incubi

Given Sri Lanka's performance with the ball against the South Africans last night, I'm inclined to think that they could be the 'dark horse' of this tournament.

Any thoughts..?

Punter_86

But there batting failed them, the real 'dark-horse' of the competition is England, who on their day could spring an upset or two over higher ranked teams

incubi

The Poms, huh..? Gotta admit, I wasn't expecting anyone to roll that one out, especially considering England have made pretty poor totals (200-odd) against the Kiwis & the Aussies - & on both occasions the total was chased down in about 40 overs.

The biggest worry for England, I feel, is that they've only batted second once (against Kenya, chasing 177) so their batsmen haven't been under any real pressure yet, & their top 5 batsmen have only knocked-up 8 half-centuries from their cumulative 28 innings.
(NB: No English batsmen has scored a ton this series).

Admittedly they've won 4 games, however in the group stage they scored 666 runs but conceded 615.

The Poms are capable of good performances, but I can't see them being good enough to beat SA, NZ, SL & the Aussies.
IF they can put their handbags away for long enough to play some good-hard-cricket, they may beat one or two (of that list), but they're really going to have to play out of their skins to beat everyone.





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rascally

Ohh that's putting 'em on the line making a call for England. Especially since they could only beat Ireland by 44 runs - they're not exactly a team that fills me with confidence.

If by Dark Horse you mean team not Australia I think the Kiwi's have the depth to get to the final and depending on the day, are a good chance of winning. they've got the ability to knock the ball around to get the high scores, have had the summer to gain experience playing the aussie bowlers and have a good captain in Fleming.

incubi

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Like I said(typed?), the Pommy batsmen hadn't been put under too much pressure during this series.
While the result was incredibly close (what more could you ask for - down to the last ball!), ultimately, England's top order failed.... which placed too much pressure on the middle/lower order.

Just imagine what could've transpired if just one of the Pommy top order had batted through to the 40/45th over?


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