amounts of complaints from travelling fans for not having reserve fixture days.

This week, there is eight games to cover including a showdown between arch-rivals India and Pakistan.

Friday June 14 England v West Indies at Hampshire Bowl

West Indies: 212 (Pooran 63, Hetmyer 39, Wood 3-18, Archer 3-30)

England: 213/2 (Root 100no, Bairstow 45, Gabriel 2-49, Russell 0-14)

Full scorecard: https://www.cricketworldcup.com/match/8210#overview

The first game of the week saw England take on West Indies in what was a potential battle for semi-final qualification.

Under overcast conditions, England started superbly well when Chris Woakes bowled Evin Lewis for two.

Despite this strong start, England were handed a setback when Jason Roy hobbled off the field due to a hamstring injury, an injury which would force him off for the rest of the innings.

West Indies struggled in tough batting conditions with Chris Gayle being challenged by the bounce of Mark Wood and Jofra Archer.

He was given a life on 19 when Wood dropped a tough chance at third-man.

The drop did not cost England many runs when Gayle was caught by Jonny Bairstow off Liam Plunkett for 31.

Shai Hope (11) was then out LBW to Wood which left West Indies in early strife.

An 89-run partnership from Shimron Hetmyer (39) and Nicholas Pooran (63) steadied the ship for the West Indies but it came at a slow run rate of just 5.46.

As the pair looked to push on, England got a breakthrough when Joe Root came on to bowl and dismissed Hetmyer with a sharp catch off his own bowling.

Root did the same again two overs later when Jason Holder (9) departed.

Andre Russell came in and counterattacked with some big sixes off Adil Rashid, England could have limited this damage of Woakes had held on to a simple chance off the same bowler.

England suffered another injury which saw captain Eoin Morgan go off in the field in serious pain due to a back spasm.

Now captained under Jos Buttler, England removed the dangerous Russell for 21 when Woakes made amends by taking a catch off Wood which led to the Windies collapsing.

Archer dismissed Pooran (63) and Sheldon Cottrell (0) in consecutive balls and before then removing Carlos Brathwaite (14) three overs later.

Wood then bowled Shannon Gabriel for a duck to end a West Indies innings that never got going.

With Roy injured, Bairstow and Root opened for England with the pair calmly knocking off the runs with an opening 95-run partnership.

Gabriel dismissed Bairstow for 51 which introduced a surprise addition at number three for England, Woakes.

However, he batted magnificently with Root as the pair almost saw England home before Gabriel got his second wicket, Woakes caught on the boundary for 40.

Ben Stokes came in and with the help of centurion Root guided England to victory.

MOTM: Joe Root – An all-round performance from England’s golden boy as he stepped up when England needed him.

Saturday June 15 Australia v Sri Lanka at The Oval

Australia: 334/7 (Finch 153, Smith 73, Dhananjaya 2-40, Udana 2-57)

Sri Lanka: 247 (Karunaratne 97, K.Perera 52, Starc 4-55, Richardson 3-47)

Full scorecard: https://www.cricketworldcup.com/match/8211

Australia looked to continue their strong World Cup campaign with a victory over struggling Sri Lanka.

Aaron Finch dominated the early batting proceedings for Australia as David Warner (26) and Usman Khawaja (10) fell to the spin of Dhananjaya de Silva (2-40).

Finch (153) and Steve Smith (73) came together and dominated the Sri Lankan bowling with a 173-run partnership.

The partnership was broken when Finch’s colossal innings was ended by Isuru Udana before Sri Lanka then fought back taking four wickets for 47 runs.

Glenn Maxwell (46no) help stopped the flow of wickets as he laid into the Sri Lankan bowlers, but he was not ably supported as Australia finished on 334 for seven.

Sri Lanka started well in response with a 115-run partnership between Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Perera.

Despite their bad form, Sri Lanka seemed comfortable in their chase of 335 but when Lahiru Thirimanne (16) departed, quickly followed by Karunaratne (97), they soon fell apart.

They lost their last seven wickets for 61 runs as Australia tore through their batting order with brilliant fast bowling.

