Key events
Preamble
Evening everyone and welcome to a giant banana skin. A game that should have been a breeze for England is now fraught with danger. It’s not just must-win, it’s must-win-big. After their first two matches of this World Cup, England have no wins, one point, and two old foes sniggering as they see them squirm – Scotland and Australia. Now they meet a new foe in Oman, who will be facing England for the first time ever in international cricket.
England have never successfully defended a World Cup in cricket, football or rugby (not even the women have managed it). So far they haven’t looked remotely like changing that dismal record. Their bowlers were flayed by the Scottish openers, then marmalised by the Aussie ones. Against Scotland, England neither took a wicket nor scored a run. Against Australia, they did both without coming close to winning.
There’s no shame, of course, in losing to the world’s best tournament team. And it was cruel that England’s hopes of bashing 109 in ten overs against Scotland were washed away by the Bridgetown rain. But the upshot is that they are in grave danger of heading for the same embarrassment as when they went to India, eight months ago, as the 50-over world champions.
That said, they’re English – they’re used to being embarrassed. And they now face what are on paper their two easiest assignments, against Oman and Namibia. Oman have even fewer points than England (none), but only because they lost to Namibia in a Super Over.
Both games are at the Viv Richards Stadium in Antigua and, weather permitting, England should win them by a street. The question is: will it be a wide enough street to lead to the Super Eights?
Play is due to start at 3pm local time, 8pm BST. So I hope to see you soon around 7.35pm BST with news of the toss and teams.
