Reserve Days On Hold Is Not The Answer

Well, the weather had to come down at one stage – you can thank the good old British summer for that – and I just hope that we’ve seen the worst of it now so that the business end of the Cricket World Cup is not overly affected.

Of all the teams to suffer most is poor old Sri Lanka, who can’t buy a bit of luck at the moment, both on and off the field.

Their last two matches, against Pakistan and Bangladesh, were both abandoned without a ball being bowled and that means they come up against a well-oiled Australia side at The Oval tomorrow under-cooked, having not played competitively for 11 days.

They’ve only lost once in the tournament up to now but you still get the feeling that unless they can produce an upsets against the Australians, their World Cup could be over, and that would be a terrible shame.

Another team left frustrated by the weather this week were South Africa, who badly needed to beat the West Indies at Southampton on Monday if they were to keep their tournament alive after three straight defeats.

The Proteas have been hugely disappointing in this tournament and you get the feeling that the effects of injury and the rather odd selection row involving AB de Villiers had taken its toll on them. Indeed, they looked doomed from the start.