England: Producing Excitement Through Mediocrity

by Devanshu Mehta

There have been two good and two great cricket matches in the World Cup so far:

  1. England v. Netherlands: Netherlands bats first, scores 292 on the back of a ten Doeschate blinder and England falter a bit before winning.
  2. Sri Lanka v Pakistan: Sri Lanka fail to chase a total within their reach against a never-say-die Pakistan bowling attack.
  3. England v. India: India bat England out of the game. Then England almost walk away with it. Zaheer brings India right back. And it’s a tie.
  4. England v. Ireland: England bat Ireland out of the game. Ireland collapses, before Kevin O’Brien walks away with it.

Do you sense a pattern? England was involved in three of the four games. They’ve produced exciting matches by vastly under-performing.

On the other hand, two teams produced excitement by over-performing: Ireland and Pakistan.

∞

In fact, Pakistan and England have had diametrically opposite performances in the World Cup so far.

England: Top order fires, middle-order misfires and bowlers don’t show up to work.

Pakistan: Top order fails, middle-order rescues and bowlers save the day.

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