Good morning, buongiorno, how you doin’?
Welcome to the OBO of England v Italy. It seems bonkers to say, given the pedigree of both cricket nations, but we could have a proper contest on our hands.
England’s T20 World Cup campaign has failed to leave second gear. They were poor in their defeat to the West Indies and hardly convincing in their wins over Nepal and Scotland – their first triumph over European opponents in this competition.
Italy meanwhile have been a revelation. They too lost to the West Indies but obliterated Nepal by 10 wickets thanks to a pair of 60s from the Mosca brothers at the top of the order, as well as the beguiling leg spin of Crishan Kalugamage. England only crawled over the line against Nepal off the final ball of the match. If that’s anything to go by we should expect an Italian win. Right?
Well, that’s not how things go and if any one of England’s big names find form this should be a romp. But let’s not rule anything out. This could go down as a classic.
We get underway at 9:30 am in the UK, 3 pm in Mumbai.
We’ll have team news and other bits to follow.