England vs. Ireland : Even battle

The Super Eight match played at Providence Stadium, Guyana is wonderfully poised. Ireland has a good bowling attack and so far they have restricted England to 181/4 in 42 Overs. Looks like England won't be able to reach beyond 250. England recovered well from 23/2 in 5.2 overs. Collingwood and Flintoff are going well with a 68 run partnership.

I am watching the match via sopcast. If anyone is looking for live free video links for todays match:

* Please download sopcast from here.

* Then find WC live video cricket broadcasts from the channels list and click on any one of them (I am watching the feed from www.baangladesh.com). Wait a few moments and you can watch clear free live video of today's match in full screen mode.

Another link.

You can also listen to the live BBC Radio commentary. And the Cricinfo ball-by-ball commentary of the match is very useful.

An excellent knock from Paul Collingwood (90 runst in 82 balls- 3 sixes, 8 fours) and 94 runs in last 10 overs could take England to 266/7 in 50 Overs. Looks like a gigantic task for Ireland. But I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Ireland did not disappoint although it lost by 48 runs. I mean 218 against England is a good effort especially when we have seen teams like West Indies reeling below 200 in this world cup. Had Ireland not lost Bray for not they could have reached the target. From the Cricinfo commentary:

A fairly comfortable win for England, but they were made to work hard by a determined Irish side. England's bowlers lost their way in the middle of the innings, and had it not been for Paul Collingwood's late onslaught then it would have been a much tighter match - at 40 overs the two teams' scores were almost neck-to-neck, but England, crucially had wickets in hand and heaps more experience. A good contest and Ireland showed doubters that they are worth their place in the Super Eights.

But it hurts when you see captions like this "England facing minnow Ireland"-(CNN) or Below-par England see off Irish. I mean nobody is eager to mention Ireland's good work. It will always be someone's inability for a minnow to do well.

Tomorrow Bangladesh will play Australia. Many people expect a professional thrash-out by Australia. I would expect Bangladesh to show some fighting before going down.