MOTM: Aaron Finch – Tough one to decide as Mitchell Starc’s spell was inspired but Finch was the one to setup the win for Australia with a mammoth innings.

Saturday June 15 Afghanistan v South Africa at Cardiff

Afghanistan: 125 (Rashid 35, Noor Ali 32, Tahir 4-29, Morris 3-13)

South Africa: 131/1 (de Kock 60, Amla 41, Gulbadin 1-29)

Full scorecard: https://www.cricketworldcup.com/match/8212

South Africa looked to get the World Cup campaign back on track with a victory over last-placed Afghanistan.

Afghanistan’s batting order was completely overrun as they were dominated by the South Africa bowling.

Only Rashid Khan (35), Noor Ali Zadran (32) and Hazratullah Zazai (22) made double-figures as Imran Tahir (4-29) and Chris Morris (3-13) took the bulk of the wickets for South Africa.

In reply, South Africa calmly knocked off the runs as they took no risks against a dangerous bowling attack, reaching their target in the 29th over with Quinton de Kock top-scoring with 60.

MOTM: Imran Tahir – His spell of bowling crippled Afghanistan and setup the win for South Africa.

Sunday June 16 India v Pakistan at Old Trafford

India: 336/5 (Rohit 140, Kohli 77, Amir 3-47, Wahab 1-71)

Pakistan: 212/6 (Fakhar 62, Babar 48, Shankar 2-22, Kuldeep 2-32)

Full scorecard: https://www.cricketworldcup.com/match/8213

A clash between bitter rivals India and Pakistan took place at Old Trafford.

Rohit Sharma dominated the batting scorecard for India with a stunning innings of 140 along with able support from Virat Kohli (77) and KL Rahul (57).

Mohammed Amir did pick up three wickets for Pakistan, but they came late in the proceedings with the damage already done by the Indian batsman.

Pakistan started their reply in tough conditions with the weather beginning to make the new balls swing.

Imam ul-Haq (7) was out early before Fakhar Zaman and Babar Azam put on a slow 104-run partnership.

Pakistan then collapsed as they lost five wickets for 48 runs, handing the momentum back to India.

The rain then came down to give Pakistan an almost impossible total to hit off the last few overs and despite late hitting from Imad Wasim (46no), Pakistan lost the game by 89 runs.

MOTM: Rohit Sharma – a stunning innings from the “Hitman” as he continued his stunning form in the World Cup.

Monday June 17 West Indies v Bangladesh at Taunton

West Indies: 321/8 (Hope 96, Lewis 70, Mustafizur 3-59, Saifuddin 3-72)

Bangladesh: 322/3 (Shakib 124no, Liton 96no, Russell 1-42, Thomas 1-52)

Full scorecard: https://www.cricketworldcup.com/match/8214

After taking a hammering at the hands of England, West Indies looked to turn around their fortunes against an inform Bangladesh team.

After winning the toss and choosing to field, Bangladesh got the perfect start when Mohammad Saifuddin dismissed Chris Gayle for a duck.

However, the Windies recovered well as Evin Lewis and Shai Hope put on a 116-run partnership in 21 overs.

Shakib Al Hasan broke the partnership when he removed Lewis for 70 before frustrating the Windies with some economical bowling.

This frustration took a toll when Nicholas Pooran (25) holed out to hand Shakib a much deserved second wicket.

In need of much-needed runs, Shimron Hetmyer came in and smashed a 25-ball 50 before Bangladesh fought back as Mustafizur removed him and Andre Russell (0) in the space of three balls.

West Indies continued to go hard in the final overs as Jason Holder struck at over 200% strike rate for his 33.

Bangladesh bowled well in the final overs, only conceding 39 runs in the last seven with them also picking up the wickets of Hope (96) and Darren Bravo (19).

The Tigers had bowled well but they still faced a massive chase against a strong Windies bowling attack.

Bangladesh started well with another 50-run opening partnership between Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar.

It was ended by Andre Russell as Sarkar departed for a brisk 29.

This brought Shakib together with Tamim and the pair put on 69 before a double strike for the Windies saw Tamim depart for 48 and then Mushfiqur Rahim came and went for just one.

