England’s cunning plan pays off in ICC Champions Trophy
Following such a remarkable turnaround in the fortunes of England’s ODI side, The Cricket Blog can reveal the cunning plan that England have implemented to take them through to the semi-finals of the ICC Champions Trophy.
The Ashes had been won, and the players were looking through their half-drunk beer glasses at seven One-Day matches in a row, and then at the trip to South Africa for the Champions Trophy.
The Natwest Series doesn’t offer quite as much presence in the trophy cabinet as the tiny urn, or the ICC silverware, so there must have been a decision to lull other sides into a position of confidence, and then catch them unawares.
Against Australia, this cunning plan worthy of Blackadder’s servant Baldrick, was actioned to perfection. The batting was brilliantly woeful, with not one player standing out as a threat – a fine tactic, which meant that the likes of Sri Lanka and South Africa had nothing to research.
Several of England’s innings were finished within the fifty overs, with Strauss and Collingwood fiendishly limiting the volume of footage that future opposition would be able to analyse. The ‘How do you bowl out England?’ meetings in other team’s camps would have been unfeasibly short, with the unanimous response that, ‘England seem to throw their wickets away, so we hardly need to try.’
The bowling and fielding was also cleverly disguised under a cloak of ineptitude, with no standout bowling figures, and a generally toothless display all round – again nothing to analyse, frustrating future opponents.
The seventh ODI against Australia almost catastrophically revealed the plan. Lambasted in the media, there was pride at stake for the players, and the whitewash was deliberately avoided – not too emphatically though, as that could have given the game away.
When the England team arrived in South Africa, the media, bookmakers, pundits and – crucially – the other teams gave them no chance of qualifying from the group that contained Sri Lanka, South Africa and New Zealand. But we all now know how stylishly they played to qualify with a game to spare, and the cunning plan has been revealed.
Bravo England, and good luck for the semis!
October 1st, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Good article. It should serve as a reminder these are good players, all they needed was confidence. They’ll be raring to go against Australia in the semis.