Are there any positives for England?

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If you have been living in a hole (sleeping) for the last few days, or just given up on England in ODI cricket, you may have missed that they are out of the World Cup after a fourth defeat in five group stage matches. Eoin Morgan's side slumped to defeat to Bangladesh for the second World Cup in a row and now many questions will be asked. There are not any good signs, surely?

The English, not just in cricket but in sport in general, love to talk about the positives after a heavy defeat. Peter Moores' team have had plenty of crushing losses in the last few months in One Day Internationals to stew over and that dreadful form did not only continue, but worsen at the World Cup.

England should take plenty of positives from tricky New Zealand series

Photograph from Wikipedia Commons

Colin Cowdrey, Michael Atherton, Ricky Ponting, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Paul Collingwood. Add Matt Prior to the list of batsmen who have all stood in the face of extreme adversity to see their teams to unlikely draws. Today was a day that saw England muster all the fight and desire in the world to hang on against a determined New Zealand side. 

While Prior's innings was magnificent, Ian Bell set the tone with a near six-hour vigil reminiscent of Collingwood at Cardiff in 2009. 

Today was an excellent day for England as very few thought, at 90-4 and with an inexperienced middle order, that they stood much of a chance of saving the series. 

What resulted was a day of thrilling Test match action that made many watching at home wish that they were filling up an empty-looking Eden Park.

James Anderson: From yips to swing king

Photograph from Wikipedia Commons 

"Oh Jimmy Jimmy, Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy Anderson!"

Hailed as a wonder-kid in the 2003 World Cup, James Anderson then fell into the international wilderness in 2005 as people said he had lost it, but now the Barmy Army are rightly blowing his trumpet again.

Just five wickets short of adding to an illustrious list of names that have taken 300 Test wickets for England, the burly Lancastrian has transformed himself from a wild, but exciting young prospect, to one of the best exponents of swing bowling in the world. 

Wales hoping to put criticism behind them against the All Blacks

Centre Jonathan Davies will return to the Wales side tomorrow to face New Zealand after a spell out with injury and believes they can prove their critics wrong. 

He said: “We just want to concentrate on ourselves, obviously there is criticism coming out, in the public and the press. What people have been saying about us, we don’t really care. We know where we’ve gone wrong and we’ve just need to put that right on Saturday.”

Wales have lost their last five Test matches, including defeats to Argentina and Samoa in the past couple of weeks, and the team are finding themselves under increasing pressure.

The return of Davies from an injury lay-off is a boost for Warren Gatland’s men, but they face a difficult task in trying to get their first win over the All Blacks for 59 years. 

There have been some memorable matches between the two nations in the recent past, most notably in 2004 and the 2003 World Cup.

Wales have had their task made even harder after losing dangerous wing George North to injury. 

His replacement Liam Williams will win only his second cap, but assistant coach Robin McBryde said: "There is no denying it is a blow [to lose North], but we are fortunate to have someone like Liam, who has performed consistently well for the Scarlets, to fill in for him.”

Wales’ last five Tests

Australia	27-19	Wales
Australia	25-23	Wales
Australia	20-19	Wales
Wales	12-26	Argentina
Wales	19-26	Samoa

The tourists also have injury problems after inspirational fly-half Dan carter pulled up with a leg injury during training on Thursday. 

This would be a huge loss for the All Blacks, especially given the great form that international rugby’s all-time highest points scorer is on. 

Even without Carter to go up against, it is still a momentous task for Wales. The Red Dragons’ points difference from their last six meetings with New Zealand of -124 proves that point.

England Keep World T20 Hopes Alive With Comfortable Win Over New Zealand

England produced a much-improved performance to keep their World T20 title defence alive with a comfortable six wicket win over New Zealand. Set 149 to win from their 20 overs they cruised home with seven balls to spare, Luke Wright smashing 76 from just 43 balls.

England looked a vastly superior side to the one that was out-played by the West Indies on Thursday with all sections of their game functioning at it's top level. The bowling and fielding performance was unrecognisable from the one that saw Gayle and Charles take them apart, Steven Finn the star performer with magnificent figures of 3-16 from his four overs. 

It was Finn who made the early inroads that immediately put the Black Caps on the back foot as he claimed the big scalps of Martin Guptill and Brendon McCullum to leave them 20-2. Guptill was trapped in front plumb L.B.W for just five, before McCullum fell after being caught by Wright for only 10. 

Kane Williamson (17) and Ross Taylor (22) gradually brought the Kiwis back into the game, but the run-rate was painfully slow before James Franklin hammered 50 off just 33 balls to drag them back into the match and set a challenging total of 148-6. 

England started slowly as Craig Kieswetter once again struggled to find his timing and was eventually bowled by Daniel Vettori for four from 14 balls. Alex Hales batted fluently for his 22 but it was Luke Wright who did  most of the damage as he hit five huge sixes in his destructive innings of 76. Eoin Morgan played a typically mature innings alongside him as they put on 89 for the third wicket to bring England within 22 runs of victory.

Morgan fell to a stunning catch by Doug Bracewell before Luke Wright's knock came to an end when he skied a ball from the fast bowler and was caught by Ross Taylor. However by then the result was not in doubt and when Yorkshire batsman Jonny Bairstow pulled his first ball for four England needed just three runs from nine balls. 

Stuart Broad and coach Andy Flower will be very pleased with their team's efforts today, but will know that nothing other than a win will do in their final group game against Sri Lanka if they are to hold any hope of defending their world title. Broad echoed these thoughts when he said: "It was really important for us to get a win, Steven Finn set the tone with the new ball and then Luke Wright and Eoin Morgan batted beautifully. We've got a big game on Monday, we've still got areas to improve and we'll take the positives."