England by 1 wicket and 1 ball!!!

Well we came 5th which is at least above our world ranking if not exactly a convincing performance in any way.

Early on, Dwayne Smith misfielded a simple stroke from Collingwood and the potential dot ball went for four. Tony Cozier remarked "How important are those 4 runs going to be?" Well, now we know!

That was a pretty good game, hope the match next week is as good!

What was up with Vaughan, he batted brilliantly today. He was very positive, he had shots all around the wicket and looked a genuine ODI opener, the only problem was it was about 5 games too late!

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Mark.

How the **** does KP get the MoM award when his captain provides both the best bowling AND the best batting of the match?

Bizarre!!!

Agreed, I would have thought that Vaughan was a shoo in for MoM.

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Mark.

KP did keep the England innings together after Collingwood, Flintoff and Dalrymple had gone for not many.

I doubt anyone would have quibbled had Vaughan got the MOM, but the same could be said for KP.

After the England/Sri Lanka match - this was the only other highlight, a rare occasion England chasing down a total of 300.

West Indies played well enough also, but both sides had no pressure on them, time now for Moores to get his broom out.
There was no pressure on, England have to win the games that are not dead rubbers.

Vaughan's innings can be compared with Flintoff making a good hundred in a dead rubber against South Africa a few years ago.

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Ern

Thats what I first thought, but then one of Vaughan strengths as skipper is to relax the players and get them to play without fear - a la Ashes '05.

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Mark.

Well with respect until this match - there has been very little sign of the England players being relaxed, not for years have I watched a side capitulate as much as the England side in this World Cup.

I would have thought being and England player this winter - would have been agony.
That seems an age ago, but then England had Simon Jones and Steve Harmison, and an in form Flintoff.

Also that was Test cricket, England have been well beat by every nation in ODI, funny enough except Australia in 2005.

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Ern

Vaughan's previous best innings was an ICC Champions Trophy Semi-Final in 2004: when he reached the crunch game he anchored the side home, top-scoring with 87 and only conceding his wicket when the game was effectively sealed (227/3 including his wicket chasing 260, so with just 33 off 44 balls required).

Irrespective of his batting... surely Vaughan's ODI bowling now deserves recognition: he just needs to bowl himself MORE!!!

Sorry, what i meant was in the past that was one of Vaughan strengths. In this WC we have batted like rabbits in headlights!

Perhaps now that his knee is OK he may well bowl himself more.

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Mark.