England v Netherlands: Cricket World Cup 2023 – live

Anyway, back to today’s game. Here are Ali and Barney’s previews.

This is such a good interview with Stuart Broad by Donald McRae. A couple of highlights.

“It’s deeper than you think,” Broad says of McCullum’s philosophy. “He’s been incredibly disciplined with his language. At no stage has he ever been negative or critical. Rather than being like a head coach, he is more of a psychologist.

“He would say to Zak Crawley: ‘I don’t want you to average 40 by getting 40 every game. I prefer you to go nought, nought, nought, 70. Win me that game.’ Like Zak did at Old Trafford – bang, [189 – although England’s victory push was ruined by rain]. So he really drives home the positive messages. I watched him before the Old Trafford Test. Jonny was having a tough time and so Baz played golf with him, sat next to him at dinner, threw him underarms at training. He spent a lot of time reinforcing Jonny’s strengths. And Jonny goes out and gets 99 [not out]. It’s quite impressive.

McCullum hates the expression ‘Bazball’ but, as Broad says with a grin, “It’s made the dictionary. The Aussies spent the last six months denying the fact it exists. Every interview they say: ‘Bazball is not a thing.’ But I will win that argument 100 times out of 100. I just show them the economy rates of bowling figures.”

Two changes for England: Harry Brook and Gus Atkinson replace Liam Livingstone and Mark Wood. The 2027 World Cup starts here.

Netherlands make one change. The allrounder Teja Nidamanuru comes in for Saqib Zulfiqar.

England Bairstow, Malan, Root, Stokes, Brook, Buttler (c/wk), Moeen, Woakes, Willey, Rashid, Atkinson.

Netherlands Barresi, O’Dowd, Ackermann, Engelbrecht, Edwards (c/wk), de Leede, Nidamanuru, van Beek, van der Merwe, Dutt, van Meekeren.

“It looks a good surface,” says Jos Buttler. “We’d like to take advantage and post a good score.”

This is the saddest thing you’ll read today (unless you heard about it two days ago – it’s new(s) to me)

Eff Marhaba Sports India, eff YouTube, eff all of it.

Of course we have to. England are playing at a World Cup and societal norms dictate that, no matter how severe the ennui engendered by a tragicomic title defence, it would be poor form to ignore the game and liveblog repeats of Frasier instead.

And while this feels like the final Test of an Ashes tour gone bad, there is actually plenty to play for. England need to win at least one and probably both of their last two games to qualify for the 2025 Champions League, an important rite of passage for the next generation of ODI players.

Overnight reports also suggest Matthew Mott’s employment prospects may hinge on today’s result. My hunch is that he will stay regardless – he has a World Cup to defend next year – but you can understand the perception that defeat to the Netherlands would be a humiliation too far, even if it is a bit insulting to an impressive side who have enriched this tournament. And who, lest we forget, are above England in the table.

England butchered 498 for four against the Netherlands in Mott’s first game as white-ball coach. That was 17 months and a lifetime ago, when Eoin Morgan was still captain and England’s aura was intact.

It has disappeared forever in this World Cup, a genuinely sad way for England to exit a stage they owned for so long. Let’s see whether they have one last domineering performance in them.

Urgh, do we have to?