That was a good finish. You can keep your sixes. You can keep your big name players. You can keep your England-remaining-in-a-major-tournament-for-more-than-five-minutes. Produce a finish like the one in today’s match and cricket’s the best sport in the world.
Nerves, misfields, a yo-yo run rate and a huge upset off the last ball of the match. Great stuff.
Bit shit if you’re England, mind. They played like they were afraid they’d lose and you always, always lose when you do that. Maybe they think the pressure of being the better team got to them, but if that happens, you aren’t the better team. Dealing with things like that is half the point when you get to this level in sport.
Nasser Hussain said Stuart Broad went for the stumps off the last ball because he was ‘a winner’. In that last over, Broad missed three run-outs and dropped a catch. He’s not exactly a keen winner, is he? He’s not embracing victory wholeheartedly.
England had lost the game long before then though. The lumpen batting in the second half of their innings was something Holland steered well clear of in chasing down England’s total.
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