England Vs Ireland
02-03-2011 M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
What a match! England once again batted well.Their openers Strauss and Pietersen batted beautifully.They set the platform for the rest of the batsmen.Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell batted very sensibily, both scored runs at a brisk rate.Colingwood's mighty six summed up the batting performance of the English.Old horse Johnston bowled well but the bowler who impressed me was Stirling,the off spinner who bowled beautifully.Most of us thought that England will win comfortably .But What happened was a carnage! Kevin Joseph O'Brien murdered the English attack with his blistering knock.Seldom we see innings like this from a associate country batsman.
O'Brien hit 7 sixes among them one went 95 meters!!He was well supported by Cusack.Mooney who took 4 wickets finished the match with 33 runs,he too played very sensibly. Overall a great team effort won by individual brilliance.Swann bowled beautifully, he varied his length and angles brilliantly but none of the other bowlers supported him.The were hit all over by Irish batsmen specially O'Brien.
England:327/8
Trott -92(92)
Bell -81(86)
Mooney -63/4
Ireland :329/7
O'Brien -113(63)
Cusack - 47(58)
Swann -47/3
Man of the match : Kevin O'Brien
South Africa Vs England
06-03-2011 MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
England chose to bat first after winning the toss on a good batting wicket.Again South Africans started the innings with a spinner, this time with Robin Peterson,slow left arm orthodox and it paid immediately as he took the wickets of Strauss and Pieterson in the very first over.what a start! The inform batsman Strauss was out for duck.The South Africans bowled beautifully ,they took wickets regularly never allowed the English batsman to settle.Trott once again batted sensibily.Ravi Bopara playing his first match in this tournament batted according to the situation, good choice by the England management.
Once again Imran Tahir bowled wonderfully,what a time this man is having in this world cup!Steyn and Morkel did their job, the bowled good line and length.Fielding once again was top class.They bowled out England for 171 in 45.4 overs.
South Africa started very cautiously,openers Amla and Smith played slowly and steadily and built the partnership.Once they departed ,hell broke loose!The Proteas crumbled by English bowlers.Chris Broad and Anderson bowled beautifully,swang the ball both sides,they were wonderfully supported by Swann and Tim Bresnan.Duminy's wicket was the turning point, he was clean bowled by Anderson.Steyn and Wyk brought the score near to the target but it was Broad's day.He came back and bowled out Steyn and Morkel in 47th over.South African batsmen could have tried to score runs by playing their normal game instead of what they have done:playing defensively.
It was a good match.Its good for South Africa to lose a game in the initial stage of this world cup,so that they can srcutinize their flaws in batting order.For England what a way to redeem themselves after their unexpected defeat against Ireland.I firmly belive that both teams will qualify for the quarter finals.
England:171/10
Bopara-60(98)
Trott -52(94)
Tahir-38/4
South Africa:165/10
Amla-42(51)
AB de villiers -25(44)
Broad-15/4
Man of the match : Bopara
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