With the football season over my attention has swung to cricket (pun intended), where the ICC Champions Trophy commenced as of last Thursday, with England having to win against New Zealand in the final game of Group A tomorrow.
England have made a relatively slow start to the 2013 ICC, amongst the favourites England were shell-shocked after losing by 7 wickets to Sri Lanka on Thursday with a poor bowling display, giving the Sri Lankan batting attack an opportunity to cause an upset.
Kumar Sangakkara embarrassed England's bowlers, hitting an unbeaten 134 leaving Joe Root's bowling
run-rate at a disappointing 9.0 an over, summing up his week. Nuwan Kulasekara also hit a half century and ended without dismissal.
In terms of the batting display Cooke hit an impressive 59 but a few eyebrows were raised because the 85 balls it took for him to reach that score raised questions about the length of time it took England to get going.
There us no doubt that England are under more pressure than their opponents will be, New Zealand are going into tomorrow's game top of Group A but all 4 teams can still progress which will create a nervy atmosphere in Cardiff for tomorrow's clash.
With the conditions predicted to be similar to what we have witnessed over the duration of the tournament so far, England will hope that their familiarity with the surface and the conditions will pose a distinct advantage over the Kiwis, as without a win, one of the favourites will be knocked out of the tournament.
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