- Cricket World Cup updates from the match at Headingley
- How they stand: the latest World Cup table
- And you can email Tom here or tweet him here
Some pre-match reading on some other game this weekend. Ali Martin on England:
Related: Jos Buttler admits England’s players have been frustrated by their form
Related: India happy to move through gears and stick to usual World Cup script | Anjali Doshi
Related: England can still win the World Cup, but does English cricket deserve to? | Barney Ronay
Morning/afternoon everyone, and welcome to World Cup derby day. We’ve got an Antipodean set-to at Lord’s coming up later but we start with an all-Asian match-up that nine days ago didn’t look as if it would have much riding on it, and I suspected I’d be sat here trying to talk up nothingness to a listless audience of dozens. But then Pakistan cornered-tigered their way to steely wins over South Africa and New Zealand, England started imploding and now all eyes are on the new-look Headingley.
Pakistan can smell a semi-final place, as a campaign that has veered as only a Pakistan campaign can between inept capitulation and ebullient dominance hots up. Most, though not all, of their batsmen have played their way into form, with Babar Azam in particular playing with exquisite technical excellence, while among the bowlers suddenly it’s a case of if Mohammad Amir doesn’t get you, Shaheen Afridi, Wahab Riaz or Shadab Khan probably will. They will leap with joyous abandon above England and into the top four with victory today.
Written by Tom Davies (now) and Rob Smyth (later)
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2019/jun/29/pakistan-v-afghanistan-cricket-world-cup-2019-live under the title “Pakistan v Afghanistan: Cricket World Cup 2019 – live!”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
