Nicely fixed tri-series?

If Australia had beaten England today, there'd have been very little interest in the final game of the league phase of the on-going triangular series. This is how the points table currently looks.

Match 10 of 12	P	W	L	NR	T	BP	Points	NRR	For	Against
Australia	7	6	1	-	-	3	27	+0.912	1569 / 296	1536 / 350
New Zealand	6	2	4	-	-	1	9	+0.069	1470 / 300	1442 / 298.3
England	7	2	5	-	-	1	9	-0.904	1385 / 349.5	1446 / 297.2

England v New Zealand on Feb 6 is going to be a crucial game. New Zealand are sufficiently ahead on net run-rate to not be significantly affected even if they lose to Australia on Sunday. England and New Zealand are level on points, including bonus points. This is the kind of situation which tournament organizers dream of - a final day contest to determine a finalist. Especially a tournament such as this which has been as one-sided as it can possibly get, until New Zealand started spicing it up from last week.

Full credit to England, especially Ed Joyce, who'd have been wondering until today if his decision to ditch Ireland for England was right.

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Australian team had been 'encouraged' to go easy keeping in mind the larger picture. Did anyone see the shot Clarke played? Glenn McGrath ... bowling second change in a one-day international which Australia was taking seriously? Yeah right! Glenn McGrath ... batting at #10? The only time he's batted higher than #11 so far was in the light-hearted tsunami relief game in 2005. Definitely seems to indicate some skullduggery going on!

Labels: australia, Commonwealth Bank Series, england, match fixing, new zealand