Did-win did-win did-win. Just.

Oooh-ee. England continued their rampant meander through this World Cup by accidentally beating Bangladesh in their latest Super 8 clash. England appeared to have taken heed of the must-win status, when the bowlers did a good job in bowling the ‘deshi’s out for 143. Sajid Mahmood generated some good pace and did a good job in roughing up the inexperienced-against-bouncy-bowling batsmen, and at the other end, Andersen and Flintoff backed him up. Monty also finally looked in form, taking a useful 3fer towards the end of the innings. It wasn’t a totally convincing performance – they were 70 odd for 6 at one point, and it’s clear that the hard and fast Barbados track suited England’s bowlers (and didn’t suit their batsmen) – given such conditions they should really have been bowled out for under a hundred. Nevertheless, it was exactly the start that England needed against a side that less than a week ago were beating tournament favourites and world #1 South Africa.

A start, however, was all it was. In fact, the expression “to get a start” could really be verbed and added to the dictionary against England’s name. The consistency with which England “get a start” but fail to make the most of it, is about the only consistency that they appear to have. After Ian Bell’s glorious 77 against Australia, he could only manage a 10-ball duck. Vaughan was dropped on 5, then faffed about before sky-ing a mistimed (and ill-considered) sweep to short fine leg. Strauss didn’t fair much better and KP, our “man” and world’s number 1 batsman and also on the back of a great innings against Australia, could only chip a ball to short mid-wicket for the umpteenth time in this tournament. That is rapidly becoming “his dismissal” (in the same way as Atherton would get stuck on the crease, or Gower would edge to first slip, or Hussein would run someone out…) and is a result of the unorthodox cross-batted flick-wipe which is his “trademark” shot. When your trademark shot regularly becomes your downfall should really start ringing some warning bells. Flintoff did his best to bat himself in to some form, with a couple of lusty blows until he was beaten by an excellent arm ball from wily Rafique, who also claimed the wicket of Ravi Bopara a couple of balls later, who, it has to be said, was unlucky to play the ball on off his back foot. The job was ultimately finished off by England’s two old faithfuls, Paul Collingwood and Paul Nixon. Old may or may not be the operative word. Collingwood never looked comfortable against the three left-arm spinners but his determination and commitment is his most-valuable asset as depicted by his 74 ball, and match-winning, 23 runs. Nixon was also not out, on 20 when the game was finally won, a fact which only served to illustrate that had England would have been out of this tournament a long time ago without Collingwood and Nixon. In fact, I have thoroughly changed my opinion on the selection of Nixon (which was that despite being a good man for the job, it was a step backwards to include a man who was at the wrong end of his thirties) and I am now regret that he wasn’t picked sooner. His pluck and courage would have been invaluable in Australia.

England got the win and the vital 2 points and have done all that was necessary to stay in the tournament. But the display lacked the sort of talent that will be required to beat South Africa. The batting is a shambles and the bowling is at best county-standard, a fact that Vaughan seems to have got totally arse-about-face:

There were a lot of areas in the first half [of the game] where we could have improved… It would have been nice to have won by eight wickets and produce a really convincing display, but Nixon and Collingwood used their experience and cool heads to get us over the line in the end… It was tighter than we’d have liked but we got the two points, we’ve got a few days off now and we have to make sure we go into that South Africa game hopefully playing a little bit better.

Accurate, in part – that is, in the first half, England’s fielding was poor – something highlighted by Vaughan dropping the simplest of catches, then in anger throwing the ball to the keeper which resulted in a run-out. However, the bowling was the reason that England were in a position to win the match, yet he makes no mention of his own abject performance. And it would not have been “nice” to be convincing – it should never be “nice” – convincing should always and only ever be the target. That it was down to a number 8 batsman to see us over the line is another joke, but ultimately, if all they can do is “hope” to be playing “a little bit better” against South Africa, in, you guessed it, another must-win match, then they may as well have their bags packed and be ready to leave.