Every World Cup needs a few things to get going: the hosts have to play well to keep the locals interested, a big favourite has to start slowly and a major upset has to happen.
We got all that this week and more, with India continuing to brain the competition, Australia and England flattering to deceive and Afghanistan pulling off a shock for the ages.
The only thing we’ve not had is close games: none have been settled by four wickets or fewer and Afghanistan’s 69 run win over England is the closest by a chasing side in defeat – and even then, that was with a full ten overs to play.
Still, that’s lead to a topsy-turvy set of rankings for this week, especially down the bottom. Let’s get going.
It’s currently India, followed by a wide expanse of daylight. The question around the hosts will remain about pressure and their ability to handle it come the big occasion, but on a player-for-player level they have been outstanding and as a collective, untouchable.
Pressure doesn’t come much bigger than a match with Pakistan, either, and that was a test they passed with flying colours. Rohit is on a different plane and Jasprit Bumrah, after a long time out, is reminding everyone of how good he is.
NZ are also unbeaten, but given that they have faced weaker opposition – depending on how rubbish you think Australia are – they are only good enough for third.
They dealt with Bangladesh easily on a track that could have been problematic, and retain in ineffable ability to just get it done, especially now Kane Williamson is into the tournament (if his thumb holds up)
Will that be enough to win a World Cup? Probably not, but it’ll certainly get them to a semi. Given how badly everyone else has done, that’s plenty for now because there’s a decent chance they get a wounded, weakened animal come that time too.
South Africa looked like the best of the rest.
Their middle order was unimpeachable and their attack was taking wickets, plus they had options with an extra pacer on the sidelines and another spinner, Tabraiz Shamsi, able to come in when conditions suit and pick up immediately.
They’re the world’s great chokers, however, and proved it in epic fashion by losing to the Netherlands. Lucky for them, they get another crack this time around, and perhaps have got the choke out when it doesn’t matter that much.
Any aura they might have built, however, is toast.
Glenn Maxwell. (Photo by Matthew Lewis-ICC/ICC via Getty Images)
Pakistan lost the big game with India but really, that was always likely to happen. The pressure on them told much more than it did on their opponents, and the collapse that seems to always accompany their clashes with their biggest rivals was inevitable.
As everyone knows, it’s not really worth trying to find a formline when talking about Pakistan, but the good news from their defeat was a score for Babar Azam and a continuation of Mohammad Rizwan’s form.
Friday’s clash with Australia will be the big test, because both sides are fighting for their lives. It should be box office.
Fun fact: every team from New Zealand downwards has a negative net run rate, but England have the best of the bad bunch.
The general feeling is that six wins will take you through and five plus NRR should be enough once everyone has taken points off everyone else, so that’s good for England, who might end up scraping their way to the semis.
Having lost spectacularly to Afghanistan, they’ll have to make up that result elsewhere by defeating either South Africa this weekend or one of their direct rivals, Australia or Pakistan, and hoping that the other sides beneath that are thrashed.
Adil Rashid at least seems to be in the tournament now, which helps, but there’s going to be serious conversations taking place about Chris Woakes and Sam Curran, who are getting thumped.
It might be that a few spinning tracks allow them to bring in Moeen Ali for a bit, or that a cheeky calf strain could be invoked to get Jofra Archer into the tournament.
Or, just whisper it, the radical move: both allrounders out, another seamer (David Willey) to take the new ball and Ben Stokes back alongside Harry Brook. Sensible? Debatable. Box office? Certainly.
That was a lot more like it, wasn’t it. The Aussies finally decided to show up at the World Cup, just when everyone on social media was collectively asking for them to come home early.
Having brought just the one frontline spinner, Australia needed Adam Zampa to perform and, finally, he did, while Pat Cummins also got involved. Glenn Maxwell was no longer sailing the ship alone, either.
It’s still an uphill battle, and Sri Lanka remain winless, so maybe we shouldn’t blow the trumpet quite yet. But it’s better than it was, for sure, and keep hopes going for another game more.
Beating England was a huge shock, but not as huge as has been made out. Compared to England’s defeat to Ireland in 2011 or India’s loss to Bangladesh in 2007, this was a lot less unlikely. Neither of those underdogs had anyone of the standard of Rashid Khan, for example.
Afghanistan have always had the bowling to make a huge impression, so when they get a little batting put together, they suddenly become a threat. Rahmanullah Gurbaz got them going and Ikram Alikhil finished it off.
Nobody will want to face them now, and while they won’t be favourites against anyone except the Netherlands, they have shown they can succeed. As ever, the issue will be backing it up.
Jasprit Bumrah celebrates the wicket of Shadab Khan. (Photo by Surjeet Yadav-ICC/ICC via Getty Images)
The Dutch, as we have mentioned, have won merely by being here, and their performances have been perfectly fine given the circumstances.
They’re the weakest team in the World Cup and look like it, but given the way others are travelling down the bottom, you’d not back against them getting something.
And yet, they’ve managed it. That win over South Africa is a triumph for everything that they’ve put in across the World Cup Super League, and indeed, a victory for that competition too, as it has clearly improved the Associate nations through repeatedly exposing them to better opposition.
That win against Afghanistan has faded into the rear-view mirror after repeat thumpings at the hands of England and New Zealand.
The Tigers are far from a terrible team, but there’s a clear bottom four at this tournament and they are well within it until proven otherwise.
If Shakib doesn’t get wickets, as was the case against England, or if Liton Das doesn’t get runs off the top, as was the case against the Black Caps, they are in big trouble.
Now it’s India and South Africa in back-to-back games – things could get very ugly indeed.
At one point do decent performances in defeat start to add up? For the third time running, Sri Lanka did plenty of good things that might have lead to a win, only to lose anyway and, really, quite comfortably.
They were 125 without loss against Australia and totally collapsed, but even so, had the Australians in a spot of bother before letting it slide.
The batting was thought to be the problem, until the bowling was. Now, with Dasum Shanaka out of the tournament, it suddenly becomes hard to see them winning at all – lucky, then, that the Netherlands are next, and in Lucknow, where they should get a spinning track.
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