Cricket

I'm less than 20 miles west & north of Lords.
Overnight rain, mid-Summer Sun attempting to break through the cloud cover.
Humidity high and rising.
If this was a Test match you would expect jimmy Anderson/Stuart Broad to get a hatful before lunch.
Realise the white ball is not so advantageous,
but Woakes must be licking his lips.

I'm also expecting Lyon to cause problems during the runchase on a sun-drenched wicket in the afternoon.

Oh, definitely bowl all day (hopefully less) with the red ball. Not been impressed by England's failed chases in the two games vs Pakistan and Sri Lanka though. Some rash shot choices and loss of composure. It might not be the day for it with the humidity, etc (which doesn't come across in the pictures), but I think they'd be better setting a total.

need wickets here

Eurgh

England being batted out of the WC right now

Or not bowling well enough to stay in

(bit of both really)

Finally. I was beginning to forget what a wicket looks (actually sounds) like.

Excellent commentary from Isa Guha: "If you want a man for a fight, Ben Stokes is your man!"

Wonder how long she's been storing that up...

Aussies being polite

Very polite

I've a feeling this'll be tight.

quack quack

Clatter...

It seems Vince never did as he was told. Go out and see the first couple of overs out, now it’s invisible tears.

Uh oh

What happened to playing the situation? Is it as hard as they make it look or are they not bright enough to do it?

are they not bright enough to do it?

Its the pressure. Bit of a choke

choke

So England have usurped South Africa's World cup mantle? ;)

I hear you. But that's the skipper playing a huge hoick when they've lost two cheap wickets and have ages left.

Choking intensifies.

Choking is an interesting phenomena. It affects good teams and players.
I read that its to do with de-chunking processes due to thinking about performance rather allowing the multiple tasks required to perform to be 'chunked' together.

When a sportsperson feel pressure and starts thinking about the individual elements that make up the flow, playing in the zone, they lose it. As is evident with England over this and the previous match.

Too much expectation following a prolonged period of good form. Probably too late to come back now :(

Gah. That was such a reachable score on that pitch batting second, and we’ve made a proper mess of it.

Shite. That's definitely it then.

These last three wickets need to bat out as many overs as possible,
so as to preserve the NRR.
What happened to the team that could 'score 500?
(Is it all down to the ICC asking for differently prepared pitches?)

Playing for NRR... But won't even preserve that.
(Yup. Flat track bullies)