England have never won the World Cup, despite hosting four tournaments, including the first three editions, while it is nearly 25 years since they last appeared in a final.
They certainly will not be among the favorites in Australia and New Zealand, where they will have to conquer longstanding problems of a lack of penetration with the ball and an inability to up the run-rate in the final stages of an innings if they are to beat the world’s top one-day sides repeatedly.
However, England’s decision to ditch Test captain Alastair Cook, who had scored just one fifty in his last 22 one-day innings, from the World Cup squad on the eve of the team’s departure for Australia, and replace him as skipper with Eoin Morgan, appears to be working out.
Photo: Reuters
Ian Bell, who made a superb 141 in a three-wicket defeat by Australia in Hobart last week, and Moeen Ali have formed a sound opening partnership in Cook’s absence.
Meanwhile, the new captain neatly evaded a verbal bouncer from Kevin Pietersen when the axed England batsman — playing in Australia’s domestic Big Bash Twenty20 tournament — said Morgan would “love to have me in the England team.”
However, if Pietersen’s comments about England have a certain predictable quality, recent revelations that Morgan had been the subject of a blackmail attempt by the current partner of his former girlfriend were bizarre.
Quite what it did for Morgan’s peace of mind is another matter, with the former Ireland batsman insisting it had no bearing on his duck in Hobart.
On the field, it appears England are content to keep the big-hitting Alex Hales in reserve for the time being.
With Bell and Ali putting on 113 for the first wicket in 18 overs in Hobart, before Joe Root helped Bell add 121 in 19 for the third wicket, the top order looks in reasonable shape.
However, the final 10 overs yielded only 59 runs and it was in this instance that Pietersen’s absence left some England fans thinking of what might have been.
England’s attack lacks extreme speed or sharp spin, although fast bowler Steven Finn showed signs of a return to form with five wickets in the recent tri-series win over world champions India.
However, that England were unable to defend a total of over 300 against Australia in Hobart was a concern, especially as senior pacemen James Anderson and Stuart Broad, both returning from injury, had a combined return of none for 117 in 19 overs.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier