Looking ahead

So as the World Cup enters its 256th week, surprisingly England are still in the competition. But, my, they were given a scare by Bangladesh yesterday, whose slower bowlers barely sent down a bad ball. The length was just perfect time and time again, making it very hard for England's batsmen to get the ball away. Andrew Flintoff and Ravi Bopara were simply undone by balls that gave them little room to manoeuvre (Bopara had some bad luck as well, chopping the ball down on to his foot from where it rolled back on to the wicket).

England could have done with rotating the strike more often - they hit only 47 singles - which would have put pressure on the bowlers, but they just couldn't get the ball off the square. But solid dependable old Colly saw us home with Nixon playing, yet again, an ideal closing innings. I winced on the odd occasion when he tried to reverse sweep, but he made it. Well done to him.

Can England reach the semi-finals? I almost feel as if they can, despite there being little evidence that they are a good side yet. The crucial match will be against South Africa on Tuesday, where effectively the winner will take it all. Even if South Africa beat New Zealand on Saturday, England's net run-rate would probably be enough to see them through, assuming they beat West Indies in their final game. Can England beat South Africa? Not on paper, but they are almost a perverse enough side that they could struggle against weaker teams and beat their betters. Much like the South Africans themselves.

I'll be watching this from afar, however. I'm flying out to South Africa tonight for two weeks, leaving the blog in the much more capable hands of Rob "Roy" Dineen. Be gentle with him.