World T20, India 2016

England never in the game v West Indies. I know the ball was damp and dificult to grip and Gayle was unstopable, but even so with that bowling line-up, our batsmen are going to need to get 200 in every game to give England any chance.

South Africa and West Indies for the semi-finals and England on an early flight home, I'm afraid.

Bm,

On that performance I agree. But with Gayle in form I don't think 200 would have been enough.

As to the England bowlers they lack experience and are simply not up to scratch. Plunkett for Topley
in my view. Stokes was pretty dire and only Ali seemed in control until Gayle hit him for 3 sixes in the
last 3 balls of his fourth over!

Always a joy to watch the Superstar. Just wish it had been against South Africa.

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/35826088

With our bowlers , 200 is never going to be enough, whoever we're up against.

Can't really agree with those who were  impressed by Moeen's bowling. His second over went for two runs because the batsmen had been told that at the end of that over there was going to be a ten mins break while the blotters went around the outfield and Gayle and Ramdin were playing for the unscheduled interval.

Moeen's other three overs went for eight, ten and 18. If Gayle and Ramdin weren't playing for the break, his second over would probably have gone for double figures, too.

For me Moeen is not good enough with bat or ball at international level.

But he's far from the only weak link.  Topley is a left-arm Jade Dernbach. Willey loses his potency if the ball doesn't swing (which the white one seldom does). Jordan bowls great yorkers but is always going to get enough of them marginally wrong, so that they become juicy four-ball half-volleys or out of the ground low full tosses. And  as Naseer Hussain  and Nick Knight kept complaining that  CJ is a "one dimensional bowler", the thought struck me  what does that make Ben Stokes? He ran up to bowl to his old adversary Marlon Samuels and just lost the plot, because you can be sure  Bayliss and Farbrace didn't tell him to bowl like that.

As for the batting,  Luke Wright would be a better option as an opener than Hales or Roy. Morgan is nowhere near good enough to be anywhere near a side that wants to win the World Cup. And KP - who is a year younger than Chris Gayle -  has never been replaced as England's match-winner.  He was relaxed and smart  doing the studio analysis for Sky and if he'd been playing rather than analysing , England might have had a chance of making the semi-finals.

In 2010 England's second match in the group stage was v Ireland, and the way it was set-up they only had to beat the Irish to make the next stage.

Tomorrow England's second match is against South Africa and they will have to bat, bowl and field much better than they did yesterday with or without a wet ball.

And does anyone else remember who was man of the tournament in the 2010 world cup? In case you have forgotten , it was Kevin Pietersen...

Nor do more recent precedents than 2010 offer much comfort.

In 2012, England lost to India in the group stage by 90 runs, but it didn't matter as they only had to beat Afghanistan to progress.In the super-eights they then lost to West Indies and Sri Lanka to be eliminated.

IN 2014, they found themsleves in the same group as South Africa and Sri Lanka, as they are in now, and although they beat Sri Lanka they were bowled out for 88 by Holland. Not that it mattered : even if England had beaten the Dutch they would still have been eliminated.

And all this 'new England' nonsense - it was half of the same team we have today, with Hales, Moeen, Buttler, Morgan and Jordan in the side that lost to Holland. Since then the batting hasd been strengthened by the addition of Root and perhaps Stokes, but the bowling has been weakened by Topley replacing Broad.

I hope I'm wrong and England beat South Africa tomorrow. But South Africa are strong favourites and if England lose their first two games their chances of a semi-final will be almost gone.

ps on edit: I see Morgan says the difference between now and 2014  is that England are playing with an attitude of "no consequences".  That's fine in the first game : there were no consequences of losing yesterday. But lose tomorrow and the consequences are probably an early flight home!

Fabulous stuff from Roy and Root and victory by 2 wkts keeps England in the tournament.

Bu oh, that bowling attack is frightful. Not that Steyn and SA were any better!

Great entertainment this afternoon. It really was a game of two halves. England's bowling was terrible and the fielding was lax - even the commentators didn't mince words. But the response by the batsmen was incredible; 44 runs off the 1st 2 overs - a world record for international T20s, I believe. That was the platform that enabled Joe Root et al to push on, with the SA bowlers (except Tahir) looking suitably stunned. And that final over - what drama! Most enjoyable viewing.  

Joe, by that reckoning, were we victorious today because we won the toss and didn't have to bowl with a wet ball?

Today's win makes the group wide open. If we think Sri Lanka are the second weakest side after Afghanistan, then two from West Indies, South Africa and England are likely go though. If one of those three sides lose to Sri Lanka, they may well become the one which loses out.  But if Afghanistan should produce  an upset against one  of the three most fancied sides, that would make it even more interesting!