Cricket: England vs Scotland & Australia

Scotland the Brave!

Scotland pulled off a stunner to win vs England. Against most other teams, you'd think that would be a shocker but England do have a habit of "misunderestimating"* minnows on the international stage, as Holland, Ireland, Zimbabwe and many others can testify to.

But, we should not take this result away from Scotland. They played brilliantly and deserved this victory and England have to hold their hands up and admit mistakes were made. (Looking at you, Alex Hales, for the run out of Joe Root!)

England didn't bowl well. That's not to take anything away from Calum MacLeod (there can be only one) and his 140, and a couple of good fifties from Coezter and Munsey but England were not on top of their game with the ball.

They didn't always field well, allowing runs where they should not have been, and a couple of dropped catches, plus boundaries that were unnecessary.

What was unforgivable was their batting. They have chased bigger totals and for large parts of this chase looked in control but stupid errors and a lack of bottle (Eoin Morgan - he might have form in that area, despite his captaincy skilz) consigned England to defeat.

There are some odd selections in this England side. Billings in place of Buttler strikes me as a very poor choice, and Willey in place of Woakes actually highlights the strength of the latter. England didn't get to field their number one team, and whilst I'm personally not a fan of Stokes I do accept he's way above Woakes with the bat - though the ball is a different question.)

But rest-assured that England are far from cooked, and I expect them to treat this defeat by Scotland as a deserved "wake up" call and I absolutely expect them to win decisively against Australia tomorrow. There will be more pressure on Morgan and England than on Paine and Australia, but the "emotional spotlight" will fall squarely on the Aussies. They now have to prove they can play cricket in the right "spirit" - something they've failed to do for some years now. They have to show they play to the highest sporting standards, on the world stage, while playing at their best and even when under pressure. That might give them an edge - if they play well and lose in a tight game they may be able to reclaim a modicum of the moral high ground but if they lose and/or show some of their recent truculent petulance, they will find things very difficult indeed, not just on the day but moving forward.

Expect: Sandpaper, lots of it and a big Australian loss as the England fans add two extra players to the emotional field.

Don't expect: Australian humility, many England team changes

Prediction: England will try and chase and win by a good margin with plenty of Beery supporters willing them on.

*yes, I made it up. I'm trying to learn American.