Liton Das joined Shakib and they put on a mamooth 189-run partnership that the Windies had no answer too as Bangladesh chased down the Windies massive total with ease.

MOTM: Shakib Al-Hasan – Another superb performance by the all-rounder as he made yet another hundred, making him the competitions highest run scorer, along with two wickets.

Tuesday June 18 England v Afghanistan at Old Trafford
England: 397/6 (Morgan 148, Bairstow 90, Gulbadin 3-68, Dawlat 3-85)

Afghanistan: 247/8 (Shahidi 76, Rahmat 46, Archer 3-52, Rashid 3-66)

Full scorecard: https://www.cricketworldcup.com/match/8215

England looked to continue their winning run in the World Cup with a game versus a struggling Afghanistan side.

James Vince replaced Jason Roy at the top of the order for England after he was ruled out with a hamstring tear.

As ever for England, Vince played some beautiful shots but was out cheaply as Dawlat Zadran removed him for 26.

Aside from Vince, England’s top order completely dominated the Afghan bowling with Jonny Bairstow (90) and Joe Root (88) making big runs.

However, it was the captain Eoin Morgan who stole the show as he blasted 140 off just 71 balls to setup a huge chase for Afghanistan with Moeen Ali chipping in with 31 off just nine balls.

There was some comfort for the Afghan bowlers as Dawlat picked up two quick wickets of Ben Stokes (2) and Jos Buttler (2) to take his tally to three for the innings along with Gulbadin Naib.

 Afghanistan’s chase started badly as they lost Noor Ali Zadran for a duck, bowled by Jofra Archer.

Gulbadin Naib promoted himself up the order to attack the England bowlers, this worked briefly in his innings, but he was undone by the pace of Mark Wood to give England a second wicket.

Rahmat Shah and Hashmatullah Shahidi put on a slow 52-run partnership before Adil Rashid broke the deadlock by removing Shah.

Afghanistan never looked like chasing the mammoth total set by England as their top order failed to keep up with the rate.

Shahidi (76) and Asghar Afghan (44) were the only other batsman to muster an effort for Afghanistan as England comfortably won by 150 runs.

MOTM: Eoin Morgan – a staggering innings from the England skipper as he dismantled the Afghan bowling.

Wednesday June 19 South Africa v New Zealand at Birmingham

South Africa: 241/6 (van der Dussen 67no, Amla 55, Ferguson 3-59, de Grandhomme 1-33)

New Zealand: 245/6 (Williamson 106no, de Grandhomme 60, Morris 3-49, Rabada 1-42)

Full scorecard: https://www.cricketworldcup.com/match/8216

New Zealand looked to continue their unbeaten World Cup campaign with a win versus a struggling South Africa side.

On a tough batting pitch, Rassie van der Dussen (67) was the only South African batsman to score at over a run a ball as South Africa struggled to a below-par total.

It seemed New Zealand would have an easy chase, but the South African bowlers reduced them to 137 for five in reply.

However, a 91-run partnership between Kane Williamson and Colin de Grandhomme (60) almost saw New Zealand home before de Grandhomme was removed to give South Africa some hope going into the final overs.

It was to be Williamson (106no) that finished the game with a boundary in the last over of the game to seal a nervy win for New Zealand.

MOTM: Kane Williamson – Another clutch innings from New Zealand’s captain saw them continue their stunning run.

Overtime’s Round 3 Best XI:

1. Aaron Finch (AUS)

2. Rohit Sharma (IND)

3. Joe Root (ENG)

4. Kane Williamson (NZ)

5. Eoin Morgan (ENG)

6. Shakib Al Hasan (BAN)

7. Colin de Grandhomme (NZ)

8. Chris Morris (SA)

9. Jofra Archer (ENG)

10. Mitchell Starc (AUS)

11. Imran Tahir (SA)

Here is the table after another week of games: https://www.cricketworldcup.com/standings

For more cricket content click here: http://www.overtimeonline.co.uk/category/cricket/

Stay tuned for our summary on next week’s games!

Sub-edited by Tony Robertson

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