Email! “Surely on the heating front,” says Tony Cunningham, “by the time your wife gets back from the pool it’ll be several degrees warmer anyway (and warmer than the pool) so you can pretend the heating has been on and she’ll never know ... unless she reads what you write for The Guardian.”
This had occurred to me – and she’ll also be coming out of a car so hot it should be illegal. There is much more chance this ruse succeeds than there is she reads these words.
“He wants to prove to people how good he is and he certainly is that good,” says Zak Crawley of Dawid Malan – a statement that is philosophically unimpeachable.
Athers notes England have done well to meet Afghanistan in Delhi and Bangladesh in Dharamsala, where it doesn’t really turn. He also reckons that, had this been a match against one of the better sides, Ben Stokes would’ve played and will be good to go against South Africa on Saturday.
Afghanistan: Gurbaz, Zadran I, Shah, Shahidi (c), Nabi, Alikhil (wk), Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Ur Rahman, Ul-Haq, Farooqi.
England: Bairstow, Malan, Root, Buttler (c, wk), Brook, Livingstone, Woakes, Curran, Rashid, Wood, Topley.
Hashmatulla would’ve fielded too but now the aim is to score as many as possible, above 300 if possible – put England under pressure – then hope there’s turn for his quality spinners. Njibullah drops out, with Ikram Alikhil coming in and keeping; Zadran I is now just an oepener.
“No particular reason, it looks a really good wicket and we’d like to chase,” says Buttler, adding that his team are unchanged. India have played well chasing in Delhi, SA scored big too, and he wants to see England’s improvement continue.
There’s very little I love more than waking up to sport, working-day sport also being up there.
My wife’s taken our nipper swimming and advised me that, while they’re gone, the heating needs putting on. Problem being, I’m not sure I’ve got that in me so help me out: 15 October is too early for such behaviour, right?
Ben Stokes has ambled out to join his team mates in the warm-up but doesn’t look like a man who is about to play a World Cup match. Expecting England to be unchanged
— Matt Roller (@mroller98) October 15, 2023
Generally speaking, the side that plays best in the early stages is rarely the side dancing about at the final’s final whistle – a maxim applicable across all World Cups and in all sports. Too soon! Too soon! I promise, I planned to begin like that before that.
England, though, won’t have been too agitated after losing their opening game. The holders know they know how to win and after thrashing Bangladesh they’re trucking, having once again balanced the side by dropping Moeen Ali. Perhaps.
It may be that – on the subcontinent – England end up wanting another spin option but – as they say on the subcontinent – “pace is pace”, and Reece Topley has it. Alongside which, if Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Jos Buttler, Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid and Mark Wood can’t get you enough runs – have there ever been deeper batting line-ups than that? – then maybe you have to accept it’s just not your day. Or restore Ben Stokes to the side, definitely one of the two.
We jest. Because though one-day cricket isn’t as capricious as T20, nor as easily commandeered by one player with one performance, when so many sides have so much firepower, it’s impossible to know which of them will win a one-off match. So, though it may seem unlikely Afghanistan have enough to trouble England, you never know – and even if they don’t, they’ve more than enough to make it interesting.
Play: 2pm local, 9.30am